Director of Engineering

clarity; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Clarity is seeking a Director of Engineering to guide its growth. You will lead a product-minded engineering team, shaping architectural decisions, mentoring engineers, and partnering with founders to scale the organization.

You will drive AI-driven productivity, hire top talent, and build processes that support rapid shipping of value to schools and families. You will work closely with Product and leadership to balance priorities, maintain technical debt discipline, and grow a robust

Qualifications

• Passion for engineering leadership and team growth.
• Experience scaling cross-functional engineering teams at a multi-product company.
• Belief in AI to improve productivity and willingness to adopt tools.
• Experience building B2B SaaS products; extra points for B2C.
• Hands-on backend/fullstack development.
• Proven ability to hire, grow, retain top engineering talent.
• Strong communication and transparency in leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a high-performing team through daily technical and operational challenges.
• Conduct regular 1-on-1s, understand growth goals, and advocate for engineers.
• Shape key architectural decisions and stay hands-on with code reviews.
• Participate in hiring and shaping organizational structure for growth.
• Build an engineering culture that ships high-quality value for users.
• Drive adoption of AI tools to improve velocity and leverage.
• Partner with Product and leadership to align priorities with feasibility and risk.
• Establish engineering processes, observability, and debt prioritization to support shipping.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Team mentorship

AI adoption

B2B SaaS

Backend/fullstack

Hiring & retention

Communication

Tools

Code review

Architectural design

Job description

About Clarity

Clarity is modernizing the relationship between schools and families. We aim to help schools meet their enrollment and revenue goals, while also helping families find the best fit education for them and their kids.

We've done so by becoming the market leader for financial aid, enrollment, and billing. We're currently building an admission product, which is generating the most market excitement for any product we've seen in the industry. Since launching in 2022, we've grown to support 1,500+ schools run their businesses and half a million families access their ideal institution.

About this role:

We're hiring a Director of Engineering to help lead Clarity through its next phase of growth. Our engineering organization, product surface area, and operational complexity continues to scale, and we're looking for a boots on the ground, product-minded engineering leader who can structurally and technically lead our builders. This role will require structural & people management, technical guidance, and close partnership with Clarity's founders.

What You'll Do

• Lead and mentor a high-performing team of product-minded engineers through day-to-day technical and operational challenges.
• Build trust and credibility with each engineer through regular 1-on-1s, understanding their growth goals, strengths, and concerns, and advocating for them within leadership.
• Shape key architectural and technical decisions, and stay hands-on with code and code review to maintain deep technical context with the team.
• Participate in hiring engineers and shaping organizational structure to support a growing team.
• Build an engineering culture that enables each engineer to ship more high-quality value for our users, increasing output per engineer across the team.
• Drive thoughtful adoption of modern AI tools and workflows to improve engineering velocity and team leverage.
• Partner with Product and leadership to ensure technical feasibility and risk are factored into priority decisions.
• Establish and maintain engineering processes, systems, and workflows including project management, observability, and technical debt prioritization to support consistent shipping and team operations.
• Ensure engineers understand company priorities and how their work connects to them.

What You Need

• Enthusiasm for engineering leadership and investing in your team's growth.
• Experience managing and scaling cross functional engineering teams at a multi-product company.
• Conviction that AI can meaningfully improve engineering productivity, and eagerness to actively explore and adopt tools within your team.
• Prior experience building B2B vertical SaaS products. Extra points for also having experience building in B2C.
• Technical expertise with hands-on experience in backend/fullstack development
• Expertise in hiring, growing, and retaining top engineering talent.
• Strong communicator who builds trust through transparency and follows through on commitments.