Sr. Director, Engineering - Application Platform

What You'll Do

• Lead a team of engineers and managers, through whom you’ll execute on the strategic direction of your product area, inspiring and motivating teams to do their best work
• Build and run Highspot’s frontend and backend platform. This platform provides the basis upon which Highspot is built
• Ensure the platform's scalability, reliability, and performance
• Oversee the development and maintenance of reusable libraries, patterns, and standards
• Ensure the platform supports and accelerates the delivery of features across the entire codebase
• Effectively collaborate with key partners in your product area, including Designers, Product Managers, and TPMs
• Uphold and build upon Highspot’s culture, ensuring that Engineering is a welcoming, inclusive place, and that we not only meet our DE&I goals but lead Seattle’s tech industry with our commitment to diversity
• Bring your technical expertise to bear as you work closely with the Architects team to manage the evolution of Highspot’s software; ensure that our architecture and stack are optimized to keep pace with the demands of hyper-growth; position your product area (and support adjacent product areas) for continued high-availability and reliability across multiple worldwide data centers
• Deeply understand the strategic value and the market opportunity of your product area; leverage your expertise to define KPIs and growth plans for your organization 
• Create a collaborative environment where all levels of engineers can contribute in meaningful ways
• Partner with the Services team to understand what drives customer joy in your product area and ensure your team works to address customer concerns in a timely manner 
• Partner with Architects team and CISO to design and implement proactive security postures for customer- and internal-facing systems
• Advocate for the tools, process, and resources the core dev team needs to enable their ongoing success and unlock their ability to innovate
• Mentor and guide the professional and technical development of the managers and engineers on your team
• Define clear roles and responsibilities that ensure efficient decision-making, careful analysis of trade-offs, and a responsible balance of strategic business objectives, unique customer needs, operational necessities, and product quality
• Ensure architects, stakeholders, and SMEs are appropriately involved in decisions
• Ensure decisions are communicated within and outside team
• Enforce accountability through empathetic, relevant, and objective performance targets and timely feedback and coaching
• Advise the broader Product leadership team on the relative costs and benefits of various projects competing for Engineering resources

Your Background

• Minimum of 10 years in senior engineering leadership roles, including managing engineering managers, and recent experience in the B2B SaaS industry
• An academic background in Computer Science or related discipline, or equivalent experience
• Extensive experience developing and scaling cloud-native applications and infrastructure
• A background in building frontend and backend platforms
• Proven success in attracting and retaining top engineering talent from diverse backgrounds
• Proven success as a partner and collaborator who prioritizes the success of the team over individual aspirations
• Entrepreneurial spirit, priding yourself on getting things done with a high level of quality
• Previous experience designing and building software products at scale
• Deep understanding of the SDLC for SaaS applications
• Working knowledge of modern object-oriented and functional programming languages
• Experience building software in a dynamic language such as Ruby or Python