Director, Engineering Operations & Strategy

Metropolis•Los Angeles, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Metropolis is seeking a Director, Engineering Operations & Strategy to own technology strategy, operational leadership, and strategic problem-solving across its engineering organization. The role operates with high autonomy and includes managing a multi-million-dollar engineering budget, resolving complex operational challenges, and developing simple, scalable solutions in a high-growth company. The Director partners directly with senior leadership on M&A due diligence, shared technical processes, vendor decisions, and other high-stakes operational challenges. The position requires a combination of hands-on technical grounding, strategic experience, ownership, and comfort working in uncertainty. The role owns shared engineering processes such as hiring workflows, onboarding, and training; engineering vendor management and forecasting; and strategic recommendations and decisions affecting the organization. The Director is expected to build alignment across teams and senior leaders, keep work moving despite incomplete information, and translate organizational goals into actionable plans. This is an office-first role requiring employees to be onsite at least four days per week. The anticipated annual base salary is $220,000 to $260,000 USD. Total compensation usually includes healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan, short- and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, a stock option plan, bonus plans, and more.

Requirements

At least 6 years of experience in high-intensity, rigorous environments.
At least 2 years of hands-on engineering experience in software or similar engineering roles.
Demonstrated persistence and a track record of working relentlessly to accomplish difficult goals.
Experience leading a strategic function with significant autonomy, managing resources, and owning organizational outcomes.
Ability to build trust with technical teams and influence without authority.
Experience owning meaningful budget or resource decisions in a high-growth or complex organization, with a bias toward action despite incomplete information.
Ability to operate effectively in fast-moving, ambiguous environments and make sound decisions without complete data.
Ability to synthesize complex operational or technical concepts into clear rationales for senior and C-level stakeholders.
Skill translating high-level business goals into concrete execution plans that account for broad organizational impact.
Demonstrated ability to use AI tools and frameworks to optimize technology operations, technical evaluations, and cross-functional workflows.

Nice To Haves

MBA from a top-tier business program.
Engineering degree.
Experience in high-growth technology scale-ups or pre-IPO environments.
Direct involvement in M&A technology due diligence, corporate restructuring, or integration strategy.
Experience with modern engineering workflows, cloud platforms such as AWS, or AI tooling.

Responsibilities

Own shared engineering department processes, including hiring workflows, onboarding, and training.
Resolve complex, multifaceted operational challenges by developing simple, actionable solutions without waiting for top-down instruction.
Direct and manage an engineering P&L budget stated as “$50M a $100million+,” coordinating resources with corporate objectives.
Own hardware and service forecasting for critical vendors such as AWS and Twilio; monitor spending trends and identify risks or opportunities.
Own emerging strategic decisions for the engineering organization, including M&A due diligence and major vendor migrations, in partnership with senior executives.
Build alignment among senior leaders and navigate multi-stakeholder decisions on complex or high-risk initiatives.
Keep teams unblocked and moving forward, acting effectively with incomplete information.
Use curiosity and formal methodologies to break down cross-functional silos, challenge assumptions, and drive alignment.
Forecast operational trends and provide strategic recommendations that favor proactive disruption over routine maintenance.
Own engineering vendor management, including contract negotiations, renewals, performance accountability, and day-to-day relationships.