Director of Software Engineering

About the role

The Director of Software Engineering is responsible for the strategic leadership, operational excellence, and technical direction of Orbital Engineering's software engineering organization. Reporting as a senior technology leader, this role oversees multiple software engineering teams responsible for enterprise applications, customer-facing platforms, system integrations, APIs, automation, and emerging digital technologies.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing software engineering organization through effective leadership, coaching, mentoring, succession planning, and performance management.
• Create a culture of accountability, innovation, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Develop career progression frameworks and technical competency models.
• Recruit and retain top engineering talent.
• Foster collaboration across Engineering, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, AI, GIS, PMO, and Business Operations.
• Establish organizational structures that support scalability and execution.
• Provide strategic leadership for the organization's software architecture while ensuring technology investments align with business objectives.
• Develop and execute the enterprise software engineering strategy.
• Govern enterprise application architecture and technology standards.
• Lead modernization initiatives toward cloud-native and API-first architecture.
• Define enterprise integration strategies and shared platform services.
• Establish software engineering governance and architectural review processes.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend strategic investments.
• Partner with executive leadership to develop long-term technology roadmaps.
• Establish a mature, predictable, and scalable software delivery organization focused on operational excellence.
• Lead execution across multiple software development initiatives.
• Improve Agile planning, backlog management, sprint execution, and release planning.
• Implement engineering best practices throughout the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
• Remove delivery constraints and improve organizational velocity.
• Establish engineering metrics and delivery scorecards.
• Partner with Product, Project Management, and business stakeholders to align priorities and capacity.
• Drive engineering modernization through automation, security, and operational excellence.
• Establish enterprise DevSecOps practices.
• Standardize CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation.
• Implement Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices.
• Govern source control, branching strategies, and release management.
• Improve deployment reliability and change success rates.
• Implement application observability, monitoring, and performance management.
• Reduce operational risk through automation and standardized engineering practices.
• Lead the evolution of Orbital's enterprise software ecosystem.
• Provide technical oversight for enterprise applications and customer-facing platforms.
• Lead software platform consolidation and modernization initiatives.
• Define API management and enterprise integration standards.
• Ensure systems are scalable, resilient, and secure.
• Partner with Infrastructure and Cybersecurity teams to maintain platform reliability.
• Support enterprise data strategy and application interoperability.
• Lead the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence within the software engineering organization.
• Implement AI-assisted software development practices.
• Evaluate emerging AI development technologies.
• Partner with AI leadership to integrate intelligent capabilities into enterprise applications.
• Improve developer productivity through automation and AI-assisted engineering.
• Ensure enterprise software meets the organization's security, compliance, and governance requirements.
• Establish Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC) practices.
• Partner with Cybersecurity to integrate security throughout the development lifecycle.
• Implement secure authentication and authorization standards.
• Support compliance initiatives including SOC 2, ISO 27001, and other security frameworks.
• Improve vulnerability remediation and application security posture.
• Build a culture of engineering quality and operational discipline.
• Standardize SDLC governance and quality gates.
• Implement automated testing strategies.
• Improve defect management and root cause analysis.
• Manage technical debt reduction initiatives.
• Establish engineering documentation standards.
• Ensure audit readiness across engineering processes.
• Serve as a trusted technology partner across the organization.
• Collaborate with Executive Leadership, Engineering Operations, Business Unit Leaders, AI Organization, GIS Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, PMO, Finance, external technology partners and vendors.
• Translate business strategy into technology solutions that improve operational efficiency, customer experience, and business performance.
• Establish and monitor executive-level engineering KPIs, including: Deployment Frequency, Lead Time for Change, Change Failure Rate, Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR), Platform Availability, Application Performance, Engineering Velocity, Sprint Predictability, Technical Debt Reduction, Customer Adoption, Security Vulnerability Remediation, Platform Reliability, Budget Performance, Employee Engagement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Engineering, or a related discipline (Master's degree preferred)
• 12+ years of progressive software engineering leadership experience
• 5+ years leading engineering managers and multiple software development teams
• Proven experience delivering enterprise-scale software platforms
• Strong experience with cloud-native architectures (Microsoft Azure preferred)
• Experience with DevSecOps, CI/CD, Infrastructure-as-Code, containers, APIs, and enterprise integration
• Demonstrated experience establishing engineering governance and software delivery standards
• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture, application modernization, cloud technologies, and distributed systems
• Experience managing technology budgets, vendors, and strategic investments
• Knowledge of Agile, Scrum, SAFe, SDLC, and engineering operating models
• Experience partnering with executive leadership and business stakeholders
• Strong understanding of cybersecurity frameworks, application security, SOC 2, and secure software development
• Excellent executive communication, organizational leadership, and change management skills

Preferred Experience

• Experience within engineering consulting, AEC, utilities, industrial services, construction, or infrastructure industries
• Experience leading enterprise application modernization initiatives
• Experience with AI-enabled software engineering and modern developer productivity tools
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, Azure DevOps, GitHub Enterprise, Power Platform, Kubernetes, and enterprise integration platforms
• Experience building customer-facing SaaS or enterprise software products

Benefits

• A commitment to excellence and hard work will be rewarded with a competitive salary, career advancement opportunities, and a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial security, and work-life balance.
• Our benefits include medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage; a 401(k)-retirement savings plan; and supplemental insurance options.
• We also provide company-paid life and AD&D insurance, company-paid short-term disability coverage, and a generous paid time off program to ensure you have the support and flexibility you need both professionally and personally.

About Orbital

Powered by People, Driven by Solutions Since 1969, Orbital has been specializing in project development, project execution and asset management for the heavy industrial sectors and utilities. Our regional offices, hands-on mentality, and world-wide integrated teams provide an ability to leverage subject matter experts and industry best-practices wherever a project may lie geographically. Our focus steadfastly remains on finding and delivering the best solution, regardless of where that team sits across our organization.

Equal Opportunity Statement

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.