Director, Application Engineering

The Director, Application Engineering leads the strategy, architecture, and delivery of mobile applications and GenAI-powered capabilities. This role partners closely with Product, Design, Data, Security, and Operations to build reliable, scalable, and user‑centric experiences.

The individual will be responsible for managing a highly efficient, effective and successful engineer-driven team that partners with the business to provide outstanding software development and delivery to support for operational systems and related processes.

Bright Horizons is a leading education and care company that helps employees thrive at work and at home by partnering with employers to offer high-quality child care, elder care, and educational support. Our workplace reflects this commitment—with collaborative environments, meaningful benefits, and a culture that supports both career growth and personal well-being. Whether you’re caring for children or powering the systems and partnerships that make it all possible, at Bright Horizons, you’re the difference.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

• Mobile and Gen AI Engineering

  • Lead end‑to‑end development and delivery of mobile and AI/GenAI applications using modern engineering practices.

  • Define mobile and GenAI architecture, including modularization, release processes, CI/CD, observability, and platform strategy.

  • Drive AI/GenAI feature development; select models, build pipelines, design evaluation frameworks, optimize latency, and ensure responsible AI usage.

  • Guide teams through technical decisions; remove blockers; promote best‑in‑class engineering practices.

  • Establish engineering KPIs, quality standards and drive continuous improvement.

  • Own Cloud and AI‑inference cost governance and resource allocation.

  • Manage staffing strategy and talent development for mobile and GenAI engineering teams.

  • Maintain clear technical documentation and progress reporting for leadership.

• Product Partnership

  • Translate product strategy into engineering roadmaps, sequencing, and technical trade‑offs.

  • Partner with PMs on KPI creation, prioritization, and customer‑centric decisions.

  • Work cross‑functionally with design, support, research, operations, and marketing.

  • Communicate engineering impacts in clear, business‑aligned language.

• People Management & Leadership

  • Lead, mentor, and grow engineers, senior ICs, and engineering managers.

  • Build a high‑performing culture centered on accountability, collaboration, and modern engineering excellence.

  • Recognize contributions; develop succession plans; guide career development.

  • Influence engineering strategy across the team including architecture, security, data, and cloud teams.

  • Present technical strategy and program updates to executive leadership.

  • Drive enterprise‑level modernization initiatives (mobile platform upgrades, AI adoption, cloud modernization).

  • Exercise independent judgment in technical strategy, staffing, architectural choices, and delivery commitments.

  • Manage risk, compliance, privacy, and AI governance considerations in decision making.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Technology or related field , 3 additional years of experience would be considered in lieu of the applicable degree.

• 7+ years technical engineering experience with coding for application engineering

• 5+ years experience and skills in leading engineering teams

• 3+ years experience and skills in building cloud-based SaaS applications

Preferred Qualifications:

• 1+ years delivering AI and GenAI applications, including model integration, evaluation, RAG, and deployment

• 5 years experience and skills in building mobile development and technology (Angular(Ionic), React Native, Flutter or native IOS/Android and similar) or building applications with Python, Perl or similar - Preferred

• Proven track record delivering mobile or AI powered products at scale.

• Familiarity with modern LLM providers and tooling (Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, LangSmith, vector databases).

• Experience with reliability engineering, automated testing, CI/CD, APM/observability, and performance optimization.

• Experience working with security, privacy, and AI governance requirements.

• Strong verbal and written communication; able to communicate complex topics to both technical and non technical audiences.

• Demonst