Director, Software Engineering - Product Engineering

Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.

The Company operates Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world, and Specs Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to making computing more human, in addition to Bitmoji, Saturn, and other digital services.

Snap Engineering teams build fun and technically sophisticated products that reach hundreds of millions of Snapchatters around the world every day. We are deeply committed to the well being of everyone in our global community, and our values are at the root of everything we do. We move fast, with precision, and always execute with privacy at the forefront.

At Snap, our products empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. We believe that diverse backgrounds and voices help us create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate.

We are looking for a Director, Software Engineering to lead a Product Engineering team at Snap. In this role, you will combine strong people leadership, product judgment, and technical depth to build experiences that delight Snapchatters and deliver meaningful business impact.

You will shape the team’s vision and strategy, develop a high performing and inclusive organization, and partner closely with Product, Design, Data Science, Operations, and Engineering leaders. You will guide the delivery of reliable, scalable, and privacy conscious products in a fast moving, highly collaborative environment.

What You’ll Do

• Lead, manage, and mentor a team of software engineers. Create an environment where people can do their best work, grow their careers, and feel included and supported.
• Set the technical vision, strategy, roadmap, and measurable goals for a product engineering area aligned to company priorities.
• Partner with Product, Design, Data Science, Operations, and other Engineering teams to understand customer needs, define product requirements, evaluate tradeoffs, and deliver high quality experiences.
• Design, implement, and scale critical product components and services across the stack, including backend services, distributed systems, client applications, and data platforms as appropriate for the team.
• Drive technical execution across a portfolio of initiatives, from near term product launches to longer term investments in architecture, platform capabilities, and engineering excellence.
• Establish a high bar for availability, scalability, performance, privacy, security, operational excellence, and cost management.
• Use product and engineering insights to identify opportunities, make sound decisions in ambiguous situations, and improve customer and business outcomes.
• Provide technical direction that influences work beyond your immediate team and helps engineering organizations operate more effectively.
• Hire, retain, and develop high caliber engineers and leaders while building a diverse and inclusive team.
• Communicate clearly with senior leaders and cross functional partners, ensuring alignment on priorities, risks, decisions, and outcomes.
  

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Excellent programming and software design skills, including debugging, performance analysis, testing, and technical decision making.
• Proven experience building and operating highly available products or services at significant scale.
• Experience architecting, designing, and developing distributed systems and modern product experiences.
• Strong product judgment and the ability to connect technical choices to customer value and business outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to solve ambiguous problems, set direction, and lead complex initiatives from strategy through delivery and operation.
• Strong collaboration, communication, mentorship, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience developing engineering talent, building effective teams, and fostering a culture of accountability, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
• Ability to learn new concepts and technologies quickly and apply them effectively.
• Experience with one or more modern programming languages, such as Java, C++, Go, Python, Swift, Kotlin, or JavaScript.
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant technical field such as computer science, mathematics, statistics, or equivalent years of practical work experience.
• 10+ years of post Bachelor’s software development experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field plus 9+ years of post graduate software development experience; or a PhD in a related technical field plus 6+ years of post graduate software development experience.
• 5+ years of experience as an engineering manager or technical leader, including experience setting technical direction for engineering projects or organizations.
• Experience architecting, designing, and developing distributed systems and business critical products.
• Experience leading, mentoring, and scaling engineering teams to consistently deliver complex, high impact work.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a technical field such as computer science.
• Experience building consumer products used at global scale.
• Experience partnering with senior executives and management across a globally distributed organization, and exercising sound judgment in a fast changing environment.
• Experience leading product engineering teams across multiple platforms, such as web, mobile, and backend systems.
• Experience applying artificial intelligence or machine learning to product development, personalization, recommendations, search, or engineering productivity.
• A track record of delivering in rapidly changing, highly collaborative, multi site, and multi stakeholder environments.
• Ability to create a compelling vision for the future, communicate with clarity, and lead with a collaborative approach.

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please provide us some information.

"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a “default together” approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week. 

At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, where applicable).

Our Benefits: Snap Inc. is its own community, so we’ve got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!

Compensation

In the United States, work locations are assigned a pay zone which determines the salary range for the position. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. The starting pay may be negotiable within the salary range for the position. These pay zones may be modified in the future.

Zone A (CA, WA, NYC):

The base salary range for this position is $334,000-$500,000 annually.

Zone B:

The base salary range for this position is $317,000-$475,000 annually.

Zone C:

The base salary range for this position is $284,000-$425,000 annually.This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.

If you believe this job description is missing required pay transparency information, please submit a report through this form: Job Description Pay Range Disclosure.