Director of Development

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 10–15 software engineers of varying experience levels, prioritizing retention, career advancement, and high performance.

• Conduct regular one-on-one meetings, quarterly performance evaluations, and individual goal-setting discussions that align with both team objectives and personal development.

• Foster a robust engineering culture that emphasizes ownership, continuous learning, problem-solving, and accountability.

• Collaborate with HR and recruiting to attract, hire, and onboard outstanding engineering talent.

• Address performance issues directly, fairly, and promptly, utilizing structured frameworks and thorough documentation.

• Oversee engineering delivery, including sprint planning, capacity management, team velocity, and predictability.

• Eliminate obstacles, manage dependencies, and ensure engineers have the necessary resources to perform their tasks without unnecessary friction.

• Establish and track team health metrics such as cycle time, deployment frequency, bug escape rate, and mean time to resolve (MTTR).

• Partner with the Director of Architecture to guide technical direction and ensure your team has the context and resources to effectively execute architectural decisions.

• Lead the engineering delivery of AI-powered product features, collaborating closely with Product and Architecture to define, prioritize, and deliver AI capabilities that provide real value to users.

• Ensure your team possesses the skills, tools, and processes needed to develop and maintain AI/ML-integrated features on the ClassWallet platform, including LLM integrations, intelligent automation, and data-driven workflows.

• Maintain a solid understanding of AI product development patterns (prompt engineering, RAG, API integration, model evaluation) to make informed decisions on scoping and build-vs-buy considerations.

• Advocate for the adoption of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, AI-powered testing, and code review) throughout the engineering team.

• Establish best practices and guidelines for responsible AI tool use, encompassing code quality standards, security reviews, and intellectual property considerations.

• Identify and implement AI-driven enhancements across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), including automated testing, intelligent CI/CD, documentation generation, and developer productivity tools.

• Monitor and report on the return on investment (ROI) of AI tooling in terms of developer velocity, code quality, and team satisfaction.

• Represent engineering capacity, constraints, and delivery realities in the roadmap planning process alongside the Directors of Operations, Product, and Architecture.

• Contribute to the technical roadmap for the next 12 months with a clear understanding of team capabilities, hiring strategies, and execution sequencing.

• Present progress on the roadmap and engineering metrics to senior leadership in a context focused on business outcomes rather than just technical deliverables.

• Maintain an ongoing risk register and proactively highlight delivery risks before they escalate into issues.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 10 years of professional software development experience, including a minimum of 5 years in an engineering leadership role (engineering manager, senior manager, or director).

• Proven success in leading and developing a team of engineers, including comprehensive oversight of hiring, onboarding, performance management, and career progression.

• Demonstrated ability to deliver complex software projects on schedule and at scale within an Agile framework, managing cross-functional dependencies with Product and Design.

• Experience managing engineering delivery metrics (cycle time, deployment frequency, MTTR) and effectively presenting outcomes to senior leadership in a business context.

• Direct experience in building or contributing to a multi-year technical roadmap, including aspects of capacity planning, prioritization trade-offs, and risk management.

• A well-defined perspective on how AI is reshaping software development, with a track record of piloting, adopting, or scaling AI tools or AI-driven features within a team.

• Experience in regulated industries or with compliance-sensitive systems, where security, auditability, and data privacy are top priorities.

• Professional proficiency in JavaScript and/or Python, adequate for code reviews, evaluating architectural decisions, and engaging in technical design discussions.

• Familiarity with Node.js, React.js, Next.js, and NestJS, along with an understanding of how these technologies integrate within a modern full-stack architecture and their respective trade-offs.

• Strong understanding of relational database design and query optimization using MS SQL Server and/or MySQL.

• Knowledge of NoSQL data modeling with MongoDB, including appropriate use cases compared to relational alternatives.

• Hands-on experience with AWS, including core services (EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda, ECS/EKS) and a solid understanding of cloud cost management, security groups, and IAM best practices.

• Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes) in production settings.

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipeline design and tooling (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI), including the ability to assess and enhance pipeline health.

• Deep understanding of Agile methodologies and the capability to coach a team on sprint planning, estimation, retrospectives, and continuous improvement.

• Strong command of version control workflows (Git), branching strategies, and code review standards.

• Working knowledge of system design principles, including scalability patterns, service decomposition, API design, caching strategies, and fault-tolerance mechanisms.

• Practical understanding of application security fundamentals, such as OWASP Top 10, secrets management, data encryption, and secure SDLC practices.

• Demonstrable familiarity with AI-assisted developer tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or equivalent) and the capability to evaluate, govern, and scale their use across a team.

• Working knowledge of AI/ML integration patterns, including LLM API integration, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and model evaluation, sufficient for informed build-vs-buy decisions and scoping engineering tasks.

• Awareness of responsible AI practices, including data privacy, bias considerations, and the implications of AI-generated code and content in terms of intellectual property and compliance.

🏝️ Benefits

• ClassWallet features a supportive, family-oriented team atmosphere that emphasizes encouragement, positive reinforcement, and gratitude. We are dedicated to our work and motivated to succeed while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

• We provide a competitive salary and benefits package that aligns with experience.

• ClassWallet.com is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants are considered for positions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, or veteran status.