Director of Engineering

O projekcie: At Secret Sauce Partners, we work with some of the largest retailers and marketplaces in the world to transform how people shop online. We combine data from retailers with data we create using AI and machine learning to power innovative and powerful retail technologies.  As the Director of Engineering, you will have the opportunity to lead the team responsible for building, running, and maintaining our services integrated into high-traffic e-commerce websites and used by tens of millions of people. Wymagania: Must haves - At least 5 years of experience in managing software engineering teams, including managing team leads, with a history of leading engineers of various backgrounds - Min 5 years experience as a senior engineer or tech lead, with a track record in backend- and data-heavy projects, using Java and/or Python - Demonstrated leadership in engineering management, with a proven ability to lead teams through complex projects - Experience leading remote, distributed teams - Experience joining an existing team and earning trust, not just building from scratch - AI literacy — you actively use AI tools in your own work and can sustain a team culture where AI adoption is genuine, not performative - Track record of operational excellence, using agile methodologies - Deep understanding of the software development process, development practices, and principles - Excellent communication skills in English Strong preferences - Experience working with multicultural teams across different cultural contexts and communication styles - Experience with enterprise B2B integrations — our code runs on partners’ websites, which means navigating partner technical requirements, review processes, and data quality challenges - Experience managing ML/data science teams alongside traditional software engineering Bonus points - You have built scalable data processing pipelines before - You have worked on building and operating a cloud-based SaaS - You have worked on scaling teams in a start-up environment - You have experience in building and leading remote teams - You have worked in e-commerce, retail tech, or a domain where your product is embedded in someone else’s platform - You have product management experience or instincts — bridging a non-technical product organization and a deeply technical engineering team is valuable here Codzienne zadania: - Manage the Engineering team consisting of engineers and team leads, develop and maintain the team's culture - Lead new feature development, maintenance, and operation activities across multiple product lines — from ML-powered size recommendations to generative AI research - Optimize operational efficiency by effectively managing projects and resources - Facilitate design and architecture discussions and decision-making to ensure business requirements are translated into working software systems - Collaborate with product management to translate company strategy and goals to the execution level - Contribute to strategic planning, including AI product direction and partner expansion - Conduct 1:1s and provide regular feedback to support the professional development of the team members — several leads are early in their management journey and will benefit from hands-on coaching - Facilitate transparency and open communication among team members and cross-functionally - Sustain and extend the team’s AI adoption culture — the team actively uses AI coding tools in daily work, and this needs a leader who models it