Director of Engineering

Location: McLean, VA

About Trase

Co-founded in 2023 by Joe Laws and Grant Verstandig, Trase Systems is AI, Uncomplicated. Trase empowers enterprise leaders to harness the full potential of AI without the associated complexity and risks. We are an end-to-end solution for deploying, managing, and optimizing AI in the enterprise. Our platform specializes in bridging the "last mile" of AI adoption, unlocking AI's full potential while driving efficiency and significant cost savings.

About the Role

Are you passionate about building and scaling high-performing engineering organizations? Do you excel at creating the structures, processes, and culture that enable teams to deliver exceptional results? If you have a proven track record of growing engineering teams and driving operational excellence, we have an exciting opportunity for you to join our team.

As the Director of Engineering, you will play a critical role in scaling our engineering organization from its current state to support our ambitious growth plans. You will focus on building world-class engineering teams, establishing scalable processes, and creating an environment where engineers can do their best work. This role is about people leadership and operational excellence. You will be responsible for building robust processes, nurturing team culture, and establishing systems to ensure smooth execution as our engineering team expands.

Responsibilities

• Scale the engineering organization: Lead recruitment efforts to grow our engineering team from 15 to 50+ engineers over the next 12 months while maintaining our high hiring bar
• Build organizational structure: Design and implement team structures and communication channels that promote collaboration and efficiency across distributed teams
• Establish engineering operations: Create and optimize processes for sprint planning, project management, resource allocation, and cross-functional collaboration
• Drive performance management: Implement comprehensive performance review systems, career development frameworks, and promotion criteria that help engineers grow and thrive
• Foster engineering culture: Champion a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement while ensuring high employee engagement and retention
• Manage engineering budgets: Own headcount planning, compensation benchmarking, and operational budgets for the engineering organization
• Enable productivity: Identify and remove obstacles that prevent engineers from being productive, including tooling gaps, process inefficiencies, and organizational friction
• Partner with leadership: Collaborate closely with the CTO, CPO, and other executives to align engineering capacity with business objectives
• Measure and improve: Establish KPIs for engineering productivity, quality, and satisfaction, using data to drive continuous organizational improvements

Requirements

• Educational background: Bachelor's degree in any field; an advanced degree is a plus but not required
• Leadership experience: 10+ years of experience in engineering leadership roles, with at least 5 years managing managers and building engineering organizations
• Scaling expertise: Demonstrated experience scaling engineering teams through periods of rapid growth (3x+ headcount increase) in high-growth technology companies, preferably in B2B SaaS or enterprise software
• Operational excellence: Strong track record of implementing engineering processes, operational improvements, and modern development methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Kanban) at scale
• People development: Expertise in performance management, compensation planning, career development frameworks, and building high-performing distributed/remote teams
• Data-driven approach: Experience with engineering metrics and KPIs (velocity, quality metrics, employee satisfaction) with strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Communication skills: Exceptional ability to influence diverse stakeholders, translate between technical teams and business leaders, and align engineering capacity with business objectives
• Culture building: A people-first leader who creates psychological safety, maintains startup agility while implementing necessary structure, and attracts top engineering talent
• Systems thinking: Ability to see the big picture while diving deep into operational details, knowing when to add process and when to preserve flexibility
• Empathetic leadership: Creates opportunities for others to succeed, encourages diverse perspectives, and genuinely cares about developing talent

Benefits

• Competitive salary and performance-based bonuses.
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits package.
• Collaborative and inclusive work environment.
• Opportunities for professional development and continued learning.
• Flexible work hours.

Some travel is required.

If you want to be on the cutting edge of technology, building AI solutions for the future, and are up for a challenge, let’s talk!

Salary Range: $250,000-$300,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors.