Senior Director of Engineering

Start your career at the NYC Campaign Finance Board, a nonpartisan, independent city agency empowering New Yorkers to have a greater impact on elections. Our mission is to make local democracy more open, transparent, and equitable by removing barriers to participation. We make it easier for New Yorkers to vote, support candidates, and run for office through initiatives like NYC Votes, public matching funds, and campaign finance transparency.

About the Unit

The Strategy, Products, and Innovation (SPI) division plans the agency’s future and builds it. SPI integrates long-term planning, research, policy implementation, product development, and technology modernization to test new ideas and create lasting improvements. The division is committed to advancing a democracy that is more open, transparent, and equitable for all New Yorkers.

The Technology Department builds, maintains, and secures the systems powering New York City’s campaign finance program, including CSMART, CFIS, FACTS, and the agency’s website. The team is modernizing core systems with cloud-native Python infrastructure, integrating modern software solutions, and ensuring security, reliability, and scalability for high-stakes public systems.

About the Role

The Senior Director of Engineering will lead the engineering function behind New York City’s public matching funds program, Voter Guide, and campaign finance disclosure and compliance systems. This role shapes how campaign finance, voter education, and public matching funds are built for the next decade of New York elections.

The agency is modernizing its platforms from legacy .NET to cloud-native Python infrastructure, targeting completion in 2027. This senior leadership role owns the multi-year technical roadmap, supervising software development, quality assurance, and Salesforce engineering, with data engineering operating as an agency-wide shared platform. Within 6–12 months, the role expands to include oversight of Infrastructure and Cybersecurity, consolidating engineering accountability across the technical stack.

This is a turnaround leadership role. The Senior Director will address inconsistent engineering practices, technical debt, and develop managerial capabilities within the team. The role also involves building a Salesforce engineering function from scratch, maturing data engineering into a shared platform, and reskilling the technical workforce alongside vendor knowledge transfer. It is designed for an engineering leader earlier in their career, with the technical credibility to earn trust and the appetite to build practices where they do not yet exist.

Responsibilities

• Leadership Development and Organizational Management
  • Build, supervise, and mentor a leadership team across engineering functions (software development, quality assurance, Salesforce engineering, data engineering, and infrastructure).
  • Establish clear accountability and develop managerial capability within the engineering organization.
  • Implement baseline people management practices, including hiring, performance management, career development, feedback, evaluation, and retention strategies for public-sector engineering talent.
  • Foster an engineering culture prioritizing collaborative problem-solving, knowledge-sharing, accountability, and continuous improvement.
  • Partner with the Senior Director of Product to expand knowledge of the software development lifecycle, agile processes, and product thinking across the agency.
• Strategic Technology Planning and Engineering Standards
  • Set and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
  • Develop and maintain a multi-year technical roadmap aligned with the agency’s product roadmap, digital priorities, and modernization goals.
  • Establish, document, and enforce engineering standards, including coding standards, branching strategy, security policies, compliance requirements, and architecture review practices.
  • Evaluate emerging technologies (cloud-based solutions, open-source tools, AI applications) and recommend adoption decisions appropriate for public-sector constraints.
• Software Development, QA, and AI Implementation Leadership
  • Develop and maintain a standard tracking system and reporting standards for delivery flow, predictability, quality, and end-to-end traceability.
  • Lead the agency’s software development and quality assurance functions, including supervision of engineering managers.
  • Own the software development lifecycle, DevOps, and CI/CD pipelines, driving agile delivery practices in coordination with product leadership.
  • Own the technical implementation of AI use cases, including building, integrating, and operating models in production, and evaluating model performance (capability, accuracy, latency, cost, and security).
  • Manage technical debt proactively and make sound architecture decisions.
• Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Oversight
  • Provide senior-level oversight of IT infrastructure and cybersecurity, including network architecture, cloud infrastructure, end-user computing, helpdesk operations, and cybersecurity posture.
  • Ensure alignment with citywide IT standards (NYC Office of Technology and Innovation) and cybersecurity requirements (NYC Cyber Command).
  • Lead disaster readiness and business continuity planning.
• Data Engineering Build and Operations
  • Oversee the agency’s data engineering build-and-operations function, delivering secure, scalable data infrastructure to enterprise governance standards.
  • Oversee design, construction, and operation of modern data architecture (data lakehouse, real-time API integrations, and ETL/ELT pipelines).
  • Provide senior technical oversight of major data-architecture build decisions, including evaluating vendor-built data infrastructure for soundness and scalability.
  • Operate the function as an agency-wide shared platform service serving distributed analytics and research teams.
• Salesforce Engineering Buildout
  • Build an in-house Salesforce engineering function from the ground up, responsible for the codebase, configurations, documentation, and infrastructure.
  • Hire a Director of Salesforce Engineering and establish team structure, processes, and standards.
  • Establish in-house procedures for bug fixes, service requests, and feature enhancements.
  • Ensure Salesforce use aligns with NYC Cyber Command, internal security policy, and records retention requirements.
• Vendor Delivery Oversight and Workforce Development
  • Provide senior technical oversight of strategic technology vendors, evaluating deliverables rather than relying on vendor self-reporting.
  • Hold vendors accountable for scope, quality, and delivery commitments.
  • Lead the agency’s technical workforce development strategy, including reskilling programs and structured knowledge transfer from vendors to internal staff.
  • Manage technical hiring across engineering teams in coordination with the agency’s hiring prioritization plan.

Requirements

• Knowledge
  • Software development lifecycle, DevOps, and CI/CD practices for enterprise-scale systems.
  • Building, integrating, and operating AI/ML use cases in production, including technical model evaluation (capability, accuracy, latency, cost, and security).
  • Modern data architecture, including data lakehouse construction, ETL/ELT pipelines, and real-time API integrations.
  • Enterprise network architecture, cloud infrastructure, and the relationship between infrastructure decisions and application engineering outcomes.
  • Building a technical function from scratch (e.g., Salesforce, data engineering), including team structure, hiring plan, and operating model.
• Skills
  • Supervising and developing engineering managers and directors, including building managerial capability in technical leaders transitioning from individual contributors.
  • Establishing, documenting, and enforcing engineering standards across teams previously operating without consistent practices.
  • Providing senior technical oversight of vendor-built data infrastructure, evaluating architectural soundness rather than relying on vendor self-reporting.
  • Evaluating vendor-built technology to identify architectural or quality concerns before operational failures.
  • Diagnosing root causes across complex technical systems and organizational dynamics.
• Abilities and Behaviors
  • Balancing ambitious modernization with the stability of mission-critical public systems.
  • Building trust and credibility with technical teams, agency leadership, and external partners.
  • Communicating technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and advocating for engineering needs.
  • Leading through ambiguity, making decisions with incomplete information, and adapting to changing priorities.
  • Advocating for and implementing equitable, inclusive engineering practices and public-sector values.

We encourage candidates eager to make an impact to apply, even if they don’t meet every requirement. We value diverse perspectives, lived experiences, non-traditional education pathways, and practical know-how.

Pay

$215,000–$235,000