(Remote) Director of R&D

Lead the R&D organization for ServiceLink, a workforce management platform for utilities that is experiencing rapid growth — 36% last year and trending toward 25% in 2025. You’ll guide a talented, motivated engineering team, set a clear product vision and roadmap, stay close to the code, and turn real customer problems into high-quality, on-time releases. With the launch of a modern new interface in Q3 2025 and cutting-edge AI capabilities for image capture and automated form completion, ServiceLink is delivering one of the most exciting solutions in the industry. This role combines strategic product leadership with hands-on technical depth, solution design, and close collaboration with customers — and offers the opportunity to be part of a fast-growing, innovative, and fun team.

This is a remote position open to any candidate in US or Canada.

Responsibilities:

1. Product Vision & Strategy

• Define a 12–24 month product vision aligned to company goals and translate it into measurable quarterly roadmaps.

• Incorporate UX best practices and solution architecture principles into long-term planning.

• Own build-vs-integrate decisions and apply financial principles to R&D budget and ROI assessments.

2. Customer & Market Discovery

• Engage frequently with utility customers and end users through interviews, betas, and discovery workshops.

• Translate customer insights into clear product requirements, specifications, and designs that balance value with feasibility.

• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Design, Sales, Support, and Partners to align delivery with market needs.

3. Technical Leadership & Delivery Excellence

• Provide architecture direction across web, mobile, APIs, integrations, data, and security.

• Review critical designs and code, prototype solutions, and guide troubleshooting and optimization.

• Ensure predictable, high-quality delivery through strong planning, CI/CD, testing, performance, security, accessibility, and observability standards.

4. People & Team Leadership

• Hire, coach, and develop engineers and technical leads; raise the bar on engineering and design excellence.

• Create clear career growth paths and foster a culture of engagement, accountability, and innovation.

• Lead with hands-on involvement and inspire a high-performing, motivated R&D organization.

Minimum Qualifications (Must-Haves)

• 10+ years in software development, 5+ years leading engineering teams (B2B SaaS or enterprise preferred).
• Proven hands-on skills (able to read/author production code and give concrete technical guidance).
• Architecture leadership across web, mobile, backend, integrations, and security.
• Product management experience: backlog ownership, prioritization, PRDs, data-driven decisions.
• Strong customer orientation: frequent client interaction, requirements discovery, and solution design.
• Track record of on-time releases with reliability, performance, and security standards.
• Excellent communicator with executives, engineers, and customers.

Preferred Qualifications (Nice to Have)

• Domain expertise in utilities or field service (dispatch, scheduling, routing, AVL).
• Tech stack familiarity: React/Fluent UI, React Native, Java/TypeScript, Postgres/MSSQL/Oracle, MQ/SFTP, ArcGIS/ESRI, Azure AD/MFA.
• Experience with offline-first mobile, analytics/reporting (Jasper), secure SDLC/SOC 2.
• Knowledge of general business financial principles and ROI analysis.
• Willingness to learn new technologies or domains as needed.

Success Metrics (12 Months)

• Impactful Releases: 2–3 high-value roadmap items shipped on schedule.
• Quality/Reliability: Reduced Sev-1/2 incidents; p95 latency targets met on key APIs.
• Flow/Predictability: ≥85% roadmap commit hit-rate; improved cycle time and change failure rate.
• Customer Outcomes: Successful design-partner deployments with measurable KPI gains.
• Team Health: Strong engagement and clear progression for engineers/tech leads.

What we can offer:

• 3 weeks' vacation and 5 personal days
• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits starting from your first day of employment
• Employee stock ownership and RRSP/401k matching programs
• Lifestyle rewards
• Remote work and more!

About Harris:

Harris is a leading provider of