Director, Application Engineering

3 days onsite in Newton, MA

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

Preferred Qualifications:

• 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.
• Demonstrated success in architectural modernization efforts.