Vice President of Engineering

About Propela Tech

Propela Tech is a healthcare-focused advisory and technology firm that helps organizations streamline operations, unlock their data, and scale more efficiently through custom-built software, integrations, automation, AI, and data intelligence solutions. We are a team of healthcare operators, technologists, engineers, and strategic problem-solvers who understand the real-world complexity of running healthcare businesses. We partner with our clients to solve operational challenges through technology and deliver measurable business outcomes—not software for software’s sake.   

As Propela continues to grow, we are seeking a Vice President of Engineering to build and lead a world-class engineering organization capable of scaling alongside the business while maintaining exceptional quality, accountability, and technical excellence.

What Matters Most 

• Build a scalable engineering organization that can support significant company growth. 

• Create and enforce engineering standards that ensure consistency across every project and team. 

• Develop engineers, Team Leads, and architects into exceptional technical leaders. 

• Ensure technical quality never suffers as delivery volume increases. 

• Build systems, accountability, and operating procedures that reduce dependency on heroics. 

• Create clear ownership, expectations, and career growth paths across the engineering organization. 

• Drive engineering excellence while maintaining speed, practicality, and client focus.   

What We’re Looking For 

This role reports directly to our Chief Operating Officer and partners closely with our Chief Technology Officer.   

While our CTO owns technical vision, architectural strategy and technology direction, the Vice President of Engineering owns the engineering organization itself—including engineering leadership, technical staffing, engineering standards, code quality, people management, hiring, organizational design, technical governance, and engineering operations. The VP of Engineering serves as the executive accountable for ensuring Propela consistently delivers exceptional technical outcomes across every client engagement.   

This role sits alongside the Director of PMO & Strategic Delivery. The Director of PMO owns delivery execution, project governance, roadmap management, client communication, and delivery predictability.   

The VP of Engineering owns technical execution, engineering quality, technical staffing, engineering performance, engineering standards, and long-term technical scalability. 

Together, these leaders ensure projects are delivered both successfully and exceptionally well.   

Key Responsibilities 

Engineering Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead and manage all engineering personnel, including Solution Architects, Team Leads, Software Engineers, QA Engineers, DevOps resources, and technical specialists. 

• Conduct regular one-on-one meetings, coaching sessions, and performance reviews. 

• Establish clear expectations, accountability frameworks, and success metrics across the engineering organization. 

• Create and maintain engineering career ladders and professional development pathways. 

• Develop future technical leaders through coaching, mentorship, and succession planning. 

• Partner with executive leadership on compensation planning, promotions, organizational design, and performance management. 

• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, continuous improvement, and technical excellence. 

• Ensure every engineer understands how their work contributes to client success and company growth.   

Engineering Standards & Quality 

• Establish and enforce engineering standards across all client engagements. 

• Define best practices for architecture, code quality, testing, security, deployment, documentation, maintainability, and technical governance. 

• Create and maintain engineering SOPs, technical playbooks, templates, reusable frameworks, and development standards. 

• Standardize code review expectations, QA processes, release management procedures, and deployment practices. 

• Implement engineering KPIs focused on quality, reliability, maintainability, and team performance. 

• Conduct periodic audits of repositories, pull requests, testing practices, deployment pipelines, and technical documentation. 

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across engineering operations. 

• Ensure consistency in technical execution regardless of project team, technology stack, or client engagement.   

Technical Staffing & Resource Composition 

• Own technical staffing decisions across all client engagements. 

• Determine the appropriate mix of Architects, Team Leads, Developers, QA resources, DevOps specialists, and technical consultants required for each engagement. 

• Partner with PMO leadership to align technical staffing with project scope, complexity, risk profile, and client objectives. 

• Evaluate engineer strengths, technical capabilities, domain expertise, and growth opportunities when assigning resources. 

• Continuously assess team composition and proactively rebalance resources as priorities evolve. 

• Identify projects requiring senior technical oversight and assign appropriate leadership.  • Develop scalable staffing and capacity planning frameworks that support organizational growth. 

• Build systems that ensure the right engineers are assigned to the right projects for maximum client and business impact.   

Technical Oversight & Governance 

• Maintain visibility into all active client engagements. 

• Review technical approaches, architecture decisions, integration strategies, implementation plans, and deployment readiness. 

• Ensure solutions are scalable, maintainable, secure, and aligned with client objectives. 

• Partner with Solution Architects and Team Leads to improve technical execution across projects. 

• Serve as an escalation point for complex technical and organizational challenges. 

• Ensure projects begin with appropriate technical planning, architecture review, and engineering oversight. 

• Balance short-term delivery objectives with long-term platform stability and maintainability. 

• Champion engineering excellence without creating unnecessary process or bureaucracy.   

Engineering Portfolio Review & Governance 

• Establish and lead a monthly Engineering Portfolio Review covering every active client engagement. 

• Review technical staffing, architecture health, code quality, technical debt, deployment readiness, engineering risks, and team performance across all projects. 

• Identify projects requiring additional technical leadership, architectural intervention, or resource adjustments. 

• Ensure technical risks are surfaced early and addressed before impacting delivery timelines or client satisfaction. 

• Evaluate adherence to engineering standards, testing requirements, security practices, and deployment processes. 

• Partner with PMO leadership to proactively address project health concerns and resource constraints. 

• Develop standardized project health scorecards and engineering governance reporting.  • Provide executive leadership with clear visibility into the overall health of Propela’s engineering portfolio.   

Technical Practice Development & SME Leadership 

• Develop and maintain engineering Centers of Excellence across key healthcare and technology domains, including: Salesforce, AI & Automation, Healthcare Integrations, Long-Term Care, Behavioral Health, Labs & Diagnostics, Revenue Cycle Operations, Data & Reporting, and Patient Engagement & Scheduling. 

• Identify and develop engineers into recognized internal subject matter experts. 

• Create reusable frameworks, accelerators, integration patterns, and best practices that improve delivery speed and consistency. 

• Promote cross-training and knowledge sharing across engineering teams. 

• Ensure Propela continues building institutional knowledge as the company scales.   

Engineering Hiring & Talent Development 

• Own engineering hiring strategy and workforce planning. 

• Define role expectations, competencies, and interview standards across all technical disciplines. 

• Lead recruiting efforts for engineering leadership and key technical hires.  • Build a sustainable pipeline of engineering talent. 

• Improve onboarding processes and accelerate time-to-productivity for new team members. 

• Partner with executive leadership to forecast future hiring needs based on growth objectives. 

• Continuously raise the talent bar across the engineering organization.   

Cross-Functional Leadership 

• Operate as the engineering counterpart to the Director of PMO & Strategic Delivery. 

• Partner closely with Project Management leadership to ensure engineering execution aligns with delivery commitments. 

• Collaborate with Sales, Operations, Finance, and Client Partners to support organizational objectives. 

• Participate in strategic planning, resource forecasting, organizational design, and operational improvement initiatives. 

• Support executive client interactions when technical leadership is required. 

• Help shape Propela’s long-term growth strategy and operational scalability.   

What Success Looks Like 

First 90 Days 

• Build relationships with every engineer, Team Lead, and architect. 

• Assess current engineering structure, staffing models, standards, and technical processes. 

• Identify immediate quality, performance, and organizational gaps. 

• Establish recurring management and engineering review cadences. 

• Deliver recommendations for engineering organizational improvements. 

6 Months 

• Engineering standards and SOPs are documented and actively adopted. 

• Team Leads are operating effectively and consistently. 

• Technical staffing decisions are proactive and aligned with project complexity. 

• Engineering KPIs and governance reporting are implemented. 

• Monthly Engineering Portfolio Reviews are operating successfully. 

• Code quality and technical consistency improve across projects.   

12 Months 

• Propela has a highly accountable and scalable engineering organization. 

• Engineering standards are consistently enforced across all engagements. 

• Every active project is reviewed through a standardized Engineering Portfolio Review process. 

• Technical risks, staffing concerns, and quality issues are identified proactively rather than reactively. 

• Leadership has visibility into engineering health across the entire portfolio. 

• Engineers have clear growth paths, development plans, and leadership opportunities. 

• Technical quality remains high despite continued company growth. 

• Propela has established meaningful technical specialization and SME ownership across core domains. 

• The CTO spends significantly more time focused on vision, architecture, innovation, and strategic initiatives rather than organizational management.   

Required Qualifications 

• 12+ years of software engineering experience. 

• 5+ years leading engineering organizations and managing managers. 

• Experience overseeing multiple engineering teams across multiple concurrent projects.  • Experience building and scaling engineering organizations. 

• Strong understanding of software architecture, cloud infrastructure, integrations, enterprise applications, and engineering operations. 

• Demonstrated success creating engineering standards, operating procedures, and accountability frameworks. 

• Experience developing technical leaders and high-performing engineering teams.  • Strong communication, coaching, and executive leadership skills. 

• Ability to balance technical excellence with business realities and client expectations.   

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience within healthcare technology, healthcare services, or healthcare operations.  • Experience within consulting, agency, or professional services environments. 

• Experience leading distributed, offshore, and nearshore engineering teams. 

• Familiarity with Salesforce, Azure, AWS, AI-enabled solutions, healthcare integrations, and enterprise data platforms. 

• Experience scaling organizations through periods of rapid growth. 

• Experience leading engineering organizations of 40+ technical resources.   

Our Core Values 

At Propela Tech, we look for team members who embody our values every day: 

• Solution-Oriented: We tackle every challenge with a problem-solving mindset. 

• Extreme Ownership: We take full responsibility for our work, outcomes, and commitments. 

• Grit, Speed & Results: We move fast, stay resourceful, and focus relentlessly on outcomes. 

• Show Up Strong: We bring our best selves and elevate the team.   

Benefits Include: 

• Health, dental, and vision insurance 

• Paid time off 

• Leadership growth opportunities 

• Opportunity to help shape the future of a rapidly growing healthcare technology company   

Propela Tech is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team members.