Director, Software Engineering Leader

If you’re passionate about innovation and love working in an environment where you can constantly improve and adopt new technologies to drive business results, then Nationwide’s Information Technology team could be the place for you! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

This Director role leads a team in Developer Acceleration, a group dedicated to making software engineers more effective through targeted upskilling, Golden Paths, accelerators, and hands-on consulting for large-scale, high-impact initiatives. You will ensure our engineers have the skills, tools, and patterns to deliver securely, quickly, and sustainably.

As the people leader for this function, you will:

·         Lead & Develop Talent – Hire, coach, and grow a team of software engineers who combine deep engineering expertise with strong empathy for the developer experience. Prepare talent to compete for future senior engineering roles within Nationwide.

·         Own Flagship Programs – Responsible for Build the Builder, our enterprise-wide internal training program, ensuring it evolves to reflect emerging technology trends and best practices.

·         Drive Platform & Pattern Adoption – Act as product manager for Golden Paths and accelerators including emerging Agentic AI Golden Path, setting direction, prioritizing capabilities, and measuring adoption and business value.

·         Optimize Engagement & Capacity – Manage intake of consulting requests, balance team capacity, and ensure alignment to strategic priorities.

·         Steward Financial Resources – Oversee the team’s budget, forecasting needs and optimizing investments to maximize developer impact.

·         Champion the Developer Voice – Advocate for solutions that reflect real-world engineering needs by partnering with architecture, product, and platform teams. Ensure developer experience products remove friction, foster innovation, and incorporate AI as a trusted, effective tool in the software engineer’s toolkit.

This is an opportunity to lead a highly visible team that directly influences how thousands of engineers at Nationwide learn, build, and deliver. The ideal candidate will bring a unique blend of technical credibility, product mindset, operational discipline, and people-first leadership.

This position follows a hybrid work model, requiring in-office presence at the Columbus, OH location two days per week.

**NOTE: This role does not qualify for employer-sponsored work authorization. Nationwide does not participate in the Stem OPT Extension program. **

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Job Description Summary

If you’re enthusiastic about delivering secure technology solutions to support a company providing extraordinary care to its customers, then Nationwide Technology is the place for you. Nationwide's industry-leading technology workforce embraces an agile work environment and a collaborative culture to deliver outstanding solutions and results. If that sounds like something you aspire to, we want to hear from you!

As a Software Engineering Leader, you’re accountable for the effective and efficient delivery of software to enable business outcomes by using software engineering industry best practices. You'll guide agile technology teams on how work is accomplished across the software lifecycle. You'll also drive software engineering maturity by providing coaching and guidance on Lean, agile and DevSecOps principles, tools and techniques.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for applying secure software and systems engineering practices throughout the delivery lifecycle to ensure our data and technology solutions are protected from threats and vulnerabilities.

• Ensures software engineering and development capability uplift.

• Defines and implements strategies to enable Nationwide as a digital company. 

• Demonstrates strategic thinking to evolve software engineering methodologies. 

• Enables and champions innovation. 

• Identifies key insights from metrics such as time to market (speed), quality and ef