Title: Director of Software Engineering AI, Data Platform & Application Engineering
Location: Fully Onsite McLean, VA (Monday Friday)
Assignment Type: Contract-to-Hire (CTH)
Scheduled End Date: August 9, 2026
Conversion Salary Range: $215K $220K
Interview Process:
Round 1: 30-minute MS Teams Video Interview (Video Mandatory)
Round 2: 90-minute In-Person Interview
Interview Availability:
5/8: 10:00 10:30 AM
5/8: 11:00 11:30 AM
5/11: 10:00 10:30 AM
5/11: 10:30 11:00 AM
Role Breakdown
40% Technical Leadership & Code Reviews
60% People Management, Delivery Leadership & Roadmap Influence
About the Role
We are seeking a highly experienced Director of Software Engineering to lead a critical business domain within our engineering organization. This is a senior leadership role focused on engineering discipline, delivery excellence, AI adoption, and modern application architecture.
The ideal candidate will bring a strong software engineering background combined with proven people management and technical leadership experience. This individual will help drive enterprise-wide AI and GenAI adoption initiatives while guiding engineering teams on modern software development practices, delivery roadmaps, code quality, and platform modernization.
This role requires a balanced combination of strategic leadership and technical depth, including architecture ownership, code reviews, AI-driven engineering transformation, and mentoring engineering teams.
Key Responsibilities
Lead engineering delivery and technical execution for a specific business domain
Own application architecture and design decisions across platforms and services
Drive engineering best practices across the full SDLC
Provide leadership for AI/GenAI adoption initiatives across the engineering organization
Guide teams on AI-generated code adoption, engineering efficiency improvements, and data pipeline recovery strategies
Influence engineering KPIs, delivery roadmaps, and modernization efforts
Lead and mentor engineering teams while fostering technical excellence
Conduct code reviews and ensure high-quality engineering standards
Collaborate across teams to support modern data platforms and microservices-based application engineering
Provide thought leadership on market trends, competitor technology movements, and advancements within the secondary mortgage industry
Support modernization of legacy .NET applications into modern cloud-native architectures
Partner with teams involved in data engineering, modeling, and financial engineering initiatives
Contribute to data governance, data management, and modern enterprise technology strategies
Required Qualifications
10+ years of hands-on software development background
Strong expertise in:
Java
Python
AWS Cloud
Microservices Architecture
Kubernetes
Angular
.NET knowledge
Strong understanding of full Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
7 8+ years of leadership and people management experience
Experience leading, mentoring, and influencing software engineers and technical teams
Proven experience in architecture, engineering leadership, and delivery management
Strong code review capabilities with hands-on technical depth
Experience balancing technical leadership with people management responsibilities
Knowledge of AI/GenAI adoption within software engineering organizations
Understanding of data governance, data management, and enterprise data foundations
Experience leading both application engineering and AI/data platform initiatives
Preferred Background
Former Principal Engineer, Architect, or Technical Lead who transitioned into people management
Experience managing engineering teams while remaining technically involved
Experience modernizing legacy enterprise applications
Team Structure
Current team size: 12 13 engineers across two teams
Ideal Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate is a well-rounded engineering leader who combines strong technical depth with strategic leadership capabilities. This person should be comfortable influencing enterprise engineering direction, driving AI transformation initiatives, mentoring teams, reviewing architecture and code, and leading delivery execution in a modern cloud-native environment.
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