Sr. Director, Account Engineering

Summary

The role demands a highly accomplished, business-savvy, and forward-thinking Senior Account Engineering Director to take complete technical and strategic ownership of a critical, high-revenue customer engagement. This position requires a unique blend of deep software engineering mastery, executive-level customer management, and a commercial mindset to drive technical innovation, product alignment, and account growth.

As the primary technical anchor for this strategic account, you will be fully accountable for the customer’s engineering success, including continuous alignment on technical advances, product roadmaps, engineering metrics, and overall quality execution. To succeed, you must seamlessly orchestrate internal global engineering resources, interface with product marketing, and build trust-based relationships with the customer’s executive leadership.

Detailed Description

Strategic Account & Technical Leadership:

• Serve as the principal technical advisor and strategic executive partner for a key customer account, maintaining a deep understanding of their business model, market pressures, and technical architecture.

• Partner with the customer’s executive and engineering leadership to co-author product roadmaps, define engineering project scopes, and align development with their long-term business goals.

• Act as the ultimate escalation point for technical and operational issues, managing readouts and resolution strategies professionally, proactively, and transparently.

• Represent the organization and the customer’s technological interests in public speaking venues, industry forums, and community events.

Cross-Functional & Global Delivery Management:

• Lead, mentor, and orchestrate high-performing global engineering teams allocated to the account, fostering a cohesive culture of customer-centricity, technical excellence, and rapid innovation.

• Oversee the full software development lifecycle (SDLC) tailored to the account's deliverables, ensuring global teams adhere to rigorous schedules, compliance requirements, and engineering metrics.

• Champion modern engineering best practices across the account's ecosystem, including code reviews, automated testing, GenAI-based toolsets, and comprehensive technical documentation.

• Drive continuous improvement in engineering velocity and resource allocation to maximize both customer satisfaction and internal operational efficiency.

Quality & Revenue Assurance:

• Establish and govern robust quality assurance frameworks, KPI dashboards, and engineering metrics to ensure deliverables consistently exceed customer expectations.

• Proactively identify, track, and mitigate technical risks, architectural bottlenecks, or supply/delivery constraints that could impact the health of the strategic account.

• Transform technical breakthroughs and emerging tech opportunities (e.g., AI/ML, next-gen silicon) into commercial value, identifying expansion opportunities within the account.

Industry Engagements & Standards Bodies:

• Maintain active, influential engagement in one or more relevant open-source consortiums or standards bodies (e.g., Linux Foundation, OpenBMC, Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC), IETF working groups) to advocate for architectures that benefit the strategic account's roadmap.

Qualifications

• Account Engineering Expertise: 15+ years of experience in complex software engineering environments, with at least 5+ years in a dedicated customer-facing technical leadership, account engineering, or engineering director role managing large-scale client engagements.
• Technical Mastery: Deep hands-on foundational experience in C/C++, Python, Linux Kernel, Platform Drivers, Open Source development, and Network Switching Chipsets.
• Executive Presence: Exceptional communication, interpersonal, and negotiation skills, with a proven track record of managing relationships with C-suite executives and major customer stakeholders.
• Commercial & Strategic Acumen: Demonstrated ability to translate complex client business needs into scalable technical solutions while protecting business margins and spotting expansion opportunities.
• Emerging Tech Execution: Strong experience with and a passion for emerging technologies (AI/ML, automated tooling), with a track record of successfully integrating these into mature customer architectures.
• Global Leadership: Proven ability to lead, influence, and mentor distributed, cross-functional engineering teams in a matrixed global environment without needing direct line authority over every resource.

Physical Demands

• Incumbent will perform the duties of this position in a normal office or remote home-office environment, with travel required as needed to support customer-facing milestones.
• Overseas travel will be required (3-4 times per year)

Typical Experience

• Fifteen plus years of relevant technical and client-facing engineering leadership experience.

Typical Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a highly related technical field.
• Advanced studies or certifications in Business Administration, Operations, or Technology Management (e.g., MBA or executive leadership training) are highly recommended.
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Notes

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time.