Director of Engineering

Roca Alliances; Medellín; On-site; COP 300,000,000 - 600,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Permanent contract (indefinite)

Private health insurance

On-site role in Medellín

Parking

Growth of new engineering hub

Job summary

Roca Alliances is expanding its engineering capabilities by establishing a new hub in Medellín. The Director of Engineering will build and lead the local team, champion AI-native development, and align with the Australia organization to accelerate the product roadmap.

You will hire engineers, drive high-velocity delivery, foster in-person collaboration, and set engineering standards for a distributed, multi-region product.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading software engineering teams.
• Experience building or scaling new teams, offices, or functions.
• Experience with cloud-native SaaS and AWS.

Responsibilities

• Lead Medellín engineering org and recruit top talent.
• Drive AI-first development practices to improve delivery speed.
• Establish engineering practices, tooling, and delivery rhythms.
• Coordinate with Australia engineering leadership on architecture and roadmap.
• Represent the Medellín team in leadership discussions.
• Shape an org structure scalable for growth.

Skills

Leadership experience

Cloud-native SaaS

AWS experience

Hiring & interviewing

AI-first development

English proficiency

Executive presence

Distributed/global teams

In-person collaboration

Ambiguity management

People management

Tools

AWS

Terraform

Kubernetes

Job description

Medellin, Colombia

At Roca Alliances Our mission is to inspire nearshore outsourcing to Latin America, as our expertise is providing customized services to help companies from the U.S., Canada, and Europe expand their operations through guided entry with our consolidated experience in the Latin American region. We are an expert recruitment firm, connecting top talent with leading global companies. We deliver tailored hiring solutions to ensure the perfect match for each role. With deep insight into industry trends, we drive targeted, efficient recruitment that builds long-lasting partnerships and supports business growth. Our mission is to inspire and help businesses thrive by delivering the right professionals to meet their needs.

Job Description

About the client

Our client is a global SaaS leader in field service management (FSM), helping trades and field service businesses around the world manage jobs, people and profitability. Its software is trusted by thousands of businesses globally, built by an established engineering organization in Australia. The company is now investing in a new engineering hub in Medellín and is looking for a Director of Engineering to build and lead it.

About the role

This is a hands-on leadership role focused on expanding the capabilities of the platform, with AI as a core lever to accelerate delivery and improve team velocity. You will hire and build the Medellín engineering team and shape how it uses AI-native development practices to ship faster and more reliably. You'll work in close partnership with the engineering organization in Australia, taking on new product capabilities, accelerating roadmap delivery and operating as a high-velocity engineering team within the global organization.

What you'll do

• Build the org: recruit, interview and hire the engineers, tech leads and future managers of the Medellín team.
• Accelerate delivery with AI: champion AI-first, AI-native development practices and tooling to increase speed, improve code quality and lift team velocity.
• Build an in-office culture that drives collaboration, learning and innovation.
• Set the foundation: establish engineering practices, tooling, coding standards and delivery rhythms suited to a distributed, multi-region product organization.
• Partner across time zones: build a strong working relationship with engineering leadership in Australia on architecture, roadmap and ways of working, so Medellín integrates seamlessly rather than operating as a silo.
• Own delivery: take accountability for the Colombia team's contributions to the product roadmap, balancing speed with the quality bar of an established platform.
• Represent Colombia in the global org: be the voice of the Medellín team in leadership discussions and planning cycles.
• Scale responsibly: design an org structure (squads, leads, career paths) that can grow while sustaining high velocity.

What success looks like in your first year

• The founding engineering team in Medellín hired and onboarded.
• A working cadence and trusted partnership with the Australia engineering organization.
• AI-first development practices in place that measurably improve delivery speed.
• An in-office culture that fosters collaboration, learning and innovation.
• Meaningful contributions shipped to the product roadmap from the Colombia team.
• The beginnings of a scalable engineering org structure ready for future growth.

Requirements

Required

• Proven experience leading software engineering teams, ideally including building or scaling a new team, office or function.
• Strong hands-on technical background in full-stack, cloud-native SaaS, with the credibility to hire and evaluate senior engineers.
• Experience building and maintaining highly available, scalable cloud/SaaS solutions on AWS.
• A track record of hiring: sourcing, interviewing and building strong engineering teams.
• Demonstrated use of AI-first or AI-native development practices and tools to improve delivery speed and team velocity.
• Experience working in a distributed, global engineering model across time zones and cultures.
• Experience building strong in-person team cultures, and a belief in the value of in-person collaboration.
• Comfort operating with ambiguity and building structure where none exists yet.
• Fluent written and spoken English, for regular collaboration with global leadership.
• Strong executive presence to represent the Medellín team in front of senior leadership and influence decisions across the global engineering organization.

Nice to have

• Experience working with Australia / APAC teams.
• Experience in field service management, vertical SaaS or B2B software.
• Permanent contract (contrato a término indefinido) with all legal benefits
• Private health insurance (medicina prepagada)
• On-site role in Medellín, 5 days a week, with parking
• The chance to build and lead a new engineering hub from day one