Sr Engineering Lead - Tech R&D

Location: Costa Mesa, CA, Remote

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

Sr Engineering Lead - Tech R&D

ClubLabs is the digital acceleration team for the Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA). We design and deliver intuitive digital experiences across insurance, membership, financial services, emergency roadside, and travel. As a team of engineers, designers, researchers, and product managers, we bring modern technology and forward-looking innovation to 17 million AAA members.

This hybrid role is part of Futures Innovation team and blends technical leadership, applied R&D, product-oriented experimentation, and hands-on engineering. You will be leading a team focused on exploring, validating, and piloting emerging technologies while also guiding engineering teams responsible for turning promising concepts into scalable solutions.

You will be both a builder and a strategic leader—comfortable designing prototypes, writing code when needed, running experiments, and coaching other leaders to deliver at scale. Success in this role is measured by the quality of discovery, the strength of technical decisions, the maturity of teams you grow, and the real-world impact of the R&D portfolio.

What You’ll Do

Technical Leadership

• Stay actively engaged in architecture, design reviews, prototyping, and experimentation.

• Write code for high impact prototypes, technical spikes, or complex system components when needed.

• Break down ambiguous, exploratory concepts into testable experiments and incremental technical paths.

• Ensure solutions are cloud native, secure, observable, and aligned to long-term ClubLabs engineering standards.

R&D, Product Discovery & Experimentation

• Lead the applied R&D function, overseeing discovery, technology scouting, prototyping, piloting, and structured experimentation.

• Establish a repeatable R&D methodology: hypothesis driven research, rapid iteration cycles, and clear criteria for progression or sunset.

• Explore emerging technologies (AI/ML, IoT, autonomous systems, data science, mobility, fintech/insurtech advancements) and assess strategic relevance.

• Build strong transition frameworks ensuring successful handoff of prototypes and pilots to production engineering teams.

Leadership & Organizational Impact

• Lead, mentor, and grow engineering leaders—developing both technical and people leadership capabilities.

• Partner with Product, Design, QA, and operational teams to align priorities and sequence R&D pipelines.

• Identify systemic risks, dependencies, bottlenecks and drive resolutions.

Culture & Craft

• Champion an engineering culture rooted in context sharing, iteration, continuous improvement, and shared ownership.

• Foster a psychologically safe environment with direct, constructive feedback and a growth mindset.

• Strengthen cross team alignment and elevate the overall engineering craft.

What You’ll Need

• Proven experience leading software engineering teams and developing other engineering leaders.

• Demonstrated ability to build prototypes, write code, and engage deeply in technical problem-solving.

• Strong product instincts with a history of running experiments and driving concepts from idea → pilot → measurable impact.

• Experience owning or contributing to applied R&D, innovation labs, or advanced technology exploration.

• Comfort operating in fast paced, iterative environments with evolving priorities.

• Exceptional communication, influencing, and cross functional partnership skills.

• Experience in AI/ML, IoT, autonomous systems, data platforms, mobility, fintech, or insurtech is a plus.

• High integrity, strong decision-making skills, and the ability to operate both strategically and tactically.

Why This Role Matters

This role amplifies impact through innovation + leadership + hands-on execution. You will shape the future of AAA’s digital ecosystem by exploring emerging technologies, validating new opportunities, and enabling teams to deliver solutions that scale to millions of members. You will directly influence long-term strategy while empowering teams to move fast, learn continuously, and build with confidence.

The starting pay range for this position is:

$160,500.00 - $214,100.00

Additionally, for full time positions, you will be eligible to participate in our incentive program based upon the achievement of organization, team and personal performance.

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Remarkable benefits:
•    Health coverage for medical, dental, vision

•    401(K) saving plans with company match AND Pension    

•    Tuition assistance

•    Floating holidays and PTO for community volunteer programs

•    Paid parental leave

•    Wellness programs

•    Employee discounts (membership, insurance,

travel, entertainment, services and more!)

Auto Club Enterprises is the largest club within the national AAA federation. We have nearly 17,000 employees in 24 states helping more than 18 million members. The strength of our organization is our employees. Bringing together and supporting different cultures, backgrounds, personalities, and strengths creates a team capable of delivering legendary, lifetime service to our members. When we embrace our diversity – we win. All of Us! With our national brand recognition, long-standing reputation since 1900, and constantly growing membership, we are seeking career-minded, service-driven professionals to join our team.

“Through dedicated employees we proudly deliver legendary service and beneficial products that provide members peace of mind and value.”

AAA is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Our organization participates in E-Verify

The Automobile Club of Southern California will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance (FCIHO), the Unincorporated Los Angeles County (ULAC) regulation, and the California Fair Chance Act (CFCA).