VP, Software Engineering

• Owns the operating model for Engineering: how teams are structured, how delivery is measured, how health is monitored, and how we improve cycle-over-cycle.

• Defines and drives engineering-wide metrics (delivery velocity, quality, incident response, system reliability) and builds the feedback loops that turn data into action.

• Leads cross-team retrospectives, post-mortems, and process reviews that result in durable operational improvements — not just one-off fixes.

• Drives internal engineering improvement initiatives: developer experience programs, productivity tooling, onboarding quality, and knowledge-sharing systems.

• Partners with the CTO to continuously improve the engineering team's overall structure, organization, and delivery of results.

• Directs delivery, operational, and/or people management for one or more product verticals and/or broad platform horizontals.

• Fosters an environment that treats sound architecture, high-quality implementations, and secure systems as first-class product requirements.

• Understands the business and operational context of our products and develops strategy to improve how we build and deliver software.

• Collaborates in organizational and technical decision-making, with contributions that weigh growth, cost, margin, time-to-market, quality, and future readiness.

• Coaches, mentors, and supports experienced engineering leaders, helping them become self-sufficient and solve their own challenges.

• Leads engineering retention, recruiting, employer branding, and organizational strategy in a growth environment.

• Participates as an amplifier of holistic organizational initiatives and company-wide direction.

• Drives value initiatives that extend beyond Engineering to benefit the broader business.

• Demonstrated history of implementing and managing significant software development programs.

• Hands-on experience adopting and scaling AI coding and developer productivity tools within an engineering organization.

• Familiarity with the AI development tooling landscape — including LLM-powered assistants, automated testing/review tools, and prompt engineering practices for software workflows.

• 5+ years of prior career experience as a software engineer.

• 12+ years of experience in engineering management.

• Proven track record running or significantly improving engineering operations: metrics programs, operating cadences, process design, and internal tooling.

• Strong background in cross-functional collaboration, organizational design, and driving execution at scale.

Bachelor’s Degree (Computer Science or engineering preferred) or equivalent work experience

Optimizely is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Optimizely is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status.

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