Senior Director of Software Development

We are seeking a seasoned Senior Director of Software Engineering to lead the delivery and scalability of our key products and components of our Payments Platform. You will be responsible for managing multiple engineering teams building high-scale, secure, and reliable web-based and API-first Payments platform and products for Avid’s customers. This role requires a strong technical foundation, operational discipline, and a proven ability to build and grow high-performing engineering organizations.

You will collaborate closely with Product, Architecture, Quality, and Operations leaders to execute on a roadmap that continuously delivers value to customers and modernizes our platform to a modern micro-services architecture and with AI-driven solutions—driving growth, innovation, and resilience at scale.

 

What you'll do:

Engineering Leadership & Execution

• Lead multiple engineering teams responsible for delivering scalable, reliable, and secure Payments’ platform and products.
• Drive execution across classic and modern platforms, balancing immediate delivery needs with long-term modernization goals.
• Champion an API-first, services-based architecture with a focus on extensibility and customer outcomes.

AI-Driven Product Innovation & Developer Productivity

• Promote the use of AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, test generation, anomaly detection) to improve engineering productivity and accelerate delivery.
• Collaborate with product and operations teams to identify opportunities to apply AI/ML to solve business problems in the Payments domain—such as fraud detection, Payment’s exception handling AI agents, and smart Payment’s routing.

Engineering Culture & Talent Development

• Ensure high standards for code quality, system design, and operational excellence
• Build and scale high-performing, inclusive teams by attracting and developing top engineering talent.
• Promote a strong engineering culture centered on learning, accountability, and shared ownership.
• Support the growth of engineering leaders through coaching, career development, and structured feedback.

Quality, Resiliency & Operational Excellence

• Foster a strong culture of engineering quality, including test automation, observability, and reliability engineering practices.
• Drive continuous improvement through data and metrics, with a focus on reducing incidents and improving cycle times.
• Lead efforts to proactively identify and address technical debt and systemic risks.

Strategic Partnership & Collaboration

• Partner closely with Product Management, Business and Technology Operations, and Architecture to align technology strategy with business outcomes.
• Act as a strategic thought partner in defining roadmaps, setting priorities, and removing execution blockers.
• Lead with transparency, fostering trust and alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Create an environment that promotes learning; enabling resources to resolve and remove their own obstacles, while supporting individuals and teams to learn from failing fast.
• Attract, recruit, and retain capable individuals to build high-performant teams; establish mission and purpose for individuals and teams.
• Perform career coaching and personal development; evaluate performance, including team input; provide guidance and corrective actions.

What we're looking for:

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in senior leadership roles (Director or above).
• Proven track record of leading high-performing engineering teams delivering large-scale platforms.
• Experience modernizing legacy systems into modern cloud-native architectures (preferably microservices).
• Deep understanding of web technologies, API design, data platforms, and system integration.
• Strong communication, collaboration, and influencing skills across engineering and non-engineering partners.
• Passion for developing leaders and creating a strong engineering culture
• Proficiency in modern software engineering best practices, including unit testing, CI/CD pipelines, DevOps, microservices, and containerization (Docker/Kubernetes)
• Strong design and architecture mindset, with experience designing scalable, high-performance, and secure enterprise applications in Azure or other public clouds
• Hands-on experience following Agile software development processes (Scrum/Kanban)
• Background in FinTech, Payments, or financial systems 
• Experience with regulated environments (e.g., PCI, SOX).
• Demonstrated success leading geograph