Associate Director, Software Engineering

Foundation Medicine•Boston, MA

14h•$208,640 - $247,760•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director, Software Engineering (Engineering Enablement) is responsible for establishing and evolving the technical foundation that enables engineering teams to deliver secure, compliant, reliable, and scalable software solutions efficiently. This role operates across multiple engineering domains and serves as a strategic partner to Architecture, Security, Product Management, Validation, Quality, Infrastructure, and Software Engineering leadership. The position owns engineering-wide enablement capabilities including DevOps platforms, software development lifecycle (SDLC) tooling, developer productivity systems, architecture governance, platform engineering, cloud enablement, and secure software delivery practices. The Associate Director provides technical leadership, establishes engineering standards and guardrails, drives adoption of modern software engineering practices, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement across FMI's software development organization.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline and 8+ years of professional software engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, or related technology experience; OR equivalent relevant professional experience
8+ years of experience leading technical teams, platforms, programs, or engineering initiatives spanning multiple teams
4+ years of management experience
Experience building, administering, or supporting modern software delivery platforms and cloud-based engineering ecosystems

Nice To Haves

Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field
Experience working in a regulated industry such as healthcare, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices, or life sciences
Demonstrated expertise with public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP and with infrastructure automation, containers, orchestration, and observability
Experience designing or operating CI/CD platforms, source control, artifact management, automated testing, release management, and developer self-service capabilities
Experience implementing DevSecOps capabilities and secure software development practices
Strong understanding of distributed system design, architecture governance, reliability engineering, API and integration patterns, and technology lifecycle management
Experience supporting software development processes aligned with applicable standards or regulations such as IEC 62304, FDA guidance, GxP, HIPAA, or 21 CFR Part 11
Experience with automated requirements traceability, validation evidence, test orchestration, or formal software delivery controls
Experience evaluating and responsibly enabling AI-assisted software development and engineering productivity solutions
Demonstrated history of leading organizational change, driving adoption, and managing multiple concurrent initiatives
Excellent written and oral communication, collaboration, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills
Understanding of HIPAA and the importance of patient data privacy
Commitment to reflect FMI’s values: Integrity, Courage, and Passion

Responsibilities

Define and execute the Engineering Enablement strategy aligned with FMI technology objectives
Own and oversee enterprise software engineering platforms, including CI/CD pipelines, source control systems, artifact repositories, testing platforms, deployment automation, release management, and observability tooling
Lead the evolution of platform engineering capabilities that improve developer productivity and reduce delivery friction
Establish engineering standards for build, deployment, monitoring, observability, reliability, and operational excellence
Drive Infrastructure-as-Code, automation-first, and self-service practices across development teams
Define and track engineering effectiveness measures, including delivery speed, reliability, recovery, adoption, and developer experience indicators
Partner with Engineering leadership to establish architecture principles, engineering guardrails, and technology standards
Create and maintain reference architectures, reusable design patterns, paved-road solutions, and approved technology patterns
Participate in technical reviews to ensure solutions align with scalability, performance, reliability, maintainability, interoperability, and security objectives
Facilitate lightweight architecture review and exception processes for major business and technology initiatives
Guide teams in the appropriate adoption of cloud-native, event-driven, API-first, and service-oriented architectures
Own software delivery tooling supporting requirements management, traceability, design documentation, validation, testing, release management, evidence generation, and controlled deployment
Continuously improve software development lifecycle processes and associated tooling to reduce cycle time while maintaining quality and compliance
Ensure engineering platforms support applicable requirements within regulated environments
Drive standardization of engineering workflows, templates, automated quality gates, stage gates, and delivery controls
Partner with Quality and Regulatory stakeholders to streamline validation and compliance activities through automation and formalized evidence
Collaborate with Information Security teams to embed security practices throughout the software development lifecycle
Drive implementation and adoption of DevSecOps capabilities including static application security testing, dynamic application security testing, software composition analysis, container and infrastructure scanning, secrets management, software bill of materials generation, and vulnerability workflows
Establish secure-by-design engineering standards, threat modeling practices, and automated enforcement mechanisms for security and compliance controls
Improve visibility, ownership, prioritization, and remediation of software and platform vulnerabilities
Identify opportunities to improve developer productivity through automation, reusable platform services, internal developer portals, AI-assisted development tools, and workflow simplification
Partner with engineering leaders and teams to reduce cognitive load, eliminate recurring friction, and improve the end-to-end developer journey
Develop standardized onboarding experiences and self-service documentation for engineers and engineering teams
Build and maintain internal engineering documentation, knowledge resources, standards, and best practices
Create feedback mechanisms and measures to continuously improve developer experience and platform adoption
Lead, mentor, and develop engineers focused on engineering enablement, tooling, automation, architecture, and platform capabilities
Build communities of practice around architecture, DevOps, security, testing, reliability, and engineering standards
Influence technical direction across multiple engineering organizations and drive alignment through collaboration and measurable outcomes
Manage technology investments, vendor relationships, platform roadmaps, service ownership, and lifecycle planning for engineering tooling
Create and deliver presentations, roadmaps, documentation, metrics, and recommendations to Technology leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
Other duties as assigned
Comply with FMI's attendance policies