Executive Director, Technology

The Role

This is a leadership role. You lead the technology function across engineering, delivery and operations: setting the standard, making the calls, growing the people, running the work, and answering to the business for what it delivers. 

You also ship. The team is small and everyone at Endpoints is an IC at some level, including the people who lead. You'll be in the codebase every week and carrying real work of your own, because that's how things get built here and because it's the only way to lead a team this size credibly.

You'll report to the SVP, Design, Product and Technology and work alongside them daily. A lot of the job is the two of you thinking out loud: what's worth building, what it would take, what it would cost. You'll help shape the technical strategy together (architecture direction, build-versus-buy, where the platform goes next), with the SVP owning the final call and the direction for product and design. The technical thinking is yours, and we'd much rather hear "here's how we could do that" than "here's why we can't". 

You'll be the technology counterpart to editorial and commercial leadership. The remit is wider than engineering. Delivery, technical program management, the operational layer, the business systems the company runs on, and the vendors who extend the team all sit with you, and the team beneath you will grow to reflect that. 

This role is based in the United States and is fully remote. 

What You'll Do

• Lead and grow the technology team across engineering, delivery and operations. Own the people side fully — hiring, performance, development and the hard conversations — and manage through a manager as the function scales.
• Shape the technical strategy with the SVP — architecture direction, build, buy and integrate calls, and where the platform needs to go next. The SVP owns the final decision; you own the thinking that informs it and the delivery that follows.
• Turn product direction into shipped work. Own everything between the outcome, standard and date and working software in production — scoping, technical requirements, sequencing, and the commitments we make back to editorial and business stakeholders.
• Run delivery across the technology function. Own the cadence, the dependencies and the visibility that lets the rest of the company know what's coming and when.
• Answer for what the team ships. Set the standard, review architecture and overrule it on technical grounds where required, and put mechanisms in place that catch problems before production.
• Ship code every week. The team is small and everyone here builds, including the people who lead. You'll carry real work of your own — the hard problems, the spikes that set direction, the things that have to land — alongside the team rather than above it.
• Stand up new products and evolve the existing ones across news, subscriptions and identity, data and events, including the wind-down of what the new platform replaces.
• Lead security across everything we run: what's exposed, who has access, what's still running that shouldn't be, third-party risk, and the response when something happens.
• Own the content and data spine. You and your team build the spine, not the surface: the interface is design's - our designers author the design system and ship it to production themselves. Shape the content model, keep the CMS moving, build the APIs and MCP services every surface and every team draws on, and finish that shift across the rest of the estate.
• Own the operational layer — environments, CI, previews, observability, and the road to production that lets a designer ship with confidence.
• Own the internal systems and tooling the business runs on — the integrations across CRM, events, email and subscriptions, and the services that let business teams work directly with our own data.
• Direct the contractors and vendors who extend the team, and hold their output to the same standard as our own.
• Get sound AI-assisted work from non-engineers live quickly, and know when it isn't sound.
• Partner with editorial and business leadership to turn ideas into shipped features at the pace a newsroom requires.

Technical Requirements

Our actual stack, not a generic list. We care more about depth than about covering every line.

Hands-on, Every week

• TypeScript, Node.js, modern tooling
• Payload CMS on PostgreSQL, or equivalent depth in a headless, code-first CMS
• Content modeling and API design — GraphQL and REST
• Next.js, and Astro with React islands
• Application security — authentication and authorization you can demonstrate are enforced, secrets management, dependency hygiene, least privilege
• LLM-native workflow — AI tools as a core part of how you and your team build, and knowing where not to use them

Depth you've built before, even where you now direct it

• Identity and payments — SSO/OIDC (we run Logto), Stripe, entitlements, paywall logic
• AWS — Lambda via OpenNext, S3, CloudFront, IAM, RDS — and containers on Kubernetes
• Security operations — attack surface and asset inventory, decommissioning, access lifecycle, credential rotation, logging that can answer a forensic question
• Incident response — containment, evidence, and reporting that states what the logs show
• Privacy and compliance — GDPR and CCPA, consent and tracking, data retention
• PHP, MySQL, Python/FastAPI, Elasticsearch, message brokers

What We're Looking For

• A leader first. 5+ years leading technical teams, including managing engineers directly and managing through other managers. You've hired, developed and exited people, set a team's standard, and been accountable for what it delivered.
• And a builder every week. Everyone at Endpoints contributes as an IC at some level, and at this team size that includes you. You'll be writing and shipping production code regularly, not symbolically.
• Leadership beyond engineering. You've owned delivery, operations, vendor relationships and stakeholder commitments — not just the codebase — and you've been the person the business holds to account for technology outcomes.
• And a builder every week. Everyone at Endpoints contributes as an IC at some level, and at this team size that includes you. You'll be writing and shipping production code regularly, not symbolically.
• You take a short ask and build the right thing. A sentence of business intent is enough for you to come back with what it means technically, what it costs and what it breaks.
• Real backend and infrastructure depth, even where you no longer use it daily. You'll be accountable for work you don't write.
• You've worked where designers ship their own code.
• You've directed contractors and vendors and held their output to your own standard.
• A thinking partner. The SVP will bring you ideas and expect a real conversation: what it would take, what it would break, and what a better version might be. You make your case, and you commit once the call is made.
• Comfortable being the technical voice in a room of editorial and commercial leaders, and translating in both directions.
• A background in media or publishing is a strong plus, not a requirement.

Compensation

Total compensation opportunity: ~$215,000, inclusive of ~$175k base and ~$40k annual bonus.

It's important to note that salary information provided in job descriptions is subject to change and may be dependent on a variety of factors such as location, experience, and qualifications. The salary range provided is meant to give potential applicants an idea of the compensation they can expect, but it is not a guarantee of a specific salary. Actual salary may vary based on individual factors and negotiations. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on salary history or other personal factors.

Why Join Us?

🌍 Work From Anywhere!

👥 Positive, Supportive, and Collaborative Work Culture.

🌴 Paid Time Off: Generous PTO is offered annually, plus 12 company holidays and 2 floating holidays!

🩺 Medical Insurance: Endpoints pays 70% of premiums for employee, spouse, and/or dependents.

🦷 Fully-Paid Benefits for Employees: Dental and Vision insurance, Short-Term and Long Term Disability, $50,000 Basic Life and AD&D Insurance, and our Employee Assistance Program.

📁 Additional Life, Hospital, Critical Illness, and Accident Insurance: Offered through Guardian.

🩹 MDLIVE: See a doctor, mental health professional, nutritionist, or dermatologist on your time and online! 

👪 Family Leave: All employees are eligible for fully-paid Primary or Secondary Caregiver Leave for the birth or adoption of a child.

💪 Paid Volunteer Days: Provides employees with the opportunity to engage in community service & volunteer activities.

💸 401K: Endpoints will match 100% of the first 3% of an employee's contribution; followed by 50% match of the next 2%.

💻 Equipment Provided: Laptop, monitor, and additional equipment needs.

📱WFH Stipend: $75 per month to cover the costs of working from home.

🏠 Home Office Stipend: $500 annually to help you create your dream office.

💊 Benefits Marketplace: We’ve partnered with Bennie to provide discounted products for employees such as other insurances, family planning & support, behavioral health, wellness, pet insurance, and financial wellness.

💼 MetLife Legal: We’ve partnered with MetLife Legal Services to provide a discounted legal plan for our employees.

Endpoints News is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diverse backgrounds and thoughts and welcome everyone to apply for employment with us. We are committed to fostering an environment that is inclusive, transparent, and collaborative. Mutual respect is central to how Endpoints News operates, and we believe the best solutions come from diverse perspectives, experiences, and skills. We embrace our differences and know that we are stronger working together.