Director of Research and Development

Jonas Software

About The Position

This role involves technical ownership of the Total Service Cloud ERP, focusing on features, backend correctness, and release engineering using technologies like TypeScript/Node, React, Express, Drizzle ORM on PostgreSQL, Vite, Vitest, and Playwright. A key responsibility is achieving functional parity between the legacy desktop ERP and the cloud platform across various modules such as Payroll, AR, AP, GL, Job Cost, Inventory, Dispatch, Sales, Purchasing, Reporting, and Banking. The position also demands a strong focus on high-stakes correctness work, including general-ledger posting and reversals, payroll tax wage bases, US and Canadian tax handling, multi-tenant isolation, and permission enforcement. Additionally, the role requires establishing and enforcing ERP-wide UX standards, and maintaining continuity of legacy systems like the Java/Spring service layer and the VB6 desktop ERP. In terms of Cloud Infrastructure, Reliability & Cost Governance, the Director will manage cloud architecture and operations across Azure and AWS for a multi-tenant customer fleet, utilizing services like App Service slots, PostgreSQL Flexible Server, Key Vault, Front Door, managed identity, and infrastructure-as-code (Bicep). Responsibilities include managing release and deploy infrastructure (CI/CD in GitHub Actions, blue-green UAT, deploy gates, slot-swap workflows) and overseeing cloud cost governance, including spend, forecast, and optimization. Production incident response, including error triage, root-cause analysis, and architectural calls, is also a critical part of this role. The role also encompasses end-to-end ownership of the Legacy-to-Cloud Migration program, including managing the tenant matrix, ETL pipelines (Python/SQL Server → PostgreSQL), schema canonicalization, and data-fidelity reconciliation. This includes managing customer production imports, go-lives, and handling migration data issues. Decommissioning the legacy platform is also a responsibility. Furthermore, the Director will be involved in AI in the Software Lifecycle, architecting and operating a multi-agent development pipeline (ClickUp → Claude Code → GitHub PR), ensuring auditability and affordability. They will be accountable for AI-assisted output and supporting internal tooling like repo/task sync automation and AI-assisted QA triage. The role involves representing the business unit as a practitioner on AI in the SDLC internally and to other Constellation group companies. Leadership responsibilities include leading the engineering team, chairing technical syncs, authoring specs, reviewing work, and acting as a release gatekeeper. The Director will also manage QA and contractor staffing, run customer-facing onboarding and go-lives for named accounts, report R&D and AI initiatives upward to Jonas/Constellation, participate in cross-business-unit technical forums, and evaluate vendors for IT, security, and tenancy decisions.

Requirements

Senior full-stack engineering depth in TypeScript/Node (React, Express, an ORM against PostgreSQL) with demonstrated ownership of a production application at meaningful scale.
Strong backend correctness discipline in financial or accounting domains (GL, AR/AP, payroll, or tax) and in multi-tenant SaaS security (authorization, tenant isolation).
Substantial cloud engineering experience on Azure and/or AWS, including infrastructure-as-code, secrets and identity management, and cost optimization.
Data migration and ETL experience: relational-to-relational at fleet scale, with schema canonicalization and reconciliation.
DevOps and release engineering: CI/CD, blue-green or slot-based deployment, migration safety, and production incident response.
Practical experience with LLM agents or AI-assisted development, and sound judgment about where to trust them and where not to.
Technical leadership: leading engineers, setting standards, gatekeeping releases, and representing engineering to executives and customers.
Comfort working with legacy code you did not write, and the pragmatism to keep it running while replacing it.

Nice To Haves

Field-service, elevator, door, or HVAC ERP domain experience.
Experience inside the Jonas Software / Constellation operating model.
Mobile release engineering (Android, Play Console, signing and keystore management, crash observability).
Java or Java/Android maintenance experience.
Enterprise identity and tenancy administration (Entra/SSO, Microsoft 365, email security tooling).
.NET/C# familiarity for auxiliary services.

Responsibilities

Technical ownership of the Total Service Cloud ERP across features, backend correctness, and release engineering.
Achieve functional parity between the legacy desktop ERP and the cloud platform across modules like Payroll, AR, AP, GL, Job Cost, Inventory, Dispatch, Sales, Purchasing, Reporting, and Banking.
Ensure high-stakes correctness in areas like general-ledger posting, payroll tax wage bases, US and Canadian tax handling, multi-tenant isolation, and permission enforcement.
Define and enforce ERP-wide UX standards.
Maintain continuity of legacy systems, including the Java/Spring service layer and the VB6 desktop ERP.
Manage cloud architecture and operations across Azure and AWS for a multi-tenant customer fleet.
Oversee release and deploy infrastructure, including CI/CD, blue-green UAT, deploy gates, and slot-swap workflows.
Govern cloud costs, including spend, forecast, and optimization.
Lead production incident response, including error triage, root-cause analysis, and architectural calls.
Own the end-to-end legacy-to-cloud migration program, including ETL, schema canonicalization, and data reconciliation.
Manage customer production imports, go-lives, and migration data issues.
Plan the decommissioning path for the legacy platform.
Architect and operate a multi-agent development pipeline using AI tools.
Ensure auditability and affordability of AI-assisted development processes.
Be accountable for AI-assisted output.
Support internal tooling, including repo/task sync automation and AI-assisted QA triage.
Represent the business unit as a practitioner on AI in the SDLC.
Lead the engineering team, including chairing standups and technical syncs, authoring specs, splitting and reviewing work, and acting as a release gatekeeper.
Direct QA and contractor staffing and resourcing.
Run customer-facing onboarding and go-live directly for named accounts.
Report business unit R&D and AI initiatives upward to Jonas/Constellation.
Participate in cross-business-unit technical forums.
Evaluate vendors and drive business-unit IT, security, and tenancy decisions.