Director of Software Engineering

About the position

Clearlink is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead and grow its engineering team. This role is pivotal in scaling engineering operations, defining best practices, and ensuring technical excellence across multiple web properties and services. The engineering team at Clearlink supports a wide variety of web technologies, platforms, and frameworks, requiring a leader with broad technical experience and the ability to navigate complex, multi-stack environments. From custom WordPress implementations to API-driven services and modern JavaScript frameworks, this role demands a strong understanding of scalability, security, and performance optimization across different architectures. As Director, you will work closely with business leaders, managers, and engineers to align technical strategy with Clearlink’s business goals. You will foster a high-performance engineering culture, optimize workflows, and ensure our products remain scalable, efficient, and cutting-edge. If you thrive on leading teams, improving engineering processes, and mentoring developers, this role will provide a unique opportunity to make an impact at an established yet fast-moving organization.

Responsibilities

• Work with business leaders to establish the technical strategy for Clearlink.
• Act as a bridge between business objectives and engineering execution.
• Advocate for engineering needs to ensure the team has the resources, tools, and training to succeed.
• Champion company values, engineering culture, and best practices across the organization.
• Define, implement, and enforce development best practices for scalable, maintainable, and performant code.
• Oversee engineering workflows, development standards, and deployment processes to improve efficiency.
• Ensure development is compliant with industry and company security regulations.
• Guide engineers in designing, building, and maintaining high-quality software and infrastructure.
• Support a team working across diverse technologies, including PHP-based CMS platforms, Node.js APIs, GraphQL services, and front-end JavaScript frameworks.
• Lead, mentor, and develop engineering managers, senior engineers, and contributors.
• Establish a structured upskilling program to increase subject-matter expertise in Cloudflare, CI/CD, Pantheon, and modern web technologies.
• Create onboarding, training, and hiring frameworks to scale engineering talent efficiently.
• Encourage knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and cross-functional teamwork.
• Oversee project planning, scoping, and execution for major engineering initiatives.
• Drive technical architecture decisions, ensuring performance, accessibility, and reliability.
• Provide technical mentorship and help resolve engineering roadblocks.
• Maintain and improve CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and DevOps workflows.
• Support both legacy systems and emerging technologies, ensuring the team can evolve and modernize Clearlink’s web architecture.

Requirements

• 8+ years of engineering experience, with at least 3+ years in a leadership role (Engineering Manager, Director, or equivalent).
• Strong leadership, mentorship, and team-building experience.
• Broad exposure to multiple web engineering stacks, including PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and MySQL.
• Experience with WordPress and WordPress plugin development (or deep familiarity with similar CMS platforms).
• Strong experience with DevOps workflows, CI/CD pipelines, CircleCI, GitHub, and Pantheon.
• Expertise in modern web architectures, caching strategies, performance optimizations, and SEO best practices.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate complex engineering challenges into business impact.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience leading multi-brand, multi-product engineering teams.
• Familiarity with GraphQL, Node.js, React, or other modern JavaScript frameworks.
• Experience with Cloudflare, Nginx configurations, and scaling high-traffic websites.
• Strong background in data-driven decision-making, engineering KPIs, and operational effectiveness.
• Experience setting up and maintaining shopping cart systems or billing APIs.

Benefits

• Low-cost, competitive health coverage (domestic partners included!) with employer-paid counseling services.
• 401(k) matching after just two months of employment, with employer matching starting at ~3%.
• Employer-paid spending account for physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing expenses.
• Competitive time-off balances that accrue weekly.
• 2 weeks of paid parental leave during the first year and up to 6 weeks after one year of employment.
• Additional flex holidays in addition to company paid holidays.
• Hybrid work options with 4 days in the office and 1 day remote.
• Onsite restaurants, a 7,000 sqft gym, pickleball & basketball courts, spin class/pilates room, bikes, massages, and more.
• Employer paid life insurance (including coverage for dependents and spouses).
• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) for fostering connections and celebrating diversity.