Director of Elections Product and Engineering

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world's population sees AP journalism every day.

 

Why this role matters:

The Associated Press seeks a Director of Elections Product and Engineering to lead the technology teams that drive AP Elections, taking on responsibility for the tools we use to count the vote, declare winners and play AP’s unique role in the American democracy. Reporting to the Vice President for AP Elections, you will develop product strategy, translate it into executable technical plans and manage our roadmap to ensure consistent and successful delivery.

 

We’re looking for a technology leader who can align products (and decisions about new products) with the needs of our existing and future customers. In this role, you’ll lead our teams to meet immovable deadlines in the service of customers who are among the world’s leading experts on the mechanics of U.S. politics and elections, as well as publishers and technology companies who serve audiences measured in the billions.

 

You’ll lead the team of software architects, engineers and project managers who build our elections data collection, storage and delivery systems, and coordinate the software development efforts in the Elections Operations, Elections Analytics and Elections News groups that are also part of the AP Elections business unit.

 

This is a senior leadership role in AP Elections, with a shared reporting line to AP’s Senior Director of Engineering. It requires someone who can foster a collaborative and inclusive culture across teams, put the needs of the customer first and manage those who deliver for those customers by designing efficient systems and writing exceptional code.

 

This is an administrative role and is based in Washington, D.C., with onsite presence required at least three days per week.

 

What you will do:

• With the Vice President of AP Elections, develop and shape product roadmaps and investment plans that prioritize customer and user needs, align with revenue growth plans and include robust testing, a commitment to information security and a focus on ease of use.
• Establish and communicate a clear architectural view of AP’s elections platforms, including how systems connect, where responsibilities live and how new capabilities should be introduced.
• Build and evolve best-in-class data collection, management and delivery products, with an obsessive focus on making AP Elections data easy to access and use for every kind of customer, setting a high bar for quality, accessibility, performance and usability.
• Make strategic trade-offs between speed, reliability, feature development and technical debt, especially under hard election deadlines. Define and track success metrics (data latency, accuracy, customer adoption, system reliability under election load) that inform those decisions.
• Build and develop high-performing, globally distributed engineering and project management teams, including internal staff and third-party partners.
• Align the Elections Technology, Operations, Analytics and News groups around a shared product vision, and unify the planning, development, quality control, deployment and documentation processes across software engineering in the AP Elections business unit – including among those who fall outside of your direct reporting line.
• Strengthen engineering delivery through pragmatic agile practices, clear planning and strong cross-team communication, and identify the right way to incorporate AI tools and best practices that improve performance while mitigating risk.
• Identify architectural bottlenecks and guide the evolution or replacement of platform components to improve reliability, performance, security, scalability and cost efficiency.

 

Who you are:

 

Required: We’re seeking a product-minded engineering leader with at least a decade of experience in development and more than five years of experience in a leadership role. You’re ideally someone who has experience with elections data, but must have experience with the work of data delivery on deadline and maintaining systems and services with inflexible SLAs. You’ve got exceptional communication skills, particularly with customers, engineering leads and senior stakeholders, and the ability to inspire shared standards of technical excellence. Put another way, you don’t need an engineer to report to you in order to influence their work and lead them to success.

 

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