Senior Director of Engineering & Architecture

The Senior Director of Engineering & Architecture will build and lead a team of experienced senior software engineers. This leader will be responsible for the architecture, development, delivery, and ongoing operation of customer-facing products and internal business systems.

This is a technical leadership role, with approximately 70% of the focus on architecture and hands-on technical execution and 30% on people management and organizational leadership. The successful candidate will bring demonstrable experience across the full application stack and the technical judgment to lead engineers working across different specialties, technologies, and deployment environments.

The team will use AI-assisted development extensively, including AI pair programming and coordinated teams of software development agents. It will also develop AI capabilities within products. This leader will establish the practices, tools, and oversight needed to translate those capabilities into faster delivery and reliable software.

The mandate is to bring valuable products to market quickly through strong engineering, experienced people, and appropriate investment. The Senior Director will own architecture, engineering tools, and technical execution within the strategy, budgets, and hiring plans approved by the CTO.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Engineering Strategy and Architecture

• Translate business and product objectives into technical roadmaps, architectural decisions, and achievable delivery plans.
• Own architecture across frontend applications, backend services, APIs, databases, integrations, and deployment infrastructure.
• Design and guide the implementation of event-sourced systems, microservices, and containerized applications across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
• Select technologies based on product needs, team capabilities, security, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
• Remain directly involved through coding, prototyping, design reviews, code reviews, and resolution of complex technical problems.
• Manage technical debt and architectural evolution as products and business needs change.

Product Delivery and Operations

• Partner with the CTO and business stakeholders to establish priorities, clarify requirements, define acceptance criteria, and measure product outcomes.
• Own engineering delivery from discovery and design through implementation, release, production operation, and ongoing improvement.
• Establish development practices covering source control, automated testing, continuous integration and delivery, documentation, and release management.
• Apply Agile practices, including Scrum where appropriate, to support rapid iteration, transparent progress, and predictable delivery.
• Establish expectations for application security, performance, availability, observability, and recovery in coordination with infrastructure and security partners.
• Lead the engineering response to production issues and ensure that lessons learned result in lasting improvements.
• AI Assisted Engineering and AI Products
• Establish effective use of AI as a pair-programming partner throughout design, implementation, testing, debugging, and documentation.
• Lead the development and adoption of AI agents and orchestration frameworks that delegate tasks, coordinate work, and evaluate results across multiple agents.
• Define human review, testing, access controls, and accountability for AI-generated code and agent actions.
• Guide the integration of AI capabilities into products, including evaluation of accuracy, reliability, security, and user value.
• Measure the effect of AI-assisted workflows on delivery speed and software quality, and refine practices based on results.

Leadership and Team Development

• Build, lead, and develop the engineering team, establishing clear ownership and accountability for architecture, software delivery, quality, and production support.
• Set team and individual goals and priorities with the CTO, translating product objectives into achievable plans and aligning engineering capacity with business needs.
• Provide technical mentorship, regular coaching, actionable feedback, and performance reviews; strengthen engineering judgment, address performance gaps, and support individual career growth.
• Assess skills gaps and establish training and development plans across software architecture, engineering practices, AI-assisted development, security, and reliable production operation.
• Recruit, onboard, and retain qualified engineers; encourage knowledge sharing, cross-training, and increasing technical ownership while giving experienced engineers appropriate autonomy.
• Develop, manage, and forecast the engineering budget and resource plan in partnership with the CTO, aligning staffing, engineering tools, infrastructure, external support, and professional development with approved priorities.
• Build a culture of collaboration, constructive technical debate, accountability, and continuous learning; help the team resolve competing priorities and deliver dependable results.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Recruit, develop, and retain experienced engineers through effective hiring, coaching, feedback, training, and performance management, aligning team capabilities and service capacity with organizational growth.
• Establish clear ownership, expectations, and performance standards while giving experienced engineers appropriate autonomy.
• Provide technical mentorship, actionable feedback, and performance management.
• Build a culture of collaboration, accountability, sound judgment, and continuous learning.
• Plan engineering capacity and resource needs, and communicate progress, risks, dependencies, and investment needs to the CTO.

Required Qualifications

• 20+ years of experience in IT and/or software engineering, including substantial hands-on experience designing, building, delivering, and operating complex software systems.
• Demonstrable experience working across all layers of the application stack, including frontend applications, backend services, APIs, databases, integrations, and deployment infrastructure. Candidates must have sufficient practical depth to evaluate technical decisions and effectively lead engineers across specialties. No specific programming language or framework is required.
• Direct experience designing and implementing event-sourced systems, including event persistence, replay, projections, schema evolution, and consistency considerations.
• Experience with microservices, containers, distributed systems, and application integration.
• Experience delivering and operating applications in both cloud and on-premises environments.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted software development and the ability to establish effective practices across a team.
• Experience developing AI agents, coordinating multi-agent workflows, and integrating AI capabilities into software products.
• Familiarity with Agile software development practices, including Scrum.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver working products quickly while maintaining appropriate standards for security, reliability, and maintainability.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.
• US Citizenship

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience establishing a new engineering team or software development function.
• Experience with stakeholder management, requirements gathering, and translating business needs into product and technical decisions.
• Business and financial acumen, including an understanding of budgeting, operating costs, capitalization of labor, return on investment, and technology investment tradeoffs.
• Experience with IT infrastructure, including networking, Windows Server and Linux operating systems, and network security.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, including Azure IoT services and frameworks.
• Experience integrating with Microsoft Graph API.
• An active security clearance.

Work Environment: Remote

Travel: Up to six weeks per year

Travel reflects an estimate and is subject to change dependent on business needs.

Availability:

This position is not assigned to a scheduled on-call rotation. Critical incidents may require availability outside normal business hours, including evenings, weekends, and holidays. When a critical incident is escalated, the Director is expected to be available to lead the response within their area of responsibility, coordinate internal teams and external providers, support timely decisions and stakeholder communications, and help drive service restoration and incident resolution through closure in accordance with established incident response and escalation procedures.

What We Offer:

We strive to be one of the best places to work in America. We offer competitive salaries and benefits that include:

• Health Insurance: Medical and dental – company pays 92% of premiums for individual coverage and for family coverage
• Vision Insurance: Fully covered
• Retirement Plans: 401(k) with employer match up to 4%
• Paid Time Off: Paid sick and safe leave, paid floating holidays, and generous vacation
• Other:
• • Basic Life & AD&D policy company paid
  • Voluntary Life
  • Flexible & remote work structure
  • Wellness reimbursement plan & mental health support
  • Community sponsorships
  • Donation matching
  • Professional development allowance

If you need any accommodation for the interview process, please let us know when we contact you.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Innovas is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information.

We take a geo-neutral approach to compensation within the US, meaning that we pay based on job function and level, not location. We are currently only open to remote employees residing in the following states: AL, FL, IN, MI, MO, NM, NC, OH, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, WY.

All offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of a standard background check.