Photon | Director of Engineering (AWS Cloud)

Position Overview:

The Director of Engineering (AWS Expertise) will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the engineering function, from technical strategy to execution. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience building scalable, highly available systems in the AWS cloud, and will lead a team of engineers to develop and maintain complex systems that support companies core products and services. This role requires a blend of leadership, technical acumen, and strategic vision to ensure the engineering team is aligned with business objectives and delivers high-quality solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leadership & Team Management:
• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of engineering managers and individual contributors.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Drive performance reviews, career development plans, and ongoing skill development for team members.
• Ensure alignment between engineering teams and other departments (Product, Operations, etc.) to meet business goals.

Technical Strategy & Architecture:

• Lead the architectural direction for AWS cloud infrastructure and software solutions.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership in the design, development, and implementation of AWS-based systems.
• Ensure best practices for cloud-native development, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps workflows are followed across the team.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies to improve performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency on AWS.

Project & Product Delivery:

• Oversee the planning, design, and execution of technical projects and initiatives.
• Ensure the engineering team delivers projects on time, within scope, and with high-quality standards.
• Collaborate closely with Product Management to define clear technical requirements and deliver features that meet customer needs.
• Manage project risks and resolve technical issues proactively.

AWS Infrastructure & Optimization:

• Ensure robust, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructure on AWS (e.g., EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, DynamoDB, CloudFormation).
• Optimize cloud infrastructure for cost, performance, and security.
• Oversee the implementation of monitoring, alerting, and automated recovery processes.
• Implement disaster recovery and business continuity plans for critical services.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Management:

Work closely with CTO and senior leadership to set engineering priorities aligned with company strategy.

Communicate technical concepts and project progress clearly to non-technical stakeholders.

Partner with the Product team to define and prioritize technical features, addressing both short-term and long-term objectives.

Continuous Improvement & Innovation:

Stay up to date with industry trends, cloud technologies, and best practices.

Champion a culture of innovation by encouraging engineers to experiment, fail fast, and iterate.

Lead post-mortem and retrospective reviews to continually improve processes and systems.

Qualifications:

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
• Strong background in cloud computing, particularly with AWS services.
• Proven experience building and scaling systems on AWS, including but not limited to EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS, DynamoDB, and VPCs.
• Experience with infrastructure as code (IaC) tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar.
• Hands-on experience with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes, ECS).
• Familiarity with microservices architecture, serverless computing, and distributed systems.

Technical Skills:

• Strong proficiency in software development and engineering principles (preferably in languages such as Python, Java, Go, or Node.js).
• Expertise in AWS security best practices (IAM, VPC, KMS, etc.).
• Experience with monitoring and logging tools such as AWS CloudWatch, ELK stack, Prometheus, or Grafana.
• Knowledge of databases (SQL/NoSQL), data pipelines, and cloud-based storage solutions.
• Solid understanding of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, etc.).

Soft Skills:

• Exceptional leadership, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and manage multiple priorities.
• Experience managing remote and distributed teams is a plus.