Lead and enable multiple engineering squads to deliver reliable, maintainable enterprise-scale web applications. Provide technical leadership, enforce engineering standards, manage technical debt, ensure platform operability and quality-by-design, develop engineers and partners (onshore/offshore), and remove blockers to improve delivery flow in partnership with Product, Delivery, and QA.
Be Part of Our Next Chapter
For over almost 60 years, our solutions have enabled impactful connections between some of the world’s leading brands and their customers. And while we’ve already done a lot of work we’re proud of, we’re just getting started!
We’re a global technology company focused on creating dynamic, smart, personalized and engaging customer experiences powered by our range of digital hardware, our proprietary content management system and our industry leading signage solutions. (For example: If you’ve ordered in-store or in the drive-thru at McDonald’s somewhere in the world in the last few years, chances are you’ve interacted with our digital solutions.) We work in over 50 global markets and have 9 offices around the world, with a global headquarters proudly located in our founding home of Sydney, Australia.
Coates Group has the values of a family-owned business and the innovative spirit of a start-up, both which fuel our purpose – Creating Connections. Empowering Partnerships. Always Evolving. Through hard work, dedication and creativity, we’ve become industry leaders who have won awards and set records while remaining focused on continual growth and evolution. We are a 2x Australia Good Design Award winner and successfully completed the largest hardware deployment in Quick Service Restaurant history.
We are curious, charismatic, authentic and we value and leverage the diversity of our crew. We are imaginers, kindness enthusiasts, experts, creators, thinkers, challengers, collaborators and over-achievers. And together, as a Crew, we are revolutionizing the way the world’s leading brands leverage technology to drive the best customer experiences.
The Director, Engineering is accountable for enabling high-performing engineering squads to deliver reliable, maintainable, and high-quality software solutions. This role provides technical leadership, builds capability across engineers and technical leads, ensures adherence to engineering standards, and removes blockers that impede delivery, while partnering with Product, Delivery, and QA leadership to achieve business and customer outcomes.
Responsibilities
- Engineering Enablement: Ensure squads have the technical capability, processes, and practices to deliver reliably, removing engineering blockers and supporting predictable outcomes in partnership with Delivery leadership.
- Engineering Leadership & Capability: Act as a chapter-style leader for engineers and technical leads, building capability, setting standards, and driving consistent engineering practices across squads.
- Technical Leadership, Debt & Design Quality: Ensure sound technical design and implementation, actively managing technical debt and addressing complexity.
- Quality in Delivery: Embed quality-by-design within engineering teams (e.g. testability, code quality, CI/CD discipline), while partnering with QA to achieve agreed quality outcomes.
- Platform Health & Operability: Own the operational health of systems within scope, ensuring reliability, performance, and readiness across production and pre-production environments.
- People & Partner Leadership: Lead and develop permanent and partner engineers (onshore and offshore), including performance management, engagement, and effective integration.
- Delivery Flow & Dependencies: Enable squads to operate autonomously by removing engineering blockers, managing dependencies, and improving delivery flow in partnership with Product and Delivery.
Capabilities
- Hands-on Technical Leadership: Leads with strong engineering credibility and modelling high-quality full-stack engineering practices.
- Execution Focus: Translates architectural direction and standards into practical, repeatable engineering practices that work at squad level.
- Problem Solving & Judgement: Quickly diagnoses technical and delivery-adjacent issues, makes sound trade-offs, and removes engineering blockers.
- People Development: Develops a high-performing team through clear expectations, feedback, and career coaching.
- Collaboration & Influence: Works as a trusted partner to Product, Delivery & QA leaders to align engineering effort to shared outcomes.
- Ownership & Accountability: Builds strong ownership within squads for code quality, operability, and continuous improvement.
Qualifications
- 8+ years’ experience in software engineering, with 3+ years in an engineering leadership roles, managing engineers and technical leads
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience
- Proven experience delivering enterprise-scale software platforms or digital products within complex, client environments
- Strong hands-on background in modern full-stack software engineering, with deep experience in building highly scalable web applications supported by cloud-native or serverless architectures (AWS preferred), CI/CD pipelines, and distributed systems
- Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional engineering teams operating in agile or product-led delivery models
- Experience establishing and enforcing engineering standards, development practices, and delivery discipline across multiple squads
- Proven ability to manage a blended workforce, including permanent staff and staff-augmented delivery partners (onshore and offshore)
- Demonstrated experience in developing and executing plans that align with business objectives and growth
About Coates
We are industry leaders who have won awards and set records. We are a 2x Australia Good Design Award winner and we successfully completed the largest hardware deployment in Quick Service Restaurant history.
We are led by a forward-thinking CEO who has demonstrated a true passion for people and making Coates a place where people genuinely enjoy working. Our growth plans enable a focus on providing rapid career advancement opportunities for our talent.
Together, we are creators, allowing us to make our purpose a reality – to create immersive brand experiences for everyone.
Join a Crew that Cares
Be part of a global team of talented, ambitious, creative people that value integrity, individuality and inclusivity. (Ask us about our Equality + Empowerment Initiatives).
The benefits include an annual market competitive bonus program and our “Thrive Program” which includes a suite of flexible work options because we’re strong believers that you should never miss an important life or work moment. Thrive also provides dedicated time to prioritize our health and wellbeing (think virtual Yoga or meditation sessions), a Global Wellness paid day off to recharge as well as a “Give Back Day” to allow our Crew an opportunity to make an impact in the community.
Be inspired To Be More
We skip the red tape and aim to always stay nimble. We’re proud of where we’ve been and are energized by where we’re going. We encourage ideas and perspectives because we know the more we have, the better we are. We work hard but have fun along the way. We push the boundaries but keep it real and authentic. We believe in the values that got us here are the ones that will continue to lead us forward. We are excited by what we’ve accomplished, but know the best is yet to come.
Coates Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, age, political affiliation or belief, disabled veteran, veteran of the Vietnam Era, or citizenship status (except in those special circumstances permitted or mandated by law).
Fraud Alert: Employment Scam Advisory
It has come to our attention that unauthorised individuals are impersonating our company and reaching out to job seekers through fraudulent emails, falsely claiming to represent Coates. These emails often request personal information and appear to come from domains that are not affiliated with our organisation, such as coatesgroupcareer.com.
We take this matter very seriously. Coates has reported these incidents to law enforcement and is cooperating with the ongoing investigation. We are committed to protecting the integrity of our recruitment process and the privacy of our applicants.
Please be advised of the following:
- Coates does not operate or communicate through any domain resembling "@coatesgroupcareer.com"
- We do not contact employment candidates via email to solicit personal or financial information
- All applications for employment must be submitted through our official website https://coatesgroup.com/careers or directly through our LinkedIn profile: Coates Group
- All emails from us will come from our official domain, which is [at]coatesgroup[dot]com or via our Applicant - Tracking System (ATS) email address, which is no-reply[at]hire.lever[dot]co
If you receive any suspicious communications purporting to be from Coates, we urge you not to respond, do not click any links, and do not provide any personal information. Your safety and trust are of the utmost importance to us. Thank you for your vigilance.
Coates Group Chicago, Illinois, USA Office
112 N May St, Chicago, Illinois , United States, 60607
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What you need to know about the Chicago Tech Scene
With vibrant neighborhoods, great food and more affordable housing than either coast, Chicago might be the most liveable major tech hub. It is the birthplace of modern commodities and futures trading, a national hub for logistics and commerce, and home to the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association. This diverse blend of industry influences has helped Chicago emerge as a major player in verticals like fintech, biotechnology, legal tech, e-commerce and logistics technology. It’s also a major hiring center for tech companies on both coasts.
Key Facts About Chicago Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 245,800; 5.2% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
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- Research Centers and Universities: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Institute of Technology, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
