Senior Director, Engineering (AI)

TL;DR

Senior Director, Engineering (AI): Leading AI-first transformation across customer-facing SaaS product engineering capabilities with an accent on scalable architecture, GenAI integration, and engineering excellence. Focus on modernizing legacy SaaS systems, driving AI-enabled product innovation, and managing globally distributed engineering teams.

Location: 200 West Jackson Blvd., Chicago, Illinois, United States

Compensation: USD 151,800 - USD 200,000 yearly

Company

NIQ is the world’s leading consumer intelligence company, providing advanced analytics and consumer insights through state-of-the-art platforms.

What you will do

• Lead the evolution of customer-facing SaaS capabilities toward an AI-first product and engineering model.
• Define and communicate technical direction for SaaS product engineering in alignment with product strategy.
• Provide technical leadership in architecture reviews and critical system design decisions for large-scale distributed systems.
• Drive engineering delivery outcomes, balancing AI development with technical debt reduction.
• Develop and mentor senior technical talent, including Directors and Principal Engineers.
• Promote production excellence through CI/CD, test automation, and observability.

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive technology and software engineering leadership experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Proven experience leading engineering for customer-facing enterprise SaaS or data-intensive platforms.
• Current experience leading AI-enabled product development within enterprise environments.
• Deep expertise in cloud-native architecture, distributed systems, and API design.
• Experience leading globally distributed teams in a matrixed organization.

Nice to have

• Experience with RAG, agentic workflows, or AI-enabled analytics.
• Background in retail, CPG, or market intelligence domains.
• Experience improving engineering operating models via platform thinking and metrics.

Culture & Benefits

• Flexible working environment.
• Volunteer time off.
• Access to LinkedIn Learning.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP).