Director of Software Applications Engineering

Quick Facts

• Role: Director of Software Applications Engineering (Cloud Networking Engineering)

• Reports to: Vice President, Cloud Networking Engineering

• Work model: Hybrid (Salem, United States)

Description

You will lead teams designing, building, and operating cloud-native applications, APIs, and middleware/data services that power a cloud networking platform. You will own the technical roadmap and delivery quality for application-layer services such as provisioning, orchestration, telemetry, analytics, and customer-facing management apps, balancing people leadership with hands-on technical execution. The role partners with product management, platform/infrastructure engineering, and cross-functional teams to deliver reliable, secure, and scalable software at cloud scale.

Responsibilities

• Own strategy, architecture, and execution roadmap for cloud applications, APIs, and middleware/data services

• Lead, hire, and develop multiple engineering teams; set goals, career paths, and performance expectations

• Partner with Product Management and the VP to translate business/customer requirements into a prioritized technical roadmap

• Drive engineering excellence: code quality, CI/CD, test automation, observability, and secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC)

• Ensure scalability, availability, and performance across multi-tenant, multi-region environments

• Collaborate with Platform Engineering, SRE/Cloud Operations, Security, and Support for incident response, capacity planning, and SLOs

• Evaluate and evolve middleware/data-services architecture (APIs, messaging, event streaming, data pipelines)

• Manage departmental budget, vendor/tooling decisions, and resource planning

• Represent Software Applications Engineering in executive reviews and cross-org initiatives; communicate status, risks, and trade-offs

• Champion Agile/Scrum or similar delivery practices and continuous improvement across distributed teams

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)

• 12+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including 5+ years in engineering leadership/management roles overseeing multiple teams

• Demonstrated experience building and operating cloud-native applications on AWS, Azure, or GCP (microservices, Docker/Kubernetes, and serverless)

• Strong middleware and data services background: REST/gRPC APIs, message queues/event streaming (e.g., Kafka), and data pipelines or databases (SQL and NoSQL)

• Proven ability to lead organizational change, manage competing priorities, and deliver complex cross-team initiatives on schedule

• Experience partnering with Product Management on roadmap definition and communicating technical strategy to executive stakeholders

• Solid understanding of secure software development practices, CI/CD pipelines, and modern observability/monitoring tooling

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to influence senior leadership without direct authority

Benefits

• Base salary range: $190,000–$240,000 USD

• Eligible for bonus/incentive compensation and equity

• Full benefits package including medical and 401(k) match