Director, Principal Software Engineer – Forward Deployed

ROLE SUMMARY

We are seeking a skilled Software Engineer who will design, build, and maintain software systems that deliver business value. In this role, you will focus on code quality, architecture decisions, and reliable delivery while leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity. You will verify and review AI-generated code to ensure it meets our quality standards.

In this forward-deployed role, you will be embedded directly with business units including Commercial, Manufacturing, and R&D. You will operate like a "startup CTO," bridging the gap between building products and solving real business problems through rapid solution delivery and deep domain expertise. As part of the discovery-to-scale pipeline, you will identify recurring patterns and hand off validated solutions to Platform Engineers for generalization into enterprise capabilities.

This role encompasses business unit technical strategy and architectural direction. You will define strategic direction and be accountable for outcomes, shape practices across the business unit and maintain external visibility. You will handle business unit complexity creating clarity from ambiguity.

• Business:
  Shape technology-driven business strategy, represent technical perspective at executive level, and be recognized as a bridge between engineering and business
• Delivery:
  Drive delivery of the most critical technical initiatives, establish engineering delivery practices across the business unit, and be the technical authority on high-stakes projects
• Machine Learning:
  Define ML strategy across the business unit, lead enterprise ML initiatives, innovate on ML approaches, and be the technical authority on machine learning
• People:
  Develop technical leaders, shape engineering talent strategy across the business unit, and build high-performing engineering teams
• Artificial Intelligence:
  Design AI-augmented engineering workflows for your area, evaluate new AI tools, train engineers on effective AI usage, and balance speed with verification
• Scale:
  Lead architectural decisions for complex systems across teams, establish quality standards for your area, mentor engineers on architecture, and own technical debt strategy
• Documentation:
  Establish documentation standards across teams in your area, build knowledge management systems, and mentor engineers on effective technical writing
• Reliability:
  Design for reliability, implement comprehensive monitoring and alerting, lead incident response, and drive post-incident improvements
• Process:
  Drive process efficiency within your team, coordinate cross-functional technical work, and lead retrospectives

• Dont Lose Your Curiosity:
  Shapes organizational culture around curiosity and continuous learning; sponsors experimental initiatives across the organization; recognized externally as a thought leader in problem discovery
• Own the Outcome:
  Defines organizational accountability standards focused on business impact; sponsors transformational initiatives with full outcome accountability
• Be Polymath Oriented:
  Champions cross-disciplinary learning; creates holistic solutions spanning technical and business domains
• Communicate with Precision:
  Creates spec-driven development practices; mentors others on precise communication
• Think in Systems:
  Shapes systems design practices across their function; conducts chaos engineering experiments; bridges technical systems with business processes

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 8+ years of relevant experience. Master's degree preferred. Industry thought leader with enterprise-wide strategic influence.

• Business Immersion:
  Recognized thought leader; shapes domain strategy across the business unit
• Data Integration:
  Architect large-scale data flows; authority on enterprise data integration
• Full-Stack Development:
  Able in multiple languages; delivers production solutions rapidly
• Model Development:
  Innovates on ML approaches; recognized ML authority
• Model Fine-Tuning:
  Specializes in fine-tuning and model customization
• Multi-Audience Communication:
  Represents engineering externally; communicates with executives
• Pro…