Director, Engineering Management

Job ID: 26DIRENG501

Department: Engineering

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Collaborators: Product Management, Project Management, Client Stakeholders

Type: Fully Remote

Location: Accepting candidates residing in the United States or Europe only

Core Hour Overlap: Required daily alignment to ensure strong morning overlap with European engineering teams (e.g., US Eastern/Central mornings or European late afternoons/evenings).

Travel Requirements: Quarterly executive meetings in the United States; final interview stage conducted in person within the United States.

ROLE OVERVIEW

We are seeking a Director, Engineering Management to serve as our primary software engineering lead. This role bridges high-level technical strategy with disciplined execution, directly overseeing a distributed team of 15+ senior engineers across North America and Europe.

Reporting directly to the CEO and partnering with Product and Project Management, you will establish modern engineering standards, guide architectural decisions, ensure high-fidelity delivery, and foster a culture of accountability and transparency.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Engineering Leadership & Delivery

• Lead, mentor, and scale a distributed organization of 15+ senior engineers, setting performance benchmarks, managing talent growth, and handling resource planning and escalations.
• Establish clear key performance indicators (KPIs) focused on sprint velocity, deployment predictability, software stability, and release quality.
• Eliminate 'black box' engineering practices by standardizing internal documentation, technical design reviews, and cross-team knowledge sharing.
• Oversee team estimation processes to ensure predictable scoping that incorporates automated testing and unit coverage as mandatory baseline standards.

System Architecture & Technical Rigor

• Own high-level architectural decisions, system design, and technical roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
• Drive modular architecture and shared component libraries to optimize code reuse, consistency, and performance across all platforms.
• Validate technical proposals, data models, and architectural patterns prior to sprint implementation.
• Actively participate in high-stakes code reviews to enforce security, performance, and maintainability standards.

Security & Regulatory Compliance

• Ensure absolute adherence to US Healthcare law, including HIPAA, alongside strict compliance with internal company operating rules and all client-specific compliance policies.
• Champion a security-first engineering mindset across the organization, ensuring strict adherence to secure software development lifecycles (SDLC) and secure Protected Health Information (PHI) handling.
• Identify, audit, and systematically remediate technical debt and infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Strategic Alignment & Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner closely with Product and Project Management to translate commercial roadmaps into reliable engineering releases.
• Serve as the principal technical voice for executive stakeholders and client leadership, effectively communicating complex technical strategies, architectures, and tradeoffs.
• Partner with the CEO to set company-wide technical strategy, technology stack evaluations, and organizational scaling plans.

CANDIDATE PROFILE & REQUIREMENTS

Required Experience

• 8–12+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including 3+ years in a dedicated engineering management or technical leadership role (Director, Head of Engineering, or Senior Engineering Manager).
• Demonstrated success directly managing distributed development teams of 10–15+ engineers across international time zones (North America and Europe).
• Proven background working within either a high-growth product company or a high-caliber custom enterprise software consultancy.
• Prior experience establishing shared component frameworks, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, and engineering-wide quality metrics.

Technical Proficiencies

• Core Languages: Strong architectural mastery of PHP (Required), paired with proficiency or exposure to Python and/or .NET.
• Frontend Frameworks: Strong familiarity with modern JavaScript architectures, specifically React or Angular.
• Databases: Advanced experience designing and optimizing relational database systems (PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, or MySQL).
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Hands-on architectural experience with AWS or Azure, containerization, and modern DevOps/Git workflows.
• Security & Compliance: Working knowledge of secure coding frameworks (OWASP) and regulatory standards; direct experience with HIPAA and PHI data management is strongly preferred.

Leadership & Communication

• Transparent & Decisive: Exceptional written and verbal English communication skills, capable of providing candid feedback, resolving blockers, and articulating technical risk to non-technical partners.
• Operational Discipline: Ability to implement centralized standards without stifling developer autonomy.
• Client-Facing Presence: Poise and credibility when presenting architecture and technical roadmaps to enterprise client executives.

Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field (or equivalent).

Work Environment, Schedule & Travel

• Remote Footprint: Candidates must be legally authorized to work and reside in either the United States or Europe.
• Core Hours: Must align core daily working hours to provide solid morning overlap with our European engineering teams.
• Executive Travel: Following onboarding, the Director will travel to the United States on a quarterly basis for executive strategy sessions, engineering offsites, and roadmapping summits.

RECRUITMENT PROCESS

Matching candidates will be invited to advance through SD’s structured recruitment steps:

1. HR Interview: Initial alignment on background, leadership philosophy, compensation, and operational logistics.
2. Technical Interview & Proficiency Testing: In-depth evaluation of architectural design capabilities, system scalability, and technical problem-solving proficiency.
3. Management & Developer Team Interview: Peer and team assessment focusing on day-to-day team dynamics, code review standards, and cross-functional collaboration with Product and Project Management.
4. Corporate Interview (Final Round - In Person, USA): Final strategic evaluation with executive leadership will be scheduled at an agreed-upon location on-site in the United States (all travel and accommodation expenses covered).