Director, Engineering

Coates Group•Chicago, IL

3d•$190,000 - $210,000

About The Position

The Director, Engineering is accountable for enabling high-performing engineering squads to deliver reliable, maintainable, and high-quality software solutions. This role provides technical leadership, builds capability across engineers and technical leads, ensures adherence to engineering standards, and removes blockers that impede delivery, while partnering with Product, Delivery, and QA leadership to achieve business and customer outcomes.

Requirements

8+ years’ experience in software engineering, with 3+ years in an engineering leadership roles, managing engineers and technical leads
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience
Proven experience delivering enterprise-scale software platforms or digital products within complex, client environments
Strong hands-on background in modern full-stack software engineering, with deep experience in building highly scalable web applications supported by cloud-native or serverless architectures (AWS preferred), CI/CD pipelines, and distributed systems
Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional engineering teams operating in agile or product-led delivery models
Experience establishing and enforcing engineering standards, development practices, and delivery discipline across multiple squads
Proven ability to manage a blended workforce, including permanent staff and staff-augmented delivery partners (onshore and offshore)
Demonstrated experience in developing and executing plans that align with business objectives and growth

Nice To Haves

Leads with strong engineering credibility and modelling high-quality full-stack engineering practices.
Translates architectural direction and standards into practical, repeatable engineering practices that work at squad level.
Quickly diagnoses technical and delivery-adjacent issues, makes sound trade-offs, and removes engineering blockers.
Develops a high-performing team through clear expectations, feedback, and career coaching.
Works as a trusted partner to Product, Delivery & QA leaders to align engineering effort to shared outcomes.
Builds strong ownership within squads for code quality, operability, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

Ensure squads have the technical capability, processes, and practices to deliver reliably, removing engineering blockers and supporting predictable outcomes in partnership with Delivery leadership.
Act as a chapter-style leader for engineers and technical leads, building capability, setting standards, and driving consistent engineering practices across squads.
Ensure sound technical design and implementation, actively managing technical debt and addressing complexity.
Embed quality-by-design within engineering teams (e.g. testability, code quality, CI/CD discipline), while partnering with QA to achieve agreed quality outcomes.
Own the operational health of systems within scope, ensuring reliability, performance, and readiness across production and pre-production environments.
Lead and develop permanent and partner engineers (onshore and offshore), including performance management, engagement, and effective integration.
Enable squads to operate autonomously by removing engineering blockers, managing dependencies, and improving delivery flow in partnership with Product and Delivery.