Director of Engineering

About the role

Buildout is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead the performance and execution of our engineering organization within a remote-first environment. You will manage a team of engineers and technical leads, creating the clarity, accountability, and support they need to do their best work. This role involves owning the people and operating systems behind a healthy engineering organization, covering coaching, performance management, staffing, planning, delivery, and cross-functional partnership. You will help the team thoughtfully adopt AI-assisted development practices that improve developer productivity, software quality, and delivery speed. This position is an important partner to our SVP of Engineering, translating strategic technology direction into an effective, predictable, and high-performing operational reality.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead the day-to-day performance and development of our engineering organization, ensuring every engineer understands what good looks like, where they stand, and how they can grow.
• Manage and coach engineers and technical leads, giving them the context and support to make good decisions without needing you in the middle of every issue.
• Recognize and grow strong performers, develop future technical leaders, and address performance concerns directly and early.
• Own engineering hiring and onboarding, building the talent and team structure required to meet the needs of the business.
• Create clear accountability for engineering delivery across teams, with enough structure to make execution predictable without slowing people down.
• Maintain a clear view of capacity, commitments, dependencies, and risk so problems surface early and leadership is not caught by surprise.
• Step into cross-team dependencies, competing priorities, and delivery challenges when teams need help getting unstuck.
• Use AI as a force multiplier for the engineering organization, setting clear expectations for adoption and turning what works into repeatable practices across coding, testing, documentation, automation, and the broader development lifecycle.
• Drive measurable improvements in developer productivity and team effectiveness while maintaining strong standards for software quality and responsible AI use.
• Serve as Product's primary partner for engineering execution, bringing a clear view of capacity, feasibility, risk, and tradeoffs into roadmap and prioritization decisions.
• Help turn product priorities into realistic engineering commitments and make tradeoffs clear when everything cannot be a priority.
• Communicate risks early and honestly, bringing problems forward with enough context to enable good decision-making.
• Be a steady escalation point when delivery, staffing, or organizational issues cross team boundaries or do not have an obvious answer.
• Build trust with engineers, technical leads, Product, and executive stakeholders during the first 30 days by understanding team structures, responsibilities, delivery processes, and technical ownership.
• Observe planning, delivery, and cross-functional interactions before making major changes, while identifying strengths, bottlenecks, and organizational pain points.

Requirements

• You are an experienced engineering leader with a track record of building and scaling high-performing engineering organizations.
• You have deep experience managing engineers and technical leads, providing coaching, clarity, and career development.
• You understand how to establish operating systems that create accountability without adding bureaucracy to engineering workflows.
• You have a strong background in software development practices, delivery processes, and architecture tradeoffs.
• You are comfortable using AI tools in your own workflow and can define clear expectations for how your organization should adopt them.
• You have experience partnering with product and executive stakeholders to align technology and business priorities.
• You can communicate risks transparently and escalate issues early while maintaining trust across teams.
• You are comfortable making difficult decisions related to staffing, performance, and team structure in a remote-first environment.

Nice to have

• Experience working with AI-assisted development tools and platforms.
• Background in brokerages or real estate technology environments.
• Familiarity with compliance and data considerations in financial services applications.

Practical notes

This is a full-time remote role. No travel is required, and there are no specific visa or deadline constraints listed for this position.