Director, Software Engineering

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, which manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Director, Software Engineering based in the United States. The Director, Software Engineering will lead the development and evolution of AI-enabled enterprise platforms that automate complex legal operations and workflows. This is a hands-on technical leadership role combining architectural direction, software development, delivery ownership, and people management. You will guide a geographically distributed engineering team, ensuring consistent standards, strong collaboration, and reliable execution across locations and time zones. Working closely with product leaders, legal operations experts, and executive stakeholders, you will translate sophisticated business requirements into secure, scalable, and intelligent software solutions. You will shape the technical roadmap, drive engineering excellence, and introduce technologies that improve automation, platform performance, and development efficiency. This opportunity is ideal for an experienced engineering leader who enjoys balancing strategic vision with practical technical problem-solving in a dynamic, innovation-focused environment.

Provide hands-on technical leadership through architecture and design reviews, code reviews, troubleshooting, and direct coding on critical or high-risk initiatives. Define and enforce engineering standards for code quality, testing, security, documentation, and maintainability. Own the platform's technical roadmap, including AI-enabled capabilities such as workflow automation, intelligent document processing, and advanced legal-operations features. Evaluate and introduce technologies, frameworks, and AI/ML tools that improve platform functionality, reliability, scalability, and development velocity. Translate business and legal operations requirements into technical designs, development epics, and actionable sprint plans. Lead Agile delivery practices, including sprint planning, backlog management, team ceremonies, and release coordination, while maintaining progress against roadmap commitments and client-facing milestones. Proactively identify and resolve technical risks, delivery bottlenecks, and cross-functional dependencies. Oversee production reliability, performance, and security, including multi-tenant data isolation and role-based access controls. Collaborate with product management, legal operations specialists, and client-facing teams to shape platform priorities and align technical solutions with business needs. Communicate delivery progress, technical risks, trade-offs, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership. Coordinate with external vendors and partners on relevant integrations and technical initiatives. Manage a distributed team of software developers, engineers, and QA professionals across onshore and offshore locations, establishing effective collaboration and handoff practices across time zones. Recruit, onboard, mentor, and performance-manage team members while maintaining consistent engineering expectations across all locations. Develop team structures and staffing strategies that support platform growth, distributed delivery, accountability, and continuous improvement. Requirements: 10+ years of professional software development experience, including at least 4 years in a hands-on engineering leadership role, such as Director, Senior Engineering Manager, or equivalent. Demonstrated success building and leading distributed engineering teams that include onshore, offshore, or nearshore developers. Strong current technical skills, with the ability to review, understand, troubleshoot, and contribute to production code rather than operating solely in a management capacity. Proven experience delivering complex, multi-tenant, web-based enterprise software from initial architecture through production deployment. Solid knowledge of modern software architecture, RESTful APIs, relational databases such as PostgreSQL, cloud infrastructure, and secure multi-tenant systems with role-based access controls. Experience with Agile/Scrum practices, including sprint planning, backlog management, and release management. Excellent communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to present technical strategy, delivery status, risks, and trade-offs to executive stakeholders. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Experience in legal technology, legal operations, eDiscovery, or another regulated or compliance-focused enterprise software environment is preferred. Practical experience applying AI/ML capabilities within software products, such as intelligent document classification, workflow automation, or large language model (LLM)-based features, is an advantage. Familiarity with workflow engines or configurable business-process platforms that support rule-driven automation, task management, and configurable process stages is preferred. Knowledge of single sign-on (SSO), identity integrations, audit and compliance logging, and enterprise security requirements is beneficial. Experience integrating with or migrating to project and issue-tracking systems such as Jira, as well as working with CI/CD toolchains, is a plus. A master's degree in Computer Science or a related discipline is advantageous. Relevant certifications, such as AWS, PMP, Scrum, or SAFe, are a plus. Benefits: Remote work opportunity within the United States. Opportunity to lead the engineering strategy and development of AI-enabled enterprise software platforms. A hands-on leadership position combining technical decision-making, team development, and product delivery. The opportunity to build and mentor a geographically distributed engineering team and influence its long-term growth. Note: The original job description does not specify a salary range, healthcare coverage, retirement benefits, or paid leave details.