Director of Research and Development

About the Role

You will own the technical direction and execution of the Total Service Cloud ERP platform, ensuring functional parity with the legacy desktop ERP across multiple modules while maintaining the highest standards of correctness, security, and user experience.

Responsibilities

• Platform & Product Engineering:
  • Technical ownership of the cloud ERP stack (TypeScript/Node, React, Express, Drizzle ORM on PostgreSQL, Vite, Vitest, Playwright) across features, backend correctness, and release engineering.
  • Drive module-by-module migration from the legacy desktop ERP to the cloud platform for Payroll, AR, AP, GL, Job Cost, Inventory, Dispatch, Sales, Purchasing, Reporting, and Banking, with audited, release-verified parity.
  • Own high-stakes correctness work: general-ledger posting and reversals, payroll tax wage bases, US/Canadian tax handling, multi-tenant isolation, and permission enforcement.
  • Establish and enforce ERP-wide UX standards across all modules.
  • Maintain continuity of legacy systems, including a Java/Spring service layer and VB6 desktop ERP.
• Cloud Infrastructure, Reliability & Cost Governance:
  • Architect and operate multi-tenant cloud infrastructure on Azure (App Service slots, PostgreSQL Flexible Server, Key Vault, Front Door, managed identity) and AWS, using infrastructure-as-code (Bicep).
  • Own release and deploy infrastructure: CI/CD in GitHub Actions, blue-green UAT on refreshed masked databases, deploy gates, and slot-swap workflows.
  • Govern cloud costs, including spend forecasting, optimization, and accountability (recent efforts cut Azure spend by ~50%).
  • Lead production incident response: error triage, root-cause analysis, architectural decisions, and uptime accountability.
• Legacy-to-Cloud Migration:
  • End-to-end ownership of the migration program: tenant matrix, Python/SQL Server → PostgreSQL ETL pipeline, schema canonicalization, and data-fidelity reconciliation.
  • Oversee customer production imports, go-lives, and final escalation for migration data issues.
  • Coordinate the decommissioning path for the legacy platform with infrastructure and legacy-ERP peers.
• AI in the Software Lifecycle:
  • Architect and operate the multi-agent development pipeline (ClickUp → Claude Code → GitHub PR), ensuring audibility and cost-effectiveness.
  • Own the quality and accountability of AI-assisted output; the pipeline accelerates work, but you own the results.
  • Develop internal tooling: repo/task sync automation, AI-assisted QA triage, and developer tooling experiments.
  • Represent the business unit as a practitioner on AI in the SDLC, both internally and across Constellation group companies.
• Leadership & Representation:
  • Lead the engineering team: chair standups/syncs, author specs, split/review work, and act as merge/release gatekeeper.
  • Direct QA and contractor staffing/resourcing.
  • Run customer-facing onboarding and go-live for named accounts.
  • Report R&D and AI initiatives upward to Jonas/Constellation and participate in cross-business-unit technical forums.
  • Evaluate vendors and drive business-unit IT, security, and tenancy decisions.

Requirements

• Senior full-stack engineering depth in TypeScript/Node (React, Express, ORM against PostgreSQL) with demonstrated ownership of a production application at scale.
• Strong backend correctness discipline in financial/accounting domains (GL, AR/AP, payroll, or tax) and multi-tenant SaaS security (authorization, tenant isolation).
• Substantial cloud engineering experience on Azure and/or AWS, including infrastructure-as-code, secrets/identity management, and cost optimization.
• Data migration and ETL experience: relational-to-relational at fleet scale, with schema canonicalization and reconciliation.
• DevOps and release engineering: CI/CD, blue-green/slot-based deployment, migration safety, and production incident response.
• Practical experience with LLM agents or AI-assisted development, with sound judgment on trust boundaries.
• Technical leadership: leading engineers, setting standards, gatekeeping releases, and representing engineering to executives/customers.
• Comfort working with legacy code you did not write, with pragmatism to maintain it while replacing it.

Preferred Qualifications

• Field-service, elevator, door, or HVAC ERP domain experience.
• Experience within the Jonas Software / Constellation operating model.
• Mobile release engineering (Android, Play Console, signing/keystore management, crash observability).
• Java or Java/Android maintenance experience.
• Enterprise identity and tenancy administration (Entra/SSO, Microsoft 365, email security tooling).
• .NET/C# familiarity for auxiliary services.

Our Stack

• Languages & Frameworks: TypeScript/Node, React, Express, Drizzle ORM; Python; Java/Spring; Java/Android; VB6; PowerShell; .NET/C#.
• Data: PostgreSQL (Flexible Server), SQL Server, migration tooling.
• Cloud: Azure (App Service slots, PostgreSQL, Key Vault, Bicep, Front Door, ACR, APIM, managed identity) and AWS (S3, CloudTrail, CloudWatch, QuickSight).
• AI & Automation: Claude Code, multi-agent orchestration, MCP.
• DevOps & Observability: GitHub Actions, Sentry, PgBouncer, Docker, Playwright, Vitest.
• Collaboration: ClickUp, Microsoft 365 / Teams, Tailscale.

Scheduled weekly hours: 40