Job TitleDirector of Software Engineering
Reports ToVP of Engineering
Compensation$180k-$220k
ClassificationExempt
LocationColorado (On-Site / Hybrid)
LevelDirector
The OpportunityIf you have led software teams through a real change in how they work, and you have been waiting for the chance to own a team and a transformation end to end, in a place where your leadership visibly shapes both the product and the people, this role was designed for you.
What You Will OwnAs Director of Software Engineering, you own the performance, direction, and growth of the software organization. You partner closely with firmware, hardware, QA, and product to deliver complete solutions.
Your ownership includes:
- The software engineering team: You lead, coach, and develop engineers, grow careers through our engineering career framework, and build a team people are proud to be part of and want to stay on.
- A blended team: You lead in-office, nearshore, and contract engineers as one team, holding a single standard of quality, cadence, and accountability.
- The software team's shift to AI-native, agentic ways of working: You champion the cultural change and lead the team through adoption, working alongside the engineers already driving our AI efforts and embedding new practices within our existing quality gates.
- Software delivery for connected life-safety and security products: On schedule and to standard, preserving human sign-off at every gate as our audits require.
- Engineering standards and discipline: Code quality, architecture adherence, DevOps / CI-CD, test automation, and release practices across the team.
- Delivery across the full software stack: From user-facing UI/UX through APIs, back-end services, cloud operations, and AI services
- The team's operating rhythm: Metrics, cadence, estimation, and prioritization.
Who You AreYou are an experienced software engineering leader who leads people exceptionally well and has carried a team through real change.
- Someone who has the deep technical knowledge to understand the trade-offs and challenges inherent software development.
- A people person who enjoys close collaboration with a large team and coaching team members.
- A communicator who can advocate for their team and collaborate with other engineering leaders to create a unified vision.
- Adaptable and responsive to feedback from our customers, excited to work on highly iterative products that grow and change.
- Excited by new technologies and modern agentic development workflows. You should be fast to experiment with something new, but also fast to abandon what doesn't work as we discover new ways to build.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities- Lead, coach, mentor, and develop the software engineering team; own hiring, performance management, and career development aligned to the engineering career framework.
- Lead and integrate in-office, nearshore, and contract engineers into a single team: set expectations, manage handoffs and overlapping hours, and oversee vendor and contractor relationships, onboarding, and performance.
- Champion the software team's shift to AI-native, agentic ways of working, leading enablement, adoption, and change management.
- Own software delivery for connected life safety and security products, including planning, execution, quality, and schedule, per audit and certification requirements.
- Establish and own engineering metrics, cadence, and operating rhythm; report progress against delivery commitments and AI-productivity targets.
- Set and enforce engineering standards: code quality, architectural adherence, DevOps / CI-CD, test automation, and release discipline across the team.
- Oversee delivery across the full software stack, from user-facing UI/UX through APIs, back-end services, mobile app development, and cloud operations on a major platform.
- Uphold quality at the human-in-the-loop review gates where designs and code advance, keeping change-failure, rework, and escaped-defect rates within target as the team adopts AI-assisted development.
- Partner cross-functionally with firmware, hardware, systems/architecture, QA, and product to ensure coherent, well-integrated connected products.
- Manage technical debt and delivery risk; balance near-term delivery against long-term software health and maintainability.
- Manage contracts and relationships with third-party SaaS vendors, including evaluation, negotiation, renewals, and security and compliance review; own the budget and spend for cloud expenses.
- Build bench strength and succession within the software organization.
- Represent software engineering in planning, estimation, and prioritization with product management and business stakeholders.
- Comply with all company policies, procedures, and standards of conduct.
Experience & QualificationsRequired- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years leading software teams of roughly 10+ engineers, with direct ownership of delivery and outcomes.
- A deliberate, demonstrated track record as a coach and mentor. Engineers have grown and advanced under your leadership.
- Proven success leading a software team through a disruptive change in how it works (DevOps / CI-CD, agile-at-scale, platform engineering, cloud re-platforming, or an early AI-assisted-development rollout).
- Genuine conviction and hands-on familiarity with AI-assisted and agentic development, and the ability to drive its adoption as a team culture. Deep prior agentic-delivery experience is rare and not required; the appetite and credibility to lead the change are.
- Hands-on experience architecting and delivering cloud and cloud-connected software on a major platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP), with modern DevOps / CI-CD practices spanning build, deployment, and operations.
- Experience building software for connected-hardware, IoT, or device-to-cloud products - software that integrates with embedded or wireless devices, as our life safety and security products do.
- Experience leading teams that deliver user-facing software, with sound UI/UX judgment and breadth from front-end through back-end services.
- Demonstrated ability to earn the trust of an established team and raise its performance - protective of your people while keeping them well connected across the organization.
- Strong written and verbal communication; able to partner effectively across engineering, product, and the business.
- Colorado-based or willing to relocate.
Domain note: you will lead software that connects to our wireless, RF, and embedded products, but deep RF, firmware, or embedded-systems specialist experience is not required, since that depth lives elsewhere on the team.
Strongly Preferred- Experience driving AI-assisted or agentic adoption in a live engineering organization.
- Experience in life safety, security, medical, industrial, or other regulated / safety-critical product domains, including gated quality processes; familiarity with FMEA and standards such as UL or equivalent.
- Familiarity with data security and privacy for connected products that handle sensitive data.
- Background at a larger company in a senior software leadership capacity, with a desire to step into broader ownership at a smaller, high-impact organization.
Physical Demands & Working ConditionsWork is performed in an office environment and requires the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards. Must have the ability to walk short distances. Some periods of time may be spent at customer sites for installation, testing, and troubleshooting.
CompensationSalary range: $180k-$220k
Candidates total comp depends on experience, scope, and fit. Total compensation also includes an annual bonus, and we're prepared to be highly competitive for an exceptional leader. We'll walk through the complete package with finalists.
