AI-Native Software Engineering Director

Role Overview

• Design, execute, and measure AI-Native software development and quality engineering experiments.
• Identify engineering bottlenecks where AI-Native workflows can improve productivity, quality, speed, developer experience, or release confidence.
• Evaluate emerging AI engineering tools, coding agents, AI-enabled development environments, test generation tools, code review assistants, documentation tools, and developer productivity platforms.
• Develop and institutionalize AI-Native development, testing, review, documentation, refactoring, debugging, and delivery practices.
• Define and maintain engineering quality bars, operating standards, usage guardrails, workflow templates, and best practices for AI-assisted software development.
• Create AI-Native quality engineering practices that improve test automation, regression prevention, validation, code review, quality gates, and production readiness.
• Establish balanced metrics and measurement frameworks for engineering productivity, quality, cycle time, developer experience, adoption, and business impact.
• Analyze experiment results and recommend whether practices should be adopted, modified, scaled, or retired.
• Create playbooks, frameworks, operating models, and enablement materials that turn successful experiments into repeatable practices across the organization.
• Coach engineers and engineering leaders to maximize effectiveness through AI-assisted development, agentic workflows, quality engineering, and human-AI collaboration.
• Drive organization-wide adoption of proven AI-Native engineering practices through coaching, enablement, influence, measurement, and continuous feedback loops.
• Define safe and responsible practices for AI-generated code, AI-assisted testing, tool usage, data exposure, IP protection, security, maintainability, and human review.
• Partner with engineering, product, QA, security, DevOps, platform, and executive leadership to align AI-Native transformation efforts with business priorities.
• Continuously improve software development, QA, automation, CI/CD, DevOps, cloud engineering, observability, security, and delivery processes through AI-Native approaches.
• Develop strategic recommendations for the future evolution of software engineering at Sparkrock.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience delivering production software systems.
• Strong hands-on software engineering background with experience in modern software development practices and production-grade systems.
• Practical experience using AI-assisted development tools, coding assistants, coding agents, AI-enabled IDEs, AI-powered testing, AI-supported code review, or agentic software development workflows in real engineering environments.
• Experience evaluating and rolling out AI engineering tools, coding agents, test generation tools, code review assistants, documentation assistants, or developer productivity platforms.
• Experience leading engineering transformation, engineering excellence, developer productivity, quality engineering, platform engineering, technical enablement, or software development process improvement initiatives.
• Experience designing, executing, measuring, and scaling experiments that improve engineering productivity, quality, developer experience, or delivery outcomes.
• Experience improving engineering outcomes through process innovation, tooling adoption, productivity initiatives, quality engineering improvements, or organizational transformation.
• Experience driving the adoption of new engineering practices across multiple teams or organizations.
• Experience coaching engineers and engineering leaders through meaningful changes in engineering practices, tools, workflows, or operating models.
• Experience establishing engineering standards, quality bars, operating procedures, usage guardrails, quality frameworks, or operational excellence programs.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering, software quality engineering, testing strategies, automation, CI/CD, DevOps, cloud-native development, observability, security, and developer productivity practices.
• Ability to design human-AI workflows that improve engineering outcomes while preserving quality, maintainability, security, reliability, and human accountability.
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making capabilities, including the ability to define meaningful metrics, establish baselines, interpret results, and avoid vanity metrics.
• Strong systems-thinking mindset with the ability to optimize complex human, technical, and organizational systems.
• Exceptional coaching, mentoring, facilitation, and change leadership skills.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.
• Ability to influence technical and organizational decisions across all levels of the engineering organization, from individual contributors to executives.
• Ability to separate durable engineering value from short-lived AI hype.

Tech Stack

• Cloud

Benefits

• Access to leading AI engineering tools, platforms, and technologies, with the freedom to experiment, evaluate, and shape how they are adopted across the organization.
• A unique opportunity to define AI-Native engineering practices for a mission-driven enterprise software company.
• We are 100% remote and global. Live your best life wherever that may be, and never lose out on career opportunities because of it.
• Flexible work hours. We work asynchronously and don’t care when you’re online, just that you deliver great results and are there for our customers.
• We are dedicated to your growth with consistent and meaningful feedback, support in achieving your personal career goals, and access to leading-edge tools, playbooks, and technology to amplify your experience.
• Introductions to thought leaders in the space and webinars on cutting-edge tech hot topics.
• Stipend to help set up your ideal home office.
• Focus on culture: coffee chats, happy hours, cooking classes, book clubs, and more!