Director of Software Engineering
Job Summary:
The Director of Software Engineering is a senior technology leader responsible for building, scaling, and operating high‑performing engineering organizations that deliver customer and business outcomes at speed. This role embraces AI‑first engineering principles, using intelligent tools, automation, and data‑driven feedback to increase developer leverage, quality, predictability, and reliability across the software lifecycle.
Reporting to the Vice President of Software Engineering, the Director leads multiple Engineering Managers and their teams, partnering closely with Product, Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, Data, and Business leaders. This role is accountable not only for execution, but also for how work gets done, continuously evolving engineering practices through modern platforms, AI‑assisted delivery, and strong operational discipline.
Responsibilities:
Engineering Leadership & Strategy
- Own the engineering strategy for assigned product and platform domains, ensuring alignment to company objectives, customer needs, and long‑term scalability.
- Translate business goals into clear technical direction, roadmaps, and execution plans that balance speed, quality, cost, and risk.
- Act as a multiplier for the organization by setting standards, patterns, and practices that enable teams to move faster with confidence.
AI‑First Software Delivery
- Champion an AI‑first mindset across engineering teams, embedding AI‑assisted tools throughout the SDLC (e.g., ideation, design, coding, testing, incident response, and documentation).
- Establish guardrails and best practices for responsible AI usage, ensuring security, privacy, compliance, and maintainability are not compromised.
- Partner with architecture and platform teams to identify where applied AI (generative, predictive, or analytical) can reduce manual effort, improve quality, or surface insights earlier.
- Measure and continuously improve the impact of AI adoption on developer productivity, defect rates, cycle time, and operational outcomes.
People Leadership & Talent Development
- Lead, mentor, and grow multiple Engineering Managers and senior technical leaders, developing strong ownership, decision‑making, and coaching capabilities.
- Build diverse, high‑performing teams through thoughtful recruiting, onboarding, and succession planning.
- Foster a culture of accountability, psychological safety, and continuous learning, where experimentation and improvement are encouraged and measured.
- Set clear expectations for performance, behaviors, and outcomes while providing timely feedback and support.
Execution & Operational Excellence
- Ensure predictable, high‑quality delivery across multiple teams, balancing roadmap commitments with technical health and operational stability.
- Drive excellence across the full software lifecycle, including design, development, testing, release, and production support.
- Use data (OKRs, KPIs, delivery metrics, reliability metrics) to guide prioritization, expose bottlenecks, and continuously improve team effectiveness.
- Lead modernization efforts, including decomposition of legacy systems, platform evolution, and migration to cloud‑native, service‑oriented architectures.
Cross‑Functional Partnership
- Partner closely with Product Management to shape roadmaps, assess feasibility, estimate level of effort, and make informed trade‑offs.
- Collaborate with Infrastructure, Security, Compliance, and Legal teams to ensure solutions meet reliability, security, privacy, and regulatory requirements.
- Act as a clear and consistent communicator, aligning stakeholders across Technology and the broader business.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
- 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 5 years leading managers and multi‑team organizations.
- Proven experience building and scaling SaaS or B2B platforms with complex integrations and high‑volume data.
- Strong technical foundation in modern, distributed systems and cloud‑native architectures (e.g., microservices, event‑driven systems).
- Hands‑on familiarity with full‑stack development:
- Backend: Java/Spring Boot, Node.js, Go, or Python
- Frontend: React, Angular, or Vue
- Datastores: SQL and NoSQL technologies
- Deep understanding of DevSecOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and secure software design.
- Experience operating systems with strong observability, reliability, and incident management practices.
- Demonstrated success leading geographically distributed teams in fast‑moving environments.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to influence both technical and non‑technical audiences.
AI & Modern Engineering Mindset
- Practical experience adopting AI‑assisted development tools (e.g., code generation, test automation, analysis, or operational tooling).
- Ability to evaluate emerging technologies pragmatically, separating real leverage from hype.
- Comfort modernizing legacy systems while maintaining uptime, compliance, and business continuity.
- Strong orientation toward metrics, outcomes, and continuous improvement over static processes.
