Senior Director, Software Engineering

GitHub, Inc.

13h•Remote

About The Position

GitHub is the world’s leading platform for agentic software development, powered by Copilot to build, scale, and deliver secure software. Over 180 million developers, including more than 90% of the Fortune 100 companies, use GitHub to collaborate, and more than 77,000 organisations have adopted GitHub Copilot. This role is focused on shaping the future of developer collaboration and productivity, enabling customers to bring their ideas to life, innovate, and collaborate throughout the entire project lifecycle by building market-leading services that allow developers to manage and track work seamlessly alongside their code. The Senior Director will champion strategic alignment across distributed teams, overseeing the design and architecture of deeply complex and often ambiguous products. As a leader, this role involves driving employee growth and performance management, establishing best practices for system reliability, extensibility, and maintainable code, and providing technical leadership for identifying dependencies and ensuring high standards of quality and scale. The company is remote-first and aims to create a space for employees to do their best work, offering competitive pay, generous learning and growth opportunities, and excellent benefits.

Requirements

11+ years' experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python, OR Associate’s Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years' experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python, OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field AND 9+ years' experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python, OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years' experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python, OR Doctorate in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years' experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python, OR equivalent experience.
5+ years people management experience.

Nice To Haves

3+ years of experience leading distributed software engineering teams
5+ years of hands-on experience in modern web stacks (e.g. Rails, Go, React, MySQL, GraphQL)
Strong customer focus and data driven approach
Excellent analytical skills as well as communication skills both verbal and written
Clear and effective communicator, be it when you write code, write emails, or explain complex technical issues to non-technical co-workers
Passionate and self-motivated, with a demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced environment

Responsibilities

Drive technical strategy and roadmaps in partnership with Product and Design to solve complex customer problems in the agentic era.
Manage and develop a talented, distributed group of full-stack engineers, fostering a culture of ownership and continuous growth.
Champion strategic alignment across teams to ensure the delivery of high-impact, planetary-scale experiences that users love.
Oversee system architecture for deeply complex features, ensuring solutions are extensible, maintainable, and reliable.
Lead by example in the practical adoption of modern AI software development tools to accelerate the team's iteration and learning.
Maintain high quality standards through technical leadership, proactive code reviews, and the establishment of robust testing best practices.
Contribute to a modern full-stack codebase (Ruby on Rails, React, TypeScript) while identifying and managing technical dependencies.
Foster technical excellence and innovation by researching new approaches and guiding their implementation across the distributed team.
Act as a multiplier by providing mentorship and pairing opportunities that define success for both individual and team outcomes.