Director, Research and Development

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

📋 Description

• Define and implement the technology and development strategy for the LocalGov business unit

• Provide leadership and oversight for software development across eight product lines and a team of approximately 40+ development professionals

• Propel development teams along the Harris AI-SDLC maturity model toward agentic delivery

• Drive modernization efforts across IBM i, RPG, and contemporary technology platforms while ensuring customer stability and business continuity

• Establish engineering standards, development methodologies, governance processes, and quality assurance practices

• Collaborate with Product Management, Client Services, Professional Services, Sales, and business-unit leadership

• Create and maintain long-term product and technology roadmaps

• Build, nurture, and mentor engineering leaders and technical teams

• Oversee capacity planning, resource allocation, and prioritization for various initiatives and product lines

• Utilize AI development tools on a daily basis and advocate for their organizational adoption

• Set and track outcome-based KPIs, reporting AI delivery maturity and business outcomes to executive leadership

• Own the LocalGov AI delivery-maturity roadmap across all eight product lines and software lifecycle stages

• Establish governance, review gates, validation, and security reviews for AI-generated code

• Enhance documentation, test coverage, CI/CD, and structured context for AI-agent access to the codebase and delivery pipeline

• Apply AI for comprehending IBM i and RPG legacy code, generating documentation, and performing modernization analysis

• Develop tools and training to assist engineers in transitioning toward supervised agent execution

• Lead cloud adoption, customer-facing AI initiatives, automation, and strategic modernization projects

• Ensure architecture, security, compliance, and technical governance across all products

• Act as the executive escalation point for critical development challenges and strategic customer initiatives

• Formulate succession planning and knowledge-preservation strategies for aging legacy technology skill sets

• Manage R&D OpEx financial forecasts, monthly updates, business review reporting, and participation in annual strategy meetings

• Attend significant customer events in relevant markets

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 10 years of progressive experience in software development leadership

• More than 5 years of experience leading managers, technical leaders, and software development teams within a multi-product software organization

• Proven experience in leading software modernization initiatives that encompass both legacy and modern technology platforms

• Experience managing geographically distributed development teams and cross-functional technical organizations

• Deep understanding of software development lifecycles, Agile methodologies, and engineering best practices

• Experience with enterprise software delivery, product strategy, and technical roadmap development

• Demonstrated ability to align technology investments and development priorities with business objectives and customer requirements

• Proven experience in driving organizational change and technology transformation initiatives

• Experience in implementing or leading AI-assisted development practices, automation initiatives, or improvements in engineering productivity

• Demonstrated hands-on experience using AI development tools in daily operations, with a clear perspective on their benefits, limitations, and the pace of change

• Experience elevating an engineering organization’s operational methods from individual AI assistance to agentic, human-on-the-loop delivery, including governance and validation for safety

• Excellent communication, organizational, stakeholder management, and executive leadership abilities

• Preferred: Experience with IBM i, AS400, RPG, COBOL, or legacy platform modernization projects

• Preferred: Background in local government, public sector, ERP, tax, financial, records management, or government technology solutions

• Preferred: Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Project Bob, LLMs, or similar technologies

• Preferred: Experience in establishing engineering KPIs, delivery metrics, and AI adoption measurement programs

• Preferred: Proven track record in leading engineering organizations through large-scale modernization or digital transformation efforts

• Preferred: Knowledge of cloud technologies, APIs, automation frameworks, and modern application architectures

• Preferred: Experience in building and scaling high-performing engineering teams across various product lines

• Preferred: Experience integrating AI into engineering workflows, customer solutions, or business operations

• Preferred: Familiarity with Jira, DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software delivery methodologies

• Preferred: MBA, advanced technical expertise, or equivalent executive leadership background

🏝️ Benefits

• Attendance to key customer events in markets experiencing significant development activities