Head of Engineering Strategy

Head of Engineering Strategy

AI, Developer Productivity & Engineering Excellence

Location: Monsey, NY | Hybrid, minimum 2 days onsite
Compensation: $200,000–$250,000
Reports to: VP of Product & Engineering

The Opportunity

An established, growing SaaS company is seeking a deeply technical engineering leader to transform how software is developed, tested, and delivered.

The company operates a mature, business-critical SaaS platform serving a large external user base, where reliability, security, performance, and engineering quality are essential.

With an experienced engineering team already in place, the opportunity is to accelerate the adoption of modern development practices, improve developer productivity, and ensure engineering improvements are consistently implemented.

This is not a traditional people-management role or a mandate to rebuild the platform.

You'll lead engineering-wide technical initiatives, introduce modern tools and development practices, and work alongside experienced engineers to turn good ideas into measurable improvements.

The ideal candidate combines the technical depth of a Principal Engineer with the leadership, judgment, and execution capabilities of an Engineering Director.

What You'll Own

• AI-Powered Development: Drive adoption of AI-assisted coding tools and development workflows, including opportunities to build custom AI-powered solutions that improve engineering productivity.

• Automated Testing: Establish and implement practical unit-testing and automated-testing practices that strengthen code quality, reliability, and development speed.

• Engineering Standards: Improve code review, CI/CD, release processes, technical documentation, observability, and development workflows.

• Technical Leadership: Partner with senior engineers on architecture, code quality, technical decisions, and complex engineering challenges. Maintain the ability to review and write code when needed.

• Cross-Team Execution: Align experienced technical leads, resolve competing viewpoints, establish direction, and drive initiatives through implementation and adoption.

• Continuous Improvement: Evaluate emerging technologies, developer tools, and engineering practices, introducing solutions that deliver measurable improvements in productivity, quality, and reliability.

What We're Looking For

• External-Facing SaaS Experience: Significant engineering experience with production SaaS platforms serving large external customer and user bases. Must understand the demands of scalable, highly available, security-sensitive software used by paying customers, rather than primarily internal business applications.

• Deep Technical Expertise: Strong hands-on software engineering background with the ability to review production code, evaluate architecture, and contribute technically when needed.

• Technology Stack: Strong experience with C#/.NET and Azure is highly preferred, ideally including SQL Server.

• Modern Engineering Practices: Practical expertise with AI-assisted development, developer tooling, automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and cloud-based SaaS environments.

• Proven Execution: Demonstrated success introducing engineering improvements that were implemented and adopted across multiple teams.

• Technical Leadership: Ability to influence experienced engineers, establish technical standards, and drive organizational change without relying on formal management authority.

• Strong Judgment: Confident making technical decisions while remaining collaborative, open-minded, and respectful of existing expertise.

• Communication: Ability to explain complex technical tradeoffs clearly and build alignment between engineering teams and business leadership.

Experience in fintech, financial software, or other security-sensitive, customer-facing SaaS environments is particularly relevant, especially where reliability, data protection, and disciplined engineering practices are critical.

Your current title matters less than your technical depth, leadership capabilities, and demonstrated ability to execute.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first year:

• AI-assisted development becomes an established engineering practice, delivering meaningful improvements in developer productivity.

• Automated testing and stronger development standards are actively implemented and consistently adopted across teams.

• Engineering-wide initiatives move from discussion to execution, improving development speed, consistency, quality, and reliability without disrupting ongoing product delivery.

Who Will Excel Here

You're a deeply technical engineering leader who stays ahead of emerging technologies and understands how to translate them into practical improvements.

You've worked in environments where software serves a substantial external customer base and where engineering decisions directly affect user experience, platform reliability, and business continuity.

You're comfortable working with highly experienced engineers, challenging assumptions, evaluating technical tradeoffs, and making decisions when opinions differ.

You lead through technical credibility, sound judgment, collaboration, and execution rather than hierarchy.

Most importantly, you don't just identify better ways to build software. You get engineers to adopt them, and you make those improvements stick.

Email Resume: Joel@maiplacement.com
Apply Online:

https://jobs.crelate.com/portal/maiplacement/job/zkg9cckshfduarhu8m4stw8jye?crt=1792442856382

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