Director, Platform Engineering

Position Description

Title: Director, Platform Engineering
Department: Technology
Reports To: Vice President, Engineering
Supervisory Role: Yes
FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Washington, DC or anywhere (Continental US)

Company

SoundExchange is the premier music tech organization on a mission to power the future of music. It was independently formed in 2003 to build a fairer, simpler, and more efficient music industry through technology, data, and advocacy. The only organization designated by the U.S. government to administer the Section 114 sound recording license, SoundExchange collects and distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of 600,000 music creators and growing. Through proprietary music tech solutions that turn data into accurate revenue, SoundExchange has paid more than $9 billion in distributions to date.

Position Summary

At SoundExchange, we have re-architected and rebuilt our core enterprise software platform to support our rapidly growing and evolving business. Our new software platform is a set of cloud-native, federated systems that are highly scalable, accurate, and modular, leveraging both custom-built and 3rd party components. We are seeking an individual to become a member of our growing Engineering team and lead our Platform Engineering efforts. This person will be an experienced leader that excels in a dynamic, fast-moving, agile environment and is passionate about developing high-quality, scalable software.

The Director will be responsible for managing the software engineering activities for the data pipeline. Responsibilities include managing a team of software engineers and engineering leads, prioritizing the development of new features, refactoring existing designs, and integrating custom and 3rd party systems. The ideal candidate should have a deep knowledge of software engineering, data processing, the Java platform, enterprise software engineering concepts, patterns, models, practices, and processes. The Director will also interface with our product team and with business stakeholders to provide technical oversight, refine requirements, and formulate a platform strategy while managing production processing.

The Director will also assist in the direction of the Engineering function in developing, releasing, integrating, maintaining, and supporting software applications and systems according to business needs and technology principles and standards. The Director will need to be familiar with a variety of enterprise software engineering concepts, models, practices, and processes. Relies on considerable experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected. 

Essential Functions

  • Recruit, develop, manage, and lead a small team of leads and software engineers
  • Develop a common platform data pipeline, data access services and work on decoupling applications through queues, caching, and backward/forward compatibility of APIs
  • Demonstrate responsibility, accountability, and dedication to Engineering team success
  • Establish and promote the use of technologies and processes that lower risk and increase efficiency
  • Support and improve established software development standards and best practices
  • Lead by example in developing and maintaining strong relationships with key stakeholders in other functional areas; build and support a culture of collaboration and teamwork
  • Establish and ensure adherence to budgets, schedules, work plans, and performance requirements
  • Support and improve software development standards and best practices
  • Mentor more junior team members in software design and development best practices
  • Ensure applications achieve a high level of performance, scalability, reliability, security, quality, and maintainability
  • Actively manage and address software technical debt
  • Leverage and enhance continuous build and deployment tools
  • Leverage and follow Agile software development practices and techniques
  • Interface with key stakeholders in Product, Business, and Technology Operations to ensure high-quality delivery of software project
  • Responsible for solving highly technical and complex problems

Required Knowledge, Skills, Abilities (KSAs)

  • Ability to develop and maintain strong relationships with both technical and business stakeholders
  • Experience building financially focused systems, with complex business rules, domain models, and data models
  • Experience with microservice-based architecture concepts including REST APIs, caching, queueing, and horizontal scaling
  • Experience developing highly available, highly scalable transaction-oriented software
  • Solid analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Proficient at designing and developing enterprise software
  • Proficiency in AWS development, architecture, and cost management
  • Proficient at designing relational data models and working with relational databases
  • Proficient in Agile software development methodology, processes, and practices
  • Experience evaluating and leveraging 3rd party commercial and open-source software
  • Strong experience with AWS and cloud-native systems and services
  • Excellent written and verbal communications and presentation skills

Required Education, Certifications/ Licenses, Related Experience

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent experience
  • 10 years of experience in software engineering/development
  • 6 years of experience in a Senior Engineer or Architect role
  • 6 years in a people management role

ADA Specifications

  • This position requires the ability to remain in a stationary position (standing and/or seated) all of the time
  • This position requires the ability to spend all of the time viewing computer monitors

Travel Requirements

  • This position requires overnight domestic travel less than 25% of the time 
  • Anticipated travel will be by car, air, and/or train 

DEI Statement

At SoundExchange, we empower creators and help share the future of music. One way we do this is by respecting diverse voices, varied perspectives, and distinct backgrounds of all of our team members. We are intentional in creating an inclusive culture where we recognize that equity is greater than equality and all employees have the opportunities and support needed to thrive. We strive to create teams that reflect the music community we serve – every individual’s unique attributes and abilities are valued, and are part of how we innovate, create, and deliver experiences to the creators we champion.

COVID-19 Policy

Applicants who receive a conditional offer of employment will be required to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status prior to beginning employment. Employees who are not fully vaccinated will not be permitted to access SoundExchange offices until they are fully vaccinated. As a condition of employment, all SoundExchange employees will be required to be fully vaccinated. SoundExchange will provide reasonable accommodations for employees who cannot be vaccinated because of a disability or sincerely held religious belief. Accommodation requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Contact

To apply, please send a cover letter and résumé to [email protected].

Note: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the individual(s) assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required. Management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and to assign other duties as necessary.