The Role
As Director, Engineering Operations, you will build and run the operating system that helps
Product and Engineering translate strategy into measurable business and customer impact. You
will create clarity across outcomes, priorities, capacity, delivery health, risks, and decisions, then
turn that clarity into concise executive communication and disciplined organizational action. This
high-leverage leadership role partners closely with Product, Engineering, Data, Operations,
Finance, Go-to-Market, Customer Success, Security, and other business functions. You will play
a critical role in ensuring all functions are aligned and understand the expected outcomes.
Responsibilities
Executive Communication Impact
● Create a clear, executive-ready narrative connecting Product, Engineering, and Data
investments, delivery, and operational performance to customer and business outcomes
● Own recurring executive updates, company communications, and board-level inputs,
supported by a reliable source of truth for commitments, outcomes, and delivery health
● Surface material changes, trade-offs, risks, and decisions early, with concise context and
clear recommendations
Outcome & KPI Definition
● Translate company and product strategy into measurable outcomes, objectives, key
results, and operating KPIs with clear owners, baselines, targets, data sources, and
review cadences
● Develop a balanced view of customer and business impact, delivery effectiveness,
quality, reliability, security, efficiency, and organizational health
● Partner with Data, Finance, Product, and Engineering to improve instrumentation and
use KPI trends to guide decisions and evaluate results
Portfolio & Planning Cadence
● Design and operate annual, quarterly, and ongoing portfolio-planning cadences across
Product and Engineering
● Maintain a current portfolio view connecting strategic outcomes, initiatives, ownership,
dependencies, milestones, capacity, and risk
● Facilitate prioritization and sequencing decisions so assumptions, trade-offs, decision
rights, and changes are explicit
SDLC Process & Operating Reviews
● Define and continuously improve a lightweight, consistent software delivery lifecycle
from discovery through release, adoption, measurement, and learning
● Establish operating reviews focused on outcomes, delivery confidence, quality, reliability,
customer impact, constraints, risks, and decisions
● Use operating data, retrospectives, automation, and appropriately governed AI-enabled
practices to remove friction and improve delivery without adding unnecessary process
Resource & Capacity Planning
● Build a practical capacity model connecting portfolio demand with available teams,
critical skills, hiring plans, external partners, and operational obligations
● Partner with Finance, Product, and Engineering leaders on headcount planning,
allocation trade-offs, capability gaps, and investment choices
● Model alternative portfolio and staffing scenarios and compare planned versus actual
capacity to improve future decisions without creating false precision
Cross-Functional Risk & Decision Tracking
● Establish a clear system for identifying, owning, escalating, and resolving cross-
functional risks, dependencies, and decisions
● Facilitate difficult discussions where business goals, customer needs, technical
constraints, security, compliance, cost, or timing compete
● Close the loop by documenting decisions, updating plans, confirming accountable
owners, and addressing recurring root causes
Organizational Leadership & Collaboration
● Serve as a trusted operating partner to the CTO, Engineering leadership, Product
leadership, and the Engineering Leadership Team
● Strengthen cross-functional relationships, ownership, and accountability through
structured thinking, sound judgment, influence, and consistent follow-through
Qualifications & Experience
● Leadership experience in Engineering Operations, Product Operations, Technical
Program Management, Business Operations, a technical Chief of Staff role, or a
comparable function within a SaaS or product-led technology company
● Exceptional executive communication skills and demonstrated success connecting
Product and Engineering work to customer and business impact
● Experience defining outcomes, OKRs, KPIs, scorecards, portfolio-planning processes,
and operating-review cadences across multiple teams
● Working knowledge of modern product development and software delivery lifecycles,
including platform, reliability, security, and technical investment trade-offs
● Experience with resource, headcount, budget, and capacity planning in partnership with
Finance and functional leaders
● Strong analytical judgment and the ability to build trustworthy reporting from product,
engineering, financial, and customer data
● Proven ability to facilitate difficult cross-functional decisions, manage material risks and
dependencies, and bring structure to ambiguity
● Pragmatic experience using AI-assisted tools to improve synthesis, planning, and
analysis while verifying outputs and protecting sensitive information
What Great Looks Like
A Director, Engineering Operations who is thriving in this role demonstrates:
● Executive clarity - Product and Engineering impact, trade-offs, risks, and decisions are
understood without leaders reconstructing the story themselves
● Outcome accountability - initiatives begin with clear intended outcomes and are
evaluated using credible evidence after delivery
● A predictable, adaptable portfolio - commitments are realistic, priorities are explicit,
and changes are deliberate and well communicated
● A stronger operating system - coordination costs decline, risks surface earlier, data
becomes more trustworthy, and accountability becomes clearer over time
"Someone who makes Product and Engineering easier to understand, easier to lead, and more
effective at turning strategy into measurable results."
Interview Process
The process includes a conversation with the hiring manager; role-specific rounds covering
executive communication, outcome and KPI definition, portfolio and operating-system design,
capacity planning, and cross-functional leadership judgment - including how you use and verify
AI-assisted tools - and a company values conversation with People Ops. Your recruiter will
share the exact sequence when you advance.
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