Director of Software Engineering (Readers, Learners and Institutional Services)
Full Time $165,000 - $185,000 / yearJob Overview
Hybrid Work Environment (3 days onsite in NYC); not a remote role
Overview
The New York Public Library has been an essential provider of free books, information, ideas, and education for all New Yorkers for over 125 years. Founded in 1895, NYPL is the nation's largest neighborhood public library system and the most used research library in the world. NYPL provides a fundamental resource to millions of readers, learners and scholars. The Library’s portfolio of digital products and platforms is the core linchpin in how our patrons near and far can access information to create new content, support their personal learning and build stronger communities.
Overview
The New York Public Library has been an essential provider of free books, information, ideas, and education for all New Yorkers for over 125 years. Founded in 1895, NYPL is the nation's largest neighborhood public library system and the most used research library in the world. NYPL provides a fundamental resource to millions of readers, learners and scholars. The Library’s portfolio of digital products and platforms is the core linchpin in how our patrons near and far can access information to create new content, support their personal learning and build stronger communities.
NYPL seeks a Director of Engineering to lead the Readers, Learners and Institutional Services teams. This role will spearhead digital efforts to modernize the reading experience and transform patron digital experience and foster a lifelong reading and learning culture for all New Yorkers. The ideal candidate is a dynamic engineering leader with a proven record of aligning cross-functional teams and stakeholders to deliver large-scale, innovative user-centric solutions. Essential qualifications include a background in coding and system design, a deep understanding of software development challenges, and the ability to align technical goals with high-level strategy. The Director will manage a team of technical leads and senior engineers, ensuring the delivery of high-quality software that meets the needs of internal stakeholders and patrons, often in partnership with external vendors.
We are looking for someone we can count on to:
Own:
- Technical delivery of Readers, Learners and Institutional Services team’s project.
- Hiring, training, coaching and management of engineering team members
- Continuous improvement of Engineering practices
- Our tech stacks, frameworks, vendor tools, and processes
- Identification and mitigation of risk
Teach:
- Teach critical thinking skills, strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and technical decision-making skills to scale the team's impact.
- Mentor teams to proactively identify challenges, offers appropriate, timely and practical solutions.
- Identify new technologies, such as AI-enabled engineering tools to improve workflow
Learn:
- NYPL culture, goals, strategy and the environment in which we work
- The specific challenges that digital technology introduces for our staff, patrons, vendors, partners and the Library as a whole
Improve:
- Remove roadblocks and advocate for the changes needed to maintain a world-class engineering team
- The interviewing and onboarding process for Engineering
- Ensure that the team’s time and capacity are adequately allocated in order to deliver on high-priority projects in a timely manner
- Socialize core engineering metrics so that the organization understands the engineering stack
- Break down silos between individual engineers, and between engineering teams and key partners.
Responsibilities:
Technical Strategy and Operation Define, implement, and own technical strategy and roadmaps for the Readers, Learners, and Institutional Services teams in alignment with the library’s strategic objectives.
- Lead the "build vs buy" analysis for new technologies, tools, and systems, ensuring decisions support the company's core value proposition and long-term budgetary objectives.
- Direct the technical strategy and delivery of high-traffic, custom-built, patron-facing web applications, ensuring superior user experience, performance, and accessibility.
- Serve as the primary technical leader for vendor-produced products, responsible for architectural oversight and seamless integration with custom systems.
Leadership and People Management
- Directly manage and mentor a team of Tech Leads and senior engineers, cultivating their leadership skills, business acumen, and technical decision-making.
- Own the hiring, training, and coaching process for Engineering team members, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
- Set clear goals and metrics for software development teams and maintain high standards of software quality while delivering on project goals.
- Lead the team in proactively identifying challenges, offering appropriate, timely, and practical solutions.
Engineering Practices and Architecture
- Own the continuous improvement of Engineering practices, patterns, and processes, removing roadblocks to maintain a world-class engineering team.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends (including AI-enabled engineering tools) and incorporate them into the organization’s practices where appropriate.
- Ensure the team has expertise across our diverse tech stacks, frameworks, vendor tools, and processes.
- Drive the resolution of complex technical challenges and lead efforts to improve engineering processes.
Required Education, Experience & Skills
Required Education and Certifications
- Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience (see required experience below)
Required Experience
- 10+ years in software development with a minimum of 5 years of experience as a Software Engineer.
- 5 -10 years of progressive leadership/management experience.
- Expertise in frontend architecture design (e.g., micro-frontends, server-side, design systems).
- Experience in vendor lifecycle management from sourcing and due diligence through contract negotiation, performance monitoring, and termination.
- Ability to develop and execute a strategic roadmap for development or vendor projects that aligns capabilities (SaaS, outsourced development, etc.) with engineering and business goals.
Required Skills
- Possesses strong communication skills across all organizational levels. Adept at securing buy-in from both executive leadership and junior team members.
- Ability to solve complex technical problems at the appropriate level: can propose both strategic solutions as well as specific code fixes.
- Familiarity with best practices and training for software development. Understanding of A11Y principles, including experience working on an accessible front-end.
- Deep understanding of modern deployment and development infrastructure: CI/CD, unit and end-to-end testing, and AWS deployment.
- Proven ability to implement innovative solutions and drive change
- Demonstrates good judgement in handling situations with multiple good solutions, or situations with no good solution
- Proactive mindset that solves future problems before they become emergencies
- Expertise with front end technologies including Javascript and React; Proficiency with at least one strongly typed language (Python, etc); Familiarity with other languages (PHP, Ruby) preferred
Managerial/Supervisory Responsibilities:
- Manages a diverse technology/developer team (2-6 tech leads and engineers)