Director, Engineering

Bound•Ames, IA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are looking for a Director of Engineering to lead critical areas of our platform, including internal systems and foundational platform services that support everything our customers do. This is not a maintenance role. This is a build, scale, and systemize role. Bound is growing quickly, and this position will play a major role in shaping how our platform evolves over the next 3–5 years—both in terms of technical architecture and engineering organization. You will work directly with the Engineering team leadership to define and execute platform strategy, while building and leading multiple engineering teams.

Requirements

Experience leading and scaling engineering teams (ideally multiple teams)
Strong systems thinking—you’ve built platforms, not just features
Ability to operate at both high-level strategy and low-level detail
Proven track record of delivering in a growing or scaling environment
Experience with modern backend architectures (microservices, cloud infrastructure, distributed systems)
Strong collaboration with product, operations, and executive leadership
High ownership mindset—you take responsibility for outcomes, not just output

Responsibilities

Lead and grow a high-performing team of engineers across key areas of the platform
Design and evolve team structure—from a small group into a multi-team organization
Own hiring strategy, recruiting, and onboarding as we scale
Set clear expectations, accountability, and performance standards
Mentor engineers and emerging leaders to build internal leadership depth
Help attract and retain high-caliber builders who want to create something meaningful
Own critical areas of the platform that power how our customers operate, including: Administrative and internal systems, Event, scheduling, and operational workflows, Registration and activity management, Platform services that support data, workflows, and integrations
Build scalable, flexible systems across a wide range of use cases
Improve usability, reliability, and configurability
Partner closely with product and operations teams to solve real customer problems
Design systems that are extensible and configurable, not one-off solutions
Balance flexibility with simplicity—our users have complex needs, but the product must remain intuitive
Ensure data integrity and consistency across the platform
Build systems that scale across organizations, regions, and use cases
Partner directly with the Engineering team leadership on architecture and long-term technical direction
Help drive key initiatives, including: Microservices architecture evolution, AWS infrastructure scaling, Docker / Kubernetes adoption, PostgreSQL and data platform evolution
Make decisions that improve long-term maintainability, scalability, and performance
Ensure teams are shipping consistently and at a high level
Remove blockers, simplify complexity, and maintain momentum
Hold a high bar for quality, reliability, and system correctness
Balance speed with long-term sustainability