Director of Software Engineering

At SOM, we aspire to create the most impactful work; and great work requires great people. We are a collective of architects, engineers, designers, and urbanists committed to shaping a better future for our planet. We assemble creative, interdisciplinary teams that work as dynamic studios with all the resources and diversity of a global firm. We seek to foster the best across all fields and levels of experience—those who are passionate about excellence, integrity, respect, inclusivity, and collaboration. Together we can achieve great things.

Success at SOM Means

• Ideas: Our highest aspirations go beyond known solutions and models. We are constantly innovating and attempting to bring new approaches, solutions and processes to our work.
• Knowledge: We are not expected to know everything, but rather to passionately pursue answers. It is vital that we listen intently and are proactive about learning, integrating new skills and deepening our knowledge.
• Deliverables: We strive for excellence in the concept, quality, and delivery of our work.
• Individual: We believe in the individual and the wealth of attributes, skills, and knowledge that a person can develop and contribute.

• Team: Our design ethos is founded on the principle of interdisciplinary integration. We foster a positive team culture in which everyone collaborates openly towards common goals. We proactively reconcile the goals and priorities of SOM and clients while fostering opportunities for design and technical excellence in alignment with the firm’s ethos.

• Firm: We believe in a meritocracy of ideas. We are a collective that looks to everyone to actively contribute to the design discourse in the office.
  

The Director of Software Engineering is a new position at SOM, designed to staff, manage and facilitate a software engineering organization within the firm. This leader will create software and services to establish a collaborative cloud environment for the firm.

With a focus on cloud-based systems, the Director of Software Engineering will work with a 6+ person team of engineers in designing, creating, and maintaining a virtualized AEC application and data pipeline in an AWS cloud environment.

The candidate will be responsible for a team of software and automation engineers who will design, create, and maintain a cloud-based data distribution and AEC application streaming platform. Responsibilities also include the oversight of all internal and public web application platforms operating for SOM and their continued maintenance and improvement. As the engineering staff grows, this position will expand to manage those new individuals. The candidate must be committed, well organized, attentive to detail and capable of maintaining a P&L for the IT and engineering organization.

In addition, the candidate must provide firm employees with technical support, incident management and knowledge base documentation. The candidate should also be well versed in engineering practices and processes and help drive excellence in engineering throughout the organization. The ideal leader has a track record for coordinating a team to deliver enterprise class products, preferably in a public cloud environment. Security and scalability should be built into the design of both the product as well as engineering process.

Position Responsibilities

• Works with Senior IT Managers on strategic systems conversions and integrations in support of business goals and objectives.
• Manages and sets priorities for the design, maintenance, development, and evaluation of all architecture, software infrastructure and software engineering, including code reviews, check-ins, security, etc.
• Ensures engineering staff authors detailed technical feature specifications.
• Coordinates work between individuals and small teams as the projects dictate.
• Coordinates with other departments on the execution of product development efforts.
• Maintains technology and distribution leadership to ensure that we are building the right products for the right services.
• Works closely with Infrastructure teams to ensure software complies with all levels of cloud infrastructures
• Implements automated engineering automation functions and procedures, such as smoke tests, API hammer tests, scalability tests and system integrity.
• Develops, coalesces and coordinates the IT/DD budgets for all offices into a comprehensive plan and budget for review and approval by the IT/DD Subcommittee and the Executive Committee. Manages the compliance with those budgets once approved.
• Coordinates the budgets for worldwide offices with the central finance group
• Interacts with management on internal and external operations that are impacted by the budget and financial state of the technology organization.
• Works with the CTO to help negotiate and review finance for major contracts for computing and information technology services and equipment to ensure it correlates to the budget.
• Works with SOM Finance Group to integrate technology budget with the rest of SOM budgets.
• Oversees ongoing improvements and the feasibility of financial system enhancements.
• Establishes SOM infrastructure to support and facilitate the success of individual offices in computing and information technology efforts.
• Establishes and implements short- and long-range goals, objectives, policies, and operating procedures for SOM Central and coordinates this effort with individual offices.

Leadership Responsibilities

• Actively leads, trains, and mentors assigned team members.
• Directly supervises staff and is committed to direct reports’ professional development.
• Develops and engages in talent strategy to find specialists, leaders, and future professionals for the firm.
• Develops and/or manages, in collaboration with team members, a clear and consistent work plan to achieve the project budget, deliverables, and schedule.
• Encourages incorporation of sustainable strategies in all project assignments.
• Coordinates and supports business development, public relations, and marketing opportunities.
• Contributes to the development of local office standards, policies, and procedures.
• Protects SOM from financial and legal risk.

Minimum Qualifications

• Proven capacity to manage and set priorities for the design, maintenance, development, and evaluation of all architecture, software infrastructure and software engineering, including code reviews, check-ins, security, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex application problems independently or with teams.
• Understanding and knowledge of asset data management engineering Understanding of security and scalability of large-scale enterprise systems.
• Proven technical skills in analysis and design for complex systems.
• Ability to work with both internal and external engineering teams and meet project deadlines.
• Ability to create, maintain and manage operating policies, processes and procedures consistent with best practices and end-user and partner support agreements. Manage software incidents until issues are resolved – act as a point of escalation for all team members.
• Experience in strategic planning and execution.
• Knowledge of contracting, negotiating, and change management.
• Experience with implementation of budgets and/or P&Ls in a large division/company.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to motivate teams to produce quality materials within tight timeframes and simultaneously manage several projects.
• Ability to participate in and facilitate group meetings.

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years’ experience designing and implementing server-side platforms and systems
• 3+ years’ experience working with multiple UNIX-based web and application servers or cloud hosted environments
• 2+ years’ experience working with python web frameworks; preferably python 3
• Solid understanding of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) methodologies, as well as experience with AEC applications.
• Interfacing with related partner APIs
• Knowledge of software engineering industry standards, best practices, automation frameworks, productivity measurements and development tools
• Experience improving software quality, engineering efficiency, program management delivery and architecture
• Knowledge of best practices in software automation, risk-based development, and performance engineering
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills – ability to successfully manage at all levels across the organization
• Effective written and verbal communication skills required.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively split focus between daily management of ongoing engineering projects, and design/planning of future projects
• Understanding of AEC management methodologies and AEC workflows is a plus.

• B.S. degree and/or 7 years equivalent work experience.
• Passion for complex problems, technology, and cloud applications.

TO APPLY: Go to http://www.som.com/about/careers

SOM offers opportunities to work on transformational projects, competitive salaries, health insurance, wellness, retirement and financial and other work/life plans.

At SOM, we welcome and encourage diversity in the workplace. We believe an inclusive environment benefits our employees, our firm, and our community, while also enriching and challenging our own thinking about design. We are proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. Visit this page to learn more about SOM’s employment policy and how to apply offline: http://www.som.com/employment_opportunities_and_policy