Director of Engineering

Buildout

2d • $160,000 - $180,000 • Remote

About The Position

Buildout is hiring a Director of Engineering to lead the performance and execution of our engineering organization. You’ll manage a team of engineers and technical leads, creating the clarity, accountability, and support they need to do their best work. You will own the people and operating systems behind a healthy engineering organization, from coaching and performance management to staffing, planning, delivery, and cross-functional partnership. You’ll help the team thoughtfully adopt AI-assisted development practices that improve developer productivity, software quality, and delivery speed.

This role is an important partner to our SVP of Engineering. While the SVP of Engineering remains focused on technology strategy, architecture, and long-term direction, you will turn that direction into an effective, predictable, and high-performing engineering operation.

Requirements

• Experience leading and developing engineers across multiple product teams
• Experience with performance management, hiring, and career development.
• Experience leading technical leads and senior engineers
• Enough technical depth to understand engineering tradeoffs and earn the trust of experienced developers, without needing to be the primary architect.
• Demonstrated success improving organizational effectiveness while maintaining a strong engineering culture.
• You make expectations unmistakable. People rarely leave a conversation with you wondering what matters, who owns what, or what happens next. You create clarity without turning every problem into a new process.
• You make teams run better. You look for ways to make the team faster, more effective, and more consistent without adding unnecessary processes. You see AI as a force multiplier and know how to turn it from a tool into a meaningful part of how an engineering team builds, solves problems, and delivers.
• You coach before you rescue. Your instinct is not to take over when someone struggles. You ask the right questions, give direct feedback, and help people build the judgment to solve the next problem themselves.
• You can hold the line without hardening the room. You are comfortable addressing missed commitments, performance concerns, and difficult tradeoffs. You are direct without being careless and empathetic without avoiding accountability.
• You see around corners. You notice when a staffing gap, unclear ownership boundary, or unresolved dependency is likely to become a larger problem. You raise it early and help the right people act before it becomes an emergency.
• You translate between Product and Engineering. You can hear an ambitious product goal and identify the engineering choices beneath it. You help both sides understand capacity, risk, and tradeoffs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the day-to-day performance and development of our engineering organization, making sure every engineer knows what good looks like, where they stand, and how they can grow.
• Manage and coach engineers and technical leads, giving them the context and support to make good decisions without needing you in the middle of every one.
• Recognize and grow strong performers, develop future technical leaders, and address performance concerns directly and early.
• Own engineering hiring and onboarding, building the talent and team structure we need to meet the needs of the business.
• Create clear accountability for engineering delivery across teams, with enough structure to make execution predictable without slowing people down.
• Maintain a clear view of capacity, commitments, dependencies, and risk so problems surface early and leadership isn't surprised.
• Step into cross-team dependencies, competing priorities, and delivery challenges when teams need help getting unstuck.
• Use AI as a force multiplier for the engineering organization, setting clear expectations for adoption and turning what works into repeatable practices across coding, testing, documentation, automation, and the broader development lifecycle.
• Drive measurable improvements in developer productivity and team effectiveness while maintaining strong standards for software quality and responsible AI use.
• Serve as Product's primary partner for engineering execution, bringing a clear view of capacity, feasibility, risk, and tradeoffs into roadmap and prioritization decisions.
• Help turn product priorities into realistic engineering commitments—and make the tradeoffs clear when everything can't be a priority.
• Communicate risks early and honestly, bringing problems forward with enough context to make good decisions.
• Be a steady escalation point when delivery, staffing, or organizational issues cross team boundaries or don't have an obvious answer.

Benefits

• Impactful insurance and benefit options, including 2 medical plans to choose from, 100% coverage of employee dental and vision insurance premiums, HSA seed, company-paid STD, LTD, life insurance, and telemedicine, and a wellness benefit of $400/year.
• Policies that support a healthy work/life harmony, including Flexible PTO, 14 paid company holidays, paid parental leave, and give back days
• 401(k) with 4% company match and immediate vesting
• A fully remote work culture with a monthly remote work reimbursement ($600/year) to support our distributed team and an annual, in-person company kickoff
• Challenging problems to solve with a committed and supportive team who are invested in your growth and development
• A wonderfully quirky culture where you’re encouraged to bring your whole self to work

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed