Director of Engineering Operations

High 5 Games; Mahwah (NJ); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

High 5 Games is seeking an engineering operations lead who will serve as the leader's operational counterpart. This role is not coding or vision-setting; it focuses on staffing, capacity, planning, and third-party agreements to keep the engineering organization running smoothly.

You will own scheduling, delivery coordination, and vendor management, helping the leader stay focused on strategy and technical judgment in a distributed, US/Canada-based environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in or around software engineering with strong operational and management experience.
• Proven track record running staffing, capacity, and delivery coordination for a team of 25–50+ engineers.
• Direct experience managing vendor or third-party technical agreements — tracking terms, renewals, and negotiations at meaningful scale.
• Exceptionally organized and systematic; you like owning the details and keeping many threads straight.
• Enough technical fluency to coordinate engineers and vendors credibly and understand what agreements actually cover.
• Comfortable operating as a leader's right hand — high trust, high follow-through, low ego about who sets direction.
• Strong communicator who works cleanly across Engineering, Product, Legal, and Finance.
• Familiar with planning and tracking tools (e.g., Jira, Linear) and contract/vendor management practices.

Responsibilities

• Own staffing and capacity management across squads to align with priorities.
• Forecast capacity gaps and coordinate moves between teams and projects.
• Manage contractor/vendor staffing and partner with recruiting on hiring plans.
• Oversee operational side of third-party agreements and vendor relationships.
• Provide scheduling, planning, and progress reporting to give the leader a clear status picture.
• Ensure renewals and expirations are tracked and addressed well in advance.

Skills

Staffing & capacity mgmt

Delivery coordination

Vendor management

Executive support

Strong communicator

Organization

Planning

Tools

Jira

Linear

Job description

About the role

The engineering leader sets the technical vision, direction, and priorities — and wants to keep doing so. What this role provides is an operational partner who takes the administrative and coordination load off the leader's plate so the leader can stay focused on strategy and technical judgment. This is a management and operations role, not a hands‑on coding position and not a vision‑setting one. You are the person who makes the trains run on time: you manage staffing and capacity across squads, run the day‑to‑day admin the leader would rather not, and own the operational side of our third‑party technical agreements. Success means the leader spends far less time on logistics, paperwork, and coordination — and the organization still runs smoothly.

What you'll own:

Staffing & capacity management

• Maintain a clear, current view of who is working on what across all squads, and keep capacity matched to the leader's priorities.
• Move people between teams and projects as priorities shift; forecast capacity gaps and flag them early.
• Partner with recruiting on the hiring plan and manage contractor/vendor staffing where applicable.
• Manage the team leads on the operational side — planning, allocation, and delivery cadence — while the leader owns technical direction.

Time & delivery coordination

• Own resource‑level scheduling: who's on what, for how long, and what happens when timelines slip.
• Track delivery across teams, surface risks and dependencies early, and keep commitments realistic.
• Run lightweight, consistent planning and reporting so the leader gets a clear status picture without chasing it.

Third‑party & vendor agreement management

A major part of this role. We work with roughly 40 third‑party technical partners, and their agreements need active, organized ownership. You will partner with the engineering leader on all of them.

• Maintain a single source of truth for all ~40 third‑party technical agreements: scope, key terms, fees, owners, and - critically - renewal and termination dates.
• Track renewals and expirations proactively so nothing auto‑renews or lapses by surprise; tee up decisions well ahead of deadlines.
• Do the legwork on new and renewing agreements — gather requirements, coordinate with Legal, Finance, and the vendor, and prepare the leader for the technical and commercial decisions.
• Support negotiations and manage the back‑and‑forth, so the leader steps in only where their judgment is truly needed.
• Own vendor relationships operationally: onboarding, technical coordination, issue escalation, and performance/SLA tracking.
• Keep the leader informed with a simple, current dashboard of agreement status, upcoming decisions, and risks.

The admin the leader would rather delegate

• Take ownership of the recurring administrative and coordination tasks that pull the leader away from technical work.
• Prepare materials, track action items, and follow through on the operational details end to end.
• Be a trusted extension of the leader — anticipate what's needed and handle it without being asked twice.

What we're looking for:

• 7+ years in or around software engineering, with strong operational and management experience.
• Proven track record running staffing, capacity, and delivery coordination for a team of 25–50+ engineers.
• Direct experience managing vendor or third‑party technical agreements — tracking terms, renewals, and negotiations at meaningful scale.
• Exceptionally organized and systematic; you like owning the details and keeping many threads straight.
• Enough technical fluency to coordinate engineers and vendors credibly and understand what agreements actually cover (you do not need to code).
• Comfortable operating as a leader's right hand — high trust, high follow‑through, low ego about who sets direction.
• Strong communicator who works cleanly across Engineering, Product, Legal, and Finance.
• Familiar with planning and tracking tools (e.g., Jira, Linear) and contract/vendor management practices.
• Based in the USA or Canada, with enough daily overlap with the team and the engineering leader to coordinate closely; comfortable working in a distributed organization.

Nice to have

• Experience in a fast‑paced product company (gaming, consumer, or high‑growth software).
• Background as a chief of staff, engineering operations lead, or technical program lead.

What success looks like

• Within 90 days: a complete, trusted inventory of the ~40 third‑party agreements with every renewal date tracked, plus a clear view of team capacity and allocations.
• Within 6 months: the leader is spending materially less time on admin, coordination, and vendor paperwork; renewals are handled ahead of deadline; staffing reliably matches priorities.
• Within 12 months: the operational backbone runs smoothly and predictably, and the leader is freed to focus almost entirely on technical vision and direction.

Compensation

Competitive base salary plus bonus and benefits, commensurate with experience and location within the USA or Canada or Europe. Full compensation details will be shared during the interview process.

High 5 Games is an equal opportunity employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, sex, age, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, citizenship status, veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. We prohibit discrimination in decisions concerning recruitment, hiring, compensation, benefits, training, termination, promotions, or any other condition of employment or career development.