The Opportunity:

Strategic Leadership: Newly created senior-most role responsible for building the leadership layer, establishing engineering culture, and designing the operating model.

Transformational Goal: Shift the engineering function from being "delivery-focused" to "capability-driven.

Scope:

Lead a 30+ person organization across three product teams, each managed by a Technical Manager.

Reporting Structure: Sit on the leadership team and report directly to the Business Unit Head (BUH).

Ideal Candidate Profile: A seasoned leader with a track record of "scars and wins," seeking full ownership and executive backing to drive strategic change.

Key Responsibilities:

- Lead three product teams through Technical Managers, focusing on both team and individual capability growth.

- Define and instill engineering values, norms, and a culture of accountability and craft.

- Design and implement career ladders, performance frameworks, and development plans.

- Drive active, structured hiring (sourcing to onboarding) to build a high-performing team.

- Foster an environment that prioritizes retention and professional growth.

Strategy & Long-Term Architecture:

- Translate product vision and business goals into multi-quarter engineering plans.

- Proactively identify and address structural risks, technical debt, and capability gaps.

- Partner with Solution Architecture to define long-term platform strategy.

- Represent engineering in strategic discussions, balancing immediate delivery with long-term investment.

Delivery Excellence:

- Establish and enforce delivery standards, release cadences, and engineering KPIs.

- Transition the organization from reactive firefighting to proactive, planned delivery.

- Manage cross-team dependencies, resource allocation, and risk.

- Drive quality and engineering hygiene without becoming a bottleneck.

- Ensure predictable delivery that aligns with business commitments.

Leadership Team Contribution:

- Serve as a peer and thought partner to heads of Product Management, Customer Success, and Data Services.

- Communicate technical tradeoffs, costs, and timelines with clarity and confidence.

- Act as a stabilizing, visible leader during periods of organizational growth and change.

- Contribute to the broader organizational culture and operating model.

Success Milestones (First 12 Months):

- 30 Days: Observe and diagnose; build relationships with key stakeholders; map the current state and risks; provide a written assessment.

- 60 Days: Stabilize the structure; identify Technical Managers; clear accountability structures in place; reduce escalation noise.

- 90 Days: Establish operating rhythm (standups, planning, retrospectives, metrics); launch active hiring; shift from managing to leading.

- 6 Months: Career frameworks and development plans active; improved delivery predictability and morale; shift focus from firefighting to strategy.

- 12 Months: Organization is high-performing and self-directed; engineering is no longer a constraint for new product lines; mentoring the next generation of leaders.

Requirements:

Non-Negotiable:

- Experience: 14-20 years in software engineering, with 5-8 years in people leadership (specifically managing managers).

- Scale: Proven success leading engineering organizations of 25+ across multiple teams/product lines.

- Domain: Background in B2B SaaS or enterprise product companies with a history of shipping customer-facing products.

- Transformation: Demonstrated ability to build or rebuild engineering culture from scratch or dysfunction.

- Hiring: Direct experience building talent pipelines, interviewing at scale, and closing candidates.

- Communication: Exceptional ability to translate technical complexity for business stakeholders.

Strongly Preferred:

- Domain Expertise: Exposure to manufacturing, supply chain, ERP, or industrial enterprise software.

- Growth Mindset: Experience guiding an organization through growth, restructuring, or transformation.

- Seniority: Prior experience as Director, VP, or Head of Engineering with tangible org-building accountability.

- Modern Practices: Familiarity with CI/CD, platform thinking, developer experience, and observability.

- Architecture: Experience setting up or maturing a Solution Architecture function.