Director, Software Engineering - AI & Innovations

Advarra

1d•$122,000 - $250,000•Remote

About The Position

The Director, Software Engineering – AI & Innovations is a hands-on, operationally strong engineering leader responsible for delivering AI-enabled capabilities across Advarra’s Technology portfolio while driving disciplined execution and performance across multiple engineering teams. This is a player-coach leadership role. The Director will actively engage in architectural decisions, AI solution design, and critical technical discussions while also owning delivery predictability, team performance, resource planning, and operational excellence. This leader will advance the integration of AI into customer-facing applications and embed AI assistants and automation into engineering workflows to increase velocity, improve quality, and enhance transparency. The Director partners closely with Product Management, Cloud Engineering, IT, Security, QA, Data, and Operations to ensure scalable, compliant, and customer-centric solutions are delivered with urgency and accountability.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, Information Technology, or related field or equivalent experience.
10+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including 5+ years in engineering leadership roles.
Demonstrated hands-on experience integrating AI/ML or LLM capabilities into production applications.
Experience leading agile teams with accountability for delivery predictability and operational performance.
Strong architectural background in distributed systems, SaaS platforms, APIs, and cloud-native environments.
Experience implementing AI assistants or automation tools to improve engineering productivity.
Proven track record managing multi-team delivery in complex, cross-functional environments.

Nice To Haves

Master’s Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, or related field.
Experience in clinical research, healthcare technology, or regulated industries.
Hands-on experience with LLM integrations, vector databases, embeddings, RAG architectures, and AI model deployment strategies.
Experience managing budgets, vendor relationships, and cost optimization initiatives.
Strong understanding of DevOps practices, CI/CD automation, infrastructure-as-code, and observability frameworks.
Demonstrated success driving operational maturity and engineering performance improvements.
Strong executive communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts for diverse audiences.
Balanced leadership style combining technical depth, operational rigor, and collaborative partnership.