Director of Engineering - Marketplace

About the Role:

We are seeking an entrepreneurial and technically strong Director of Engineering - Marketplace to own and scale HighLevel's Marketplace and Developer Ecosystem.

This is not a traditional engineering leadership role. You will own the entire product lifecycle - strategy, product management, design, engineering, quality, delivery, and operations, with direct accountability for business outcomes.

You will lead our API Governance, App Marketplace, Developer Platform, Monetization, and Integrations portfolio while building a high-performing organization of Full Stack Builders (FSBs) - autonomous, AI-native engineers capable of taking products from idea to production with minimal dependencies.

You will operate with the mindset of a product founder, combining deep technical expertise, customer obsession, business ownership, and organizational leadership.

Key Responsibilities:

1. End-to-End Product & Business Ownership

Own product vision, strategy, roadmap, prioritization, and execution across the Marketplace ecosystem.

Drive measurable business outcomes, including developer adoption, marketplace revenue, app growth, customer experience, and platform reliability.

Own product discovery, UX/design, engineering, QA, releases, and post-launch performance, ensuring accountability from idea to impact.

Make strategic decisions on product investments, resource allocation, and trade-offs between growth, quality, speed, and scalability.

2. Build & Scale an FSB Organization

Build and lead an organization of Full Stack Builders capable of independently designing, building, testing, shipping, and operating complete product experiences.

Hire, mentor, and develop entrepreneurial engineers and engineering leaders with strong product instincts, technical depth, and business acumen.

Champion AI-native development practices, leveraging AI tools, agents, and automation to accelerate product development and quality.

Establish a culture of high ownership, rapid experimentation, continuous delivery, and minimal organizational handoffs.

3. Marketplace & Platform Leadership

Own the evolution of Public APIs, developer tooling, SDKs, App Marketplace, App Studio, monetization infrastructure, and marketplace extensibility.

Scale marketplace payments, subscriptions, usage-based billing, rebilling, and payouts with high financial accuracy and reliability.

Ensure security, architectural scalability, API governance, developer experience, and operational excellence across the platform.

4. Strategic Execution & Organizational Accountability

Translate company objectives and customer insights into product strategies with measurable business impact.

Establish clear ownership, success metrics, quality standards, and accountability across the organization.

Drive fast, iterative product development without compromising customer experience, security, or reliability.

Partner with company leadership on ecosystem growth, commercial opportunities, and long-term platform investments.

Requirements:

10+ years of engineering experience, including 5+ years in engineering leadership, with experience leading multiple teams or engineering managers.
Proven experience owning products end-to-end, including product strategy, technical architecture, execution, and business outcomes.
Demonstrated ability to build high-performing, autonomous teams and develop strong engineering leaders.
Background in SaaS platforms, Public APIs, Developer Ecosystems, Marketplaces, or Integration Platforms preferred
Deep technical expertise in distributed systems, API architecture, security, and scalable cloud infrastructure.
Strong product thinking, UX sensibility, customer empathy, and commercial judgment.
Hands-on experience with modern development stacks, preferably Node.js and Vue.js (or React/Angular).
Experience leveraging AI-assisted engineering workflows and automation to improve development velocity.
Entrepreneurial mindset, strong ownership, and the ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.