Director of Software Engineering: AI-Driven Platform Architect

Nextpower; Fremont (CA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health care

Dental & Vision

401(k) with company matching

Unlimited PTO

Bonuses

Life and disability protection

Job summary

Nextpower in California seeks a Director of Software Engineering to lead the maintenance, development, and delivery of its cloud-based, integrated platform for grid-scale solar engineering.

You will define long-term technical vision, drive modernization to microservices and AI-enabled workflows, and own end-to-end delivery across global teams while mentoring engineering managers and collaborating with Product, R&D, and Operations.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience leading cloud software engineering teams.
• Strong background in cloud architecture, distributed systems, and microservices.
• Experience in architecting complex computational platforms, ideally involving optimization, simulation, or engineering workflows.
• Expertise in: Backend architecture (Python, Node.js, Java, or similar) Cloud-native databases + caching strategies DevOps, CI/CD, automated QA Scalable compute (containers, serverless, orchestration) API platforms and integration frameworks
• Preferred: experience with optimization algorithms, AI/ML integration, agentic AI, or simulation engines.

Responsibilities

• Define the long-term technical vision and architecture for the platform, transitioning from standalone tools to a unified cloud platform.
• Lead architectural modernization including microservices, event-driven workflows, shared computation engines, scalable databases, and high-performance optimization layers.
• Architect the next-generation optimization platform enabling multi-objective optimization, AI/ANN warm-starting, evolutionary algorithms.
• Ensure systems support: Large-scale computational loads High availability Secure multi-tenant access Modular design for future product expansion
• Ensure engineering readiness for AI agents, optimization engines, and data-driven automation.
• Lead global SW development teams (India and Brazil)
• Drive predictable, high-quality software releases with clear milestones, testing, CI/CD, and DevOps automation.
• Own end-to-end software delivery: requirements → architecture → implementation → QA → production rollout.
• Manage and grow distributed engineering teams across India, Brazil, and the US (approx. 35+ engineers across SW Dev, QA, DevOps, analysts).
• Mentor engineering managers and technical leads; establish a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and innovation.
• Partner closely with Product Management to align roadmaps with engineering capacity and business priorities.
• Build organizational clarity across Product, R&D, PJE, Supply Chain, Sales, and Operations.

Skills

Cloud architecture

Distributed systems

Microservices

Backend development

DevOps / CI-CD

API design

AI/ML integration

Tools

Azure

AWS

GCP

Job description

Nextpower in California seeks a Director of Software Engineering to lead the maintenance, development, and delivery of its cloud-based, integrated platform for grid-scale solar engineering.

You will define long-term technical vision, drive modernization to microservices and AI-enabled workflows, and own end-to-end delivery across global teams while mentoring engineering managers and collaborating with Product, R&D, and Operations.