Director, Software Engineering

About Us

At Cast & Crew, we’ve empowered creativity and supported the global entertainment industry for decades. Together with our family of brands - Backstage, CAPS, Checks & Balances, Final Draft, Media Services, Sargent-Disc, and The TEAM Companies – we operate as a combined entertainment technology and services provider offering industry standard screenwriting accounting software, digital payroll products, data & reporting, and a host of creative tools.  The industry continues to move faster than ever, and the need for our expertise, our technology, and our people has never been greater.  We are a production’s best ally every step of the way. #OneCastOneCrew

We're looking for a Director of Software Engineering to lead multiple engineering teams within our Onboarding and Timekeeping product line — one of the most active and strategically important areas of the business. This is a role for a leader, not just a manager. You'll cultivate ownership and decision-making at the team level, develop strong engineering anchors, and create an environment where your teams don't wait for direction — they are empowered to move.

You'll own the engineering execution of a robust product roadmap that includes mobile applications in a rapid growth phase, drive deep collaboration with Product and QA, and connect your teams into the broader engineering organization through a Spotify-inspired model of Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds. You'll also champion our initiative to embed AI meaningfully into how we build software.

We're in the middle of a cultural shift — moving faster, owning outcomes, celebrating wins, and holding each other to a high bar. We work hard and play hard. This role requires someone who can get up to speed quickly, lead with empathy from day one, and immediately begin delivering impact.

• Build a culture of distributed ownership — push decision-making down to the team level and develop strong team anchors who lead with confidence

• Coach and grow engineering managers, QA leads, and senior engineers into well-rounded technical leaders

• Embody the distinction between leadership and management: inspire, develop, and get out of the way

• Champion a work hard, play hard team culture — high standards, fast feedback, and genuine celebration of wins

Our engineering organization is structured around the Spotify model, and this leader plays an active role in making it real — not just understanding it on paper.

• Lead and align multiple Squads — autonomous, cross-functional teams each owning a slice of the Onboarding and Timekeeping product line — ensuring they have the clarity, resources, and psychological safety to self-organize and deliver

• Operate as a Tribe leader across these Squads, driving coherence, shared mission, and cross-team coordination within the product line

• Actively develop Chapters — communities of engineers who share a discipline (e.g., mobile, backend, QA) — ensuring members grow in craft, adopt consistent practices, and carry excellence across Squad boundaries

• Grow and support Guilds as voluntary communities of interest that spread knowledge and innovation across the broader engineering organization

• Use this structure not as org-chart formality, but as the engine for building well-rounded, continuously improving team members

Mobile Applications & Rapid Growth

• Guide engineering strategy and execution for mobile applications that are in an active rapid growth phase — balancing speed, quality, and scalability

• Partner with mobile chapter leads and senior engineers to establish strong mobile engineering practices, CI/CD pipelines, and quality standards

• Anticipate the unique challenges of scaling a mobile product: release cadence, device fragmentation, app store pipelines, and performance at scale

• Attract and develop mobile engineering talent to match the growth trajectory of the product

Product Delivery & Quality

• Own engineering delivery against a demanding roadmap — shorten delivery timelines, improve delivery quality, and build the practices that make both sustainable

• Set clear commitments, surface risks early, and consistently ship with quality

• Involve QA leads as first-class collaborators in planning, not an afterthought at the end

• Work shoulder-to-shoulder with Product to refine priorities, scope tradeoffs, and translate business goals into engineering plans

Cross-Product Collaboration

• Navigate a complex integration landscape — your teams touch and are touched by multiple other product lines; you ensure those relationships are healthy, proactive, and unblocking

• Drive alignment and coordination across internal product teams and with peer engineering leaders in other product lines

• Represent your teams well in cross-functional forums and escalate and resolve dependencies with urgency

AI-Driven SDLC

• Own the strategy and execution of our AI-Driven SDLC initiative — define how AI tooling is adopted, measured, and continuously improved across your teams

• Establish metrics that demonstrate real gains in velocity and quality, not just adoption theater

• Stay ahead of the tooling landscape and bring informed, opinionated recommendations to the organization

Technical Direction

• Maintain strong technical engagement — able to get into architecture decisions, unblock teams, and give meaningful feedback on system design and engineering quality

• Partner with architects and senior engineers to ensure decisions align with long-term platform goals

• Drive engineering quality through observability, incident response, code standards, and post-mortems

• 10+ years in software engineering, with 4+ years in engineering leadership managing managers

• Strong technical background — you can engage credibly on system design, architecture tradeoffs, and engineering quality

• A proven philosophy of developing leaders, not just managing reports — you know the difference and live it

• Experience leading or scaling mobile application engineering, ideally in a high-growth context

• Track record of shortening delivery timelines and improving quality through process, culture, and tooling — not heroics

• Hands-on familiarity with the Spotify model (Squads, Tribes, Chapters, Guilds) and experience operating within or building toward it

• Experience leading globally distributed teams across multiple time zones

• Strong cross-functional collaboration instincts — especially with Product and QA

• Experience with AI-assisted development tooling and enthusiasm for applying it to improve team productivity

• Excellent communicator; comfortable at the executive level and equally comfortable listening at the team level

• Experience in workforce management, payroll, timekeeping, or HR tech domains

• Experience managing teams with heavy external integration complexity

• Familiarity with engineering metrics frameworks (DORA, SPACE, etc.)

• Prior experience driving a meaningful cultural transformation

#LI-REMOTE

#LI-AL1

Benefits 

Cast & Crew provides a comprehensive package of employee benefits including: Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO, health and wellness programs, employee discounts, and more! Note: Cast & Crew benefits are subject to eligibility requirements.

Cast & Crew is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture. It is our policy to provide equal employment opportunities to all individuals based on job-related qualifications and ability to perform a job, without regard to age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, disability, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship or marital status, and to maintain a non-discriminatory environment free from intimidation, harassment or bias based upon these grounds.

CA residents
Your personal information may be collected in connection with certain services provided by Cast & Crew or its affiliated companies.  A summary of your California privacy rights can be found at: https://www.castandcrew.com/privacy-policy/