Director Of Software Engineering and Architecture (AI)

Location: Remote across the United States; candidates in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area are prioritized, with availability to work from the Arlington, Virginia headquarters two days per week.

Base salary: $232,100–$264,200 annually, with potential bonus eligibility.

Company

hirify.global develops and delivers online higher-education programs and operates edX, a global learning platform serving millions of learners.

What you will do

• Set the architecture and engineering strategy for scalable cloud-native platforms supporting learner experiences, applications, and data ecosystems.
• Lead system design across backend, frontend, databases, APIs, microservices, and event-driven architectures.
• Own end-to-end delivery and operations, including releases, uptime, reliability, observability, performance, and production issue resolution.
• Drive DevOps practices using CI/CD, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and monitoring tools.
• Guide the integration of AI services and intelligent workflows for automation, personalization, testing, and engineering productivity.
• Mentor senior engineers, technical leads, and solution architects while collaborating with product, data, and partner operations teams.

Requirements

• 12–15+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including 5+ years in leadership roles.
• Hands-on technical leadership across software engineering and DevOps, with ownership of production systems and operational excellence.
• Strong expertise in Python or TypeScript, the React ecosystem, and MySQL or PostgreSQL.
• Experience with AWS, Docker, Kubernetes/EKS, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Argo, and Terraform.
• Experience designing and operating microservices and event-driven systems using Kafka or similar technologies.
• Must be eligible to work in the United States; the role is remote within the U.S., with regular Arlington office attendance expected for prioritized local candidates.

Nice to have

• Experience with Ruby on Rails, Clojure, Elixir, or scaled Agile practices such as SAFe and PI Planning.
• Experience with OpenAI API, Azure OpenAI Service, Amazon Bedrock, or Google Vertex AI.
• Background in EdTech, digital media, eCommerce, SaaS, data platforms, or high-traffic customer-facing products.
• Experience modernizing legacy systems and working with globally distributed engineering teams.

Culture & Benefits

• Mission-driven environment focused on expanding access to higher education.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage, life insurance, disability coverage, and a 401(k) employer match for U.S. employees.
• Unlimited PTO, paid holidays and leave, volunteer days, parental leave, and a company-wide winter break.
• Free snacks and drinks in the office and an emphasis on work-life balance.