Director, Engineering

Role Overview

Customer.io is hiring a Director, Engineering to lead multiple product development engineering teams. The role is focused on business impact: setting clear goals, driving complex initiatives to completion, and ensuring teams deliver on schedules—starting with a high-priority, executive-visible platform initiative.

Responsibilities

• Own vision, roadmap, and execution for major platform initiatives, beginning with:
  • Delivery of a new billing platform
  • A high-visibility integration program across Engineering, Product, and Finance
• Set clear goals and delivery milestones, hold teams accountable, and provide crisp progress updates to executive stakeholders
• Make and lead build-vs-buy and sequencing decisions with conviction
• Mentor and develop engineering managers and senior technical leaders
• Drive a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement across the org
• Use AI tools to accelerate velocity and promote an AI-native way of building

Requirements

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience leading engineering teams
• Experience managing engineering managers and/or senior technical leaders
• Proven track record delivering complex, cross-functional initiatives from ambiguity to shipped outcomes
• Deep understanding of SaaS architecture, cloud-native infrastructure, and tradeoffs of in-house vs. buying/integration
• Ability to translate technical complexity into clear strategy and communicate effectively with both engineers and executives
• Demonstrated AI-native leadership with a track record of bringing AI-first development practices into team operations
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and making difficult tradeoffs between competing priorities

Nice to Have

• (Bonus points mentioned but not completed in the posting.)