Director, Software Engineering

Salesforce•Seattle, WA

5d•$197,300 - $344,700

About The Position

Salesforce is hiring a Director of Software Engineering for its Experience Artifact Platform organization. The organization operates the core deployment and management engine for Salesforce’s multi-framework applications and agentic Headless Experience Layer. This team owns the middle-tier services powering headless experiences, including global branding architecture for agentic interactions, and operates, maintains, and scales Salesforce Files Platform, a foundational service used across Salesforce’s business lines. The Director will lead and scale a multi-layered engineering organization, develop Engineering Managers and Engineering Leaders, and establish a culture of high standards, operational rigor, and open communication. The role sets technical direction and architecture, drives predictable delivery across complex cross-functional work, and owns platform reliability, SLA compliance, and incident response. The position also requires executive-level stakeholder engagement, proactive organizational and delivery management, and clear communication of strategy, roadmaps, risks, and performance. Salesforce describes its workplace as inclusive and based on equal opportunity and merit. The company uses AI tools to assist recruiters in assessing applications, while people make candidate selection and hiring decisions. Reasonable accommodations are available during the application and recruiting process. The typical U.S. base salary range is $197,300–$313,700 annually, with a range of $237,700–$344,700 in select cities in the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan areas. These ranges are base salary only and exclude applicable bonuses, equity, and benefits.

Requirements

At least 8 years of software engineering experience.
At least 3 years at the Director level managing multiple teams and managers.
Proven experience designing, building, and operating large-scale services with high-availability requirements.
Strong architectural background and ability to vet technical designs and root-cause analyses and resolve complex technical debt at scale.
Demonstrated ability to implement operational systems that enable teams to function autonomously without day-to-day project management by the Director.
Ability to communicate complex engineering status clearly and actionably to executive stakeholders.
Highly responsive and reliable collaboration skills.
Proven ability to handle production incidents and escalations calmly while maintaining focus on operational baselines and project milestones.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop the engineering organization, establishing clear growth paths and empowering Engineering Managers and Engineering Leaders to operate autonomously.
Foster a high-trust, high-standards culture with operational rigor, open communication, strategic context, and visibility across the organization.
Set ambitious quarterly goals, define precise milestones, deliver predictably, and manage cross-functional dependencies.
Set technical strategy and architectural direction, vet technical designs, and align stakeholders on long-term technical investments.
Own system performance, SLA compliance, incident response, and continuous improvement of platform resiliency.
Own and synthesize multi-quarter technical roadmaps and secure alignment from Product, Go-To-Market, and Engineering stakeholders.
Identify resourcing gaps, architectural risks, and timeline blockers, and present researched mitigation plans proactively.
Represent engineering in stakeholder and business-unit meetings with accurate information, executive presence, and technical context.
Mentor and delegate to Engineering Managers and Engineering Leaders, enabling them to independently run agile ceremonies and represent their domains.
Manage organizational performance through gap analyses, advanced challenges for top performers, and structured remediation plans for underperformers.
Communicate strategic shifts, organizational changes, and roadmaps to engineers, connecting work to broader business goals.
Establish and enforce scalable systems for SLA compliance, bug hygiene, and incident management, including root-cause analyses.
Drive cross-functional projects from initial PRD through production rollout, defining delivery dates and ensuring on-time execution.
Establish unified dashboards and standardized reporting metrics to support predictable delivery and reduce reactive firefighting.
Provide proactive, accurate visibility into sprint deliverables, capacity constraints, and blockers.
Ensure status updates, timeline changes, and technical justifications are thoroughly vetted before communication.