Director - AI Engineering

This position is responsible for providing dynamic, responsive, collaborative and forward-thinking vision, leadership and management of technology systems and services to support the mission and goals of Vertex and its customers. This includes the planning, development, implementation, management and maintenance of all applications, infrastructure, security, networks, technology training, as well as providing a positive developer experience for adoption. This role will collaborate across the organization to prioritize technology needs including design, development, documenting, testing and adoption enablement. Working cross-functionally with product, engineering, professional services, and DevOps teams to prioritize initiatives, balancing internal priorities with customer expectations. Additionally, this role will work closely with the Marketing, Sales, and Finance teams as well.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• In collaboration with Product Management, UX, Architecture, Commercial Software Engineering, Emerging Technology and Innovation; ensure platform capabilities are realized successfully across the commercial and innovation portfolios.

• Build and evolve a world-class, global software engineering organization

• Communicate effectively up, down and across the organization

• Use data and experience to pragmatically, proactively, and iteratively improve the effectiveness of the organization

• Manage infrastructure, environments and overall deployment process across all tools, driving automation forward wherever possible

• Evangelize the new Vertex Platform and help commercial products find opportunities for adoption with an eye toward ROI and Cost of Ownership advantages

• Understand and anticipate the solution needs of Vertex products and customers both in the present and in the mid- to long-term, applying those needs as requirements of the Platform

• Remain informed of latest SaaS and Cloud technologies and architecture patterns so as to remain relevant to technical discussions

• Oversee the operations and administration of technology to ensure reliability, recoverability and optimum performance.

• Implement and maintain full operational compliance against various security and compliance requirements.

• Consistently improve performance and reliability as the platform scales, driving continuous improvement through operational metrics.

• Participate in other projects or duties.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Determine appropriate resourcing of staff in order to achieve goals and objectives.

• Build an effective leadership team through mentoring and formal education that focuses on management and project management principles.

• Define annual Key Performance Indicators aligned with corporate goals.

• Direct and mentor leaders on performance gaps, career development opportunities, and strategies.

• Direct and coach leaders on all human resource related processes including onboarding, performance management, succession planning, employee relations, selection, terminations, compensation and rewards.

• Accountable for collective results and recognizing others’ contributions and share credit for success.

• Own attainment of high employee satisfaction and retention; lead development of program and initiatives within group to attain high employee satisfaction.

• Lead change management initiatives to drive improvements and efficiencies.

• Ability to interact collaboratively and communicate effectively with external, internal customers, and stakeholders to address issues and ensure alignment.

• Prepare and manage budget as assigned; analyzes variances and initiates corrective actions to maximize operational performance.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Technical aptitude and a passion for staying current with new and upcoming technologies to ensure the best possible solutions.

• Excellent technical knowledge and long term practical experience in the operational design, implementation, management, and maintenance of technical systems.

• Proficiency managing outages, customer escalations, crisis management and other similar circumstances.

• Understanding of global network design, Internetworking, regionalization, redundancy and failover methods in support of zero downtime upgrades and maintenance

• Proven ability to provide leadership, technology guidance and mentorship to others throughout their domain.

• Ability to apply broad expertise or unique knowledge and professional concepts to develop resolutions to critical issues.

• Ability to manage multiple complex, high visibility or high impact projects simultaneously.

• Management of software development lifecycle and timely delivery of features

• Proficient with various software methodologies (Agile, Lean, SAFe etc.) for both on premise and SaaS based architectures in a continuous delivery model

• Demonstrated experience leading large distributed teams to deliver complex software development projects through all phases of SDLC

• Manage software deployment and/or release management

• Able to use tooling to manage and measure team performance: JIRA

• Able to define KPIs for team performance and output, and continuously improve resulting metrics

• Awareness or Knowledge on some of the following is a plus: Java, React, Kafka, Apache Pulsar, Docker, REST, Gloo, Apigee, Postgres, ELK, ETL Tooling, Grafana, Prometheus, Jenkins, Single Page Applications, AWS Lambda

• Self-motivated / Creative / Innovative

• Strong customer focus and ability to interact with and create relationships with Vertex partners and customers in order to understand the needs being defined and proposed

• Coaching, uplift and mentor skills. Help your engineers find the best version of themselves

• Quickly assimilate, analyze, abstract, synthesize and act on large amounts of information

• Must possess good organizational skills.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with all levels of an organization.

• Must be results oriented, customer focused, and exhibit good interpersonal skills.

• Proficiency in Microsoft office packages.

• Sufficient knowledge of business communications, including telephone, voicemail, and e-mail and operations of office machines, such as photocopier, scanner, and fax.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science

• Twelve (12) plus years of experience in Engineering

• Five (5) plus years of leadership experience

• Minimum 5+ years of technical experience

• Or equivalent combination of education and/or experience

Other Qualifications
The Winning Way behaviors that all Vertex employees need in order to meet the expectations of each other, our customers, and our partners.

• Communicate with Clarity - Be clear, concise and actionable. Be relentlessly constructive. Seek and provide meaningful feedback.

• Act with Urgency - Adopt an agile mentality - frequent iterations, improved speed, resilience. 80/20 rule – better is the enemy of done. Don’t spend hours when minutes are enough.

• Work with Purpose - Exhibit a “We Can” mindset. Results outweigh effort. Everyone understands how their role contributes. Set aside personal objectives for team results.

• Drive to Decision - Cut the swirl with defined deadlines and decision points. Be clear on individual accountability and decision authority. Guided by a commitment to and accountability for customer outcomes.

• Own the Outcome - Defined milestones, commitments and intended results. Assess your work in context, if you’re unsure, ask. Demonstrate unwavering support for decisions.

COMMENTS:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals in this position. Other functions may be assigned, and management retains the right to add or change the duties at any time.

Base pay offered to new hires may vary based upon factors including relevant industry and job-related skills and experience, geographic location, and business needs.* The range displayed does not encompass the full potential of the role, which allows for further growth and career progression.

In addition, as a part of our total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Vertex Bonus Plan (VOB), a role-specific sales commission/bonus, and/or equity grants.

Learn more about Life at Vertex and connect with your recruiter for more details regarding Vertex's compensation and benefit programs.

*In no case will your pay fall below applicable local minimum wage requirements.