Director, Research and Development

Harris Computer; Georgia; On-site; USD 125,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Harris Computer seeks a Director of Research and Development for its LocalGov unit, remotely from Georgia. You will define and drive the technology strategy across eight product lines, oversee 40+ engineers, and push modernization of legacy platforms while ensuring customer stability and strong governance.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years of leadership, expertise in AI-assisted development, and a track record of aligning technology with business goals.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive software development leadership.
• 5+ years leading managers and multi-product teams in a multi-product software org.
• Experience with AI-assisted development, automation, and productivity initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the technology and development strategy for the LocalGov business unit.
• Oversee eight product lines and 40+ developers, ensuring delivery, quality, and alignment with customer needs.
• Establish engineering standards, governance, and KPIs to drive maturity and outcomes.
• Lead modernization of IBM i, RPG, and legacy platforms while preserving customer stability and business continuity.

Skills

Leadership

AI/ML tooling

Agile methodologies

Cross-functional leadership

Executive communication

Education

MBA or equivalent

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Jira

CI/CD

Job description

## Director, Research and DevelopmentApply: Remote - Georgia: Full time: Posted Today: R0046904**Key Responsibilities** * Define and execute the technology and development strategy for the LocalGov business unit.* Provide leadership and oversight for all software development activities across eight product lines and approximately 40+ development professionals.* Advance LocalGov's development teams along the Harris AI-SDLC maturity model - from AI-assisted work, to AI-directed work, to agentic delivery in which AI agents own bounded work end to end while engineers set goals, define guardrails, and review outcomes.* Lead modernization efforts across IBM i, RPG, and modern technology platforms while preserving customer stability and business continuity.* Establish engineering standards, development methodologies, and governance processes to improve quality, predictability, and delivery performance.* Partner with Product Management, Client Services, Professional Services, Sales, and Business Unit leadership to align development priorities with customer and business needs.* Develop and maintain multi-year product and technology roadmaps across the LocalGov portfolio.* Build, develop, and mentor engineering leaders and technical teams while fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.* Oversee development capacity planning, resource allocation, and prioritization across competing initiatives and product lines.* Use AI development tools personally and daily, and champion their use across the organization - including GitHub Copilot, Project Bob, large language models, and agentic coding tools - holding a current, practical command of what they can and cannot do rather than relying on secondhand reporting.* Establish and monitor KPIs that measure outcomes rather than activity - cycle time, development throughput, escaped defect and escalation rates, delivery predictability, customer satisfaction, and development cost as a percentage of revenue - and report AI delivery maturity and the business outcomes it produces on a recurring executive cadence.* Own the LocalGov AI delivery-maturity roadmap across all eight product lines, applied stage by stage across the software lifecycle rather than as a single business-unit rating, and deliver against the maturity targets agreed with executive leadership.* Stand up the governance that makes delegated agent work safe, including review gates, validation, and security review of AI-generated code, with quality standards applied equally to human-written and AI-generated code.* Make the LocalGov codebase and delivery pipeline accessible to AI agents through documentation, test coverage, CI/CD, and structured context.* Apply AI directly to the IBM i and RPG estate - legacy code comprehension, documentation generation, and modernization analysis - as a primary mechanism for preserving knowledge held by an aging and retiring RPG skillset.* Build the tooling and training program that moves engineers from AI-assisted work, to AI-directed work, to supervised agent execution, and give them the access and time to get there.* Lead strategic modernization and transformation initiatives including cloud adoption, customer-facing AI solutions, and automation efforts.* Ensure appropriate architecture, security, compliance, and technical governance practices are maintained across all products.* Serve as the executive escalation point for critical development issues and strategic customer initiatives.* Develop succession planning and knowledge preservation strategies for aging legacy technology skillsets.* Manage OpEx Financial Forecast for R&D department to include monthly forecast updates, reporting on Monthly Business Unit Review Calls, & attendance/participation Annual Businesss Strategy Meeting.* Attendance to key customer events in markets where large-scale development motions are occurring **Required Qualifications*** 10+ years of progressive software development leadership experience.* 5+ years of experience leading managers, technical leaders, and software development teams within a multi-product software organization.* Demonstrated experience leading software modernization initiatives involving both legacy and modern technology platforms.* Experience managing geographically distributed development teams and cross-functional technical organizations.* Strong understanding of software development lifecycles, Agile methodologies, and engineering best practices.* Experience with enterprise software delivery, product strategy, and technical roadmap development.* Proven ability to align technology investments and development priorities with business objectives and customer needs.* Demonstrated experience driving organizational change and technology transformation initiatives.* Experience implementing or leading AI-assisted development practices, automation initiatives, or engineering productivity improvements.* Demonstrated hands-on use of AI development tools in daily work, with a clear point of view on where they help, where they fail, and how quickly that is changing.* Experience raising an engineering organization's way of working from individual AI assistance toward agentic, human-on-the-loop delivery, including the governance and validation that makes it safe.* Exceptional communication, organizational, stakeholder management, and executive leadership skills. **Preferred Qualifications*** Experience with IBM i, AS400, RPG, COBOL, or legacy platform modernization initiatives.* Experience with local government, public sector, ERP, tax, financial, records management, or government technology solutions.* Experience with AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Project Bob, LLMs, or similar technologies.* Experience establishing engineering KPIs, delivery metrics, and AI adoption measurement programs.* Experience leading engineering organizations through large-scale modernization or digital transformation efforts.* Familiarity with cloud technologies, APIs, automation frameworks, and modern application architectures.* Experience building and scaling high-performing engineering teams across multiple product lines.* Experience integrating AI into engineering workflows, customer solutions, or business operations.* Experience with Jira, DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software delivery methodologies.* MBA, advanced technical experience, or equivalent executive leadership experience preferred. **Performance Measurement**Success in this role is measured on the following:* AI-SDLC maturity: development teams advancing toward Level 3 of the Harris AI maturity model, measured stage by stage across the software lifecycle and by product line, rather than as a single business-unit rating.* Team capability: a training and upskilling program in place and taken up, moving engineers from AI-assisted work, to AI-directed work, to supervised agent execution.* Continuity and succession depth: no product line dependent on a single individual, with documented knowledge, cross-coverage between engineers, and succession identified for every critical technical role.* Retention: key engineering talent retained across all eight product lines.* Modernization progress: a published modernization plan covering the legacy IBM i, RPG, and COBOL estate, and demonstrated progress against it, with knowledge captured in durable documentation rather than individual memory.* Financial performance: R&D spend held to plan, with demonstrable optimization of development cost against delivered output.* Cross-functional standing: Product Management, Client Services, Professional Services, and Sales report a working, transparent relationship with R&D.**Salary range: $125,000 - $135,000 USD per year.**