Director - Product Engineering

Join Wordly's fast growing global team!

In this role, you will be leading the growing the Product Engineering group at Wordly which is responsible for delivering high quality and scalable translation and translation-adjacent features to our end users. You will be responsible for managing multiple, cross-functional software development teams working on various product features in parallel.

You will be working closely with product managers, engineering managers, technical leads, and other stakeholders in devising and maintaining project milestones and schedules. You ensure that engineering milestones stay within scope and are delivered on time. You are well-versed in risk identification and management which allows you to foresee and creatively address problems long before they become major roadblocks. You’ll need to stay organized and be able to regularly communicate the status of projects to senior management and other stakeholders. As a former software engineer yourself, you have experienced all of the highs, lows, and pitfalls of trying to successfully develop and ship out high quality software, giving you the perspective necessary to be successful in this role.

You are also responsible for fostering a healthy and collaborative workplace environment for your team through regular 1-on-1 and team bonding activities. You will ensure that your direct reports have a clear path towards professional growth by helping them set career goals and by providing timely and constructive feedback. You are not unwilling, or afraid, to delegate responsibilities to your team members once you feel that they are ready for the challenge. Through instituting good engineering processes, you will ensure that the development lifecycle is streamlined and that your teams have what they need to stay focused and on mission towards meeting engineering and business objectives with minimal friction. Finally, as a technical person yourself, you can jump in and occasionally help out on small development tasks or to brainstorm solutions to more complex problems.

• Must have a strong technical background with at least 7+ years of hands-on software development experience.

• At least 3+ years of experience as an engineering manager or in a related people management role.

• Experience in staffing and managing multiple development teams that can effectively coordinate with each other.

• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects to ensure that business and engineering objectives are satisfied.

• Ability to institute clear, measurable, and effective engineering processes that contribute to the successful delivery of product features.

• Have overseen at least one major software project from concept to delivery.

• Possess outstanding communication and documentation skills. Must be able to understand technical and business terminology/concepts and be able to effectively and simply communicate across domains.

• Self-motivated and able to work independently with minimal supervision. Can take initiative and make informed decisions as needed.

• Strong problem-solving skills. Can devise creative solutions and workarounds when problems arise.

• Willingness and ability to work with external and outsourced teams in varying timezones.

• Comfortable working in a fully remote environment.

• Experience working as an engineer or manager on other translation and/or transcription software solutions.

• Experience working as an engineer or manager for a cloud-based software solution.

• Hands-on experience working on microservice architectures.

• Familiarity with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools such as Jenkins, ArgoCD, etc.

• Experience working with dedicated quality assurance teams.

• B.S. degree or equivalent in Computer Science or a related field from an accredited institution.

• Prioritize, staff, and manage multiple product features through the various stages of the development lifecycle.

• Empathetically and effectively manage individuals through constructive coaching and by providing ample opportunities for professional development and career growth.

• Effectively delegate responsibilities to team members in order to facilitate continued professional growth.

• Create and maintain a welcoming and supportive group culture.

• Manage the hiring and onboarding of new Customer Experience team members.

• Develop and maintain effective engineering processes to ensure the group remains continuously focused and aligned towards engineering and business objectives.

• Be able to communicate with engineers on a technical level in order to accurately scope projects and to better understand potential roadblocks and challenges that may increase risk across a project’s lifecycle.

• Be a hands-on engineer in small bursts when appropriate to help the development teams stay focused.

• Work with cross-functional teams to create and oversee achievable project milestones and schedules to ensure on-time and within scope delivery of high quality product features.

• Manage outsourced engineering teams to ensure adherence to statements of work and that all deliverables meet Wordly’s acceptance criteria.

• Regularly assess and manage project risks to identify and address potential issues in advance.

• Create, organize, and share detailed project documentation with stakeholders to ensure transparency and alignment on key business and engineering objectives.

• Prepare and give presentations to senior management and other stakeholders on the state of ongoing projects.

• Manage vendor relationships to ensure contractual obligations and SLAs are being met.

• Oversee the delivery of software features to the production environment.

Located in Los Altos, California, Wordly is an exciting tech startup that is looking to grow its engineering and GTM teams! From virtual meetings to large, in-person conference venues, Wordly strives to provide high quality, real-time translation services in 50+ languages to anyone, anywhere. 

Wordly caters to numerous customers around the world which include local organizations and businesses; government entities; Fortune 500 companies; and much, much more. While this is a fully remote position, office space in Los Altos, California is available for San Francisco Bay Area residents that wish to utilize it.

To learn more about Wordly visit www.wordly.ai and follow us on our LinkedIn page.