Director of Engineering (Infrastructure & Operations)

Motive; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Motive is seeking a seasoned engineering leader to guide Core Infrastructure and Operations Engineering in Seattle. You will own the cloud platform, run infrastructure as a product, and ensure enterprise-grade reliability for mission-critical systems.

You will lead a multi-functional team across SRE, Operations, Data & AI Platform, and Database Engineering. You will define multi-quarter platform initiatives, partner with product leaders, and drive cross-team collaboration to scale a globally

Qualifications

• 12+ years in software/infrastructure engineering.
• 5+ years leading Infra/SRE/ops orgs and managing managers.
• Proven record running high-reliability platforms (SLOs, incidents, on-call, postmortems).
• Deep AI fluency – evaluate and govern LLM/AI platforms for engineering and ops.
• Experience with AWS at scale (VPC, IAM, multi-account, observability, cost optimization).

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale a global team across SRE, Operations, Data/AI Platform, and Database Engineering.
• Own our cloud platform and run infrastructure as a product to drive reliability.
• Define multi-quarter platform initiatives to improve developer velocity and product leverage.
• Partner with product leaders to evolve the platform as a product, balancing long-term architecture with near-term needs.
• Drive alignment across multiple teams on complex interdependent systems and governance.
• Raise the bar on engineering quality, operational excellence, and execution.

Skills

Leadership

Platform as product

SRE/ONS

Cross-functional

AI platforms

Education

B.S. in CS or equivalent

Tools

AWS

Observability

Job description

• We are looking for a seasoned engineering leader who will lead the Core Infrastructure and Operations Engineering. You will be responsible for managing and mentoring a multi-functional team across SRE, Operations, Data & AI Platform, and Database Engineering
• You will own our cloud platform, run infrastructure as a product, and drive enterprise-grade reliability for mission‑critical systems. As an engineering leader you’ll be be called on to lead during critical moments and operate with executives of the company
• Lead and scale a high-performing engineering team responsible for core platform systems used across the company
• Define and drive multi-quarter platform initiatives that improve developer velocity, system reliability, and product leverage
• Partner closely with product and engineering leaders to evolve the platform as a product, balancing long-term architecture with near-term business needs
• Take ambiguous, high-impact problem areas (e.g., system scalability, reliability, platform abstractions) and turn them into clear execution plans
• Drive alignment across multiple teams working on complex, interdependent systems including internal platforms, infrastructure as well as cloud governance
• Raise the bar on engineering quality, operational excellence, and execution across the platform organization

Proven record running high‑reliability platforms (SLOs, incidents, on‑call, postmortems). Experience driving processes and programs to raise the bar and engineering excellenceHigh AI fluency – able to evaluate, integrate, and govern LLM/AI platforms (AWS Bedrock, Anthropic/Claude, OpenAI) for engineering and opsDeep experience with AWS at scale (VPC, IAM, multi‑account, core services, observability, cost optimization)Experience in interfacing with vendors, partners and cost governanceAbility to collaborate and work effectively cross functionally with a strong sense of ownershipDegree in Computer Science or equivalentTrack record of running infrastructure as a product (roadmaps, stakeholder comms, adoption)Experience and strong understanding of databases and data platforms (OLTP and analytics), Data and ML/AI infrastructure12+ years in software/infrastructure engineering, including 5+ years leading Infra/SRE/ops orgs and managing managers with a strong sense for systems architectureClear communication skills and ability to manage escalations with CEO-level visibilityLeadership of global, distributed teams across time zonesBackground in B2B SaaS or other high‑reliability domains (payments, logistics, safety)