Executive Director, Engineering – Backend & Data Platforms

SmartRecruiters, Inc.; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 182,000 - 346,000; Full time

Job summary

AbbVie Allergan Aesthetics seeks an Executive Director of Engineering to lead multiple teams delivering scalable backend platforms and data products. You will set direction, empower engineering managers, drive roadmaps, ensure reliability, data governance, and partner with product, architecture, data, security, and business stakeholders to align strategy with enterprise goals.

This leadership role emphasizes operational excellence, strategic thinking, and hands-on technical judgment to deliver

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with backend/data systems.
• 4+ years of engineering leadership managing multiple teams.
• Proven success in building/scaling high-performing engineering organizations.
• Experience delivering data APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Knowledge of data warehousing, pipelines, and data product development.
• Strong SQL/NoSQL skills (PostgreSQL, Snowflake, DynamoDB).
• Experience with AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD tooling.
• Ability to align strategy with execution and communicate across stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Own delivery across multiple engineering teams aligned to objectives.
• Lead and develop engineering managers to deliver high-impact results.
• Build a high-performing organization with clear accountability and rhythms.
• Partner with product, architecture, data, security, and business stakeholders to shape strategy and roadmaps.
• Oversee backend data services, APIs, pipelines, and data products for scalability and reliability.
• Drive architectural decisions with architects and senior engineers.
• Establish and improve planning, estimation, prioritization, and release processes.
• Communicate portfolio health to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Champion engineering excellence with modern software practices and observability.
• Ensure production reliability through monitoring, incident management, and governance.
• Plan staffing, succession, and resource allocation across teams.
• Coach leaders through change and scale effectively.
• Stay current on industry trends and adopt valuable technologies.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

System architecture

Cloud platforms (AWS)

Education

BS or MS in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

AWS

Git

Terraform

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

Serverless (Lambda/SQS/SNS)

Job description

AbbVie Allergan Aesthetics seeks an Executive Director of Engineering to lead multiple teams delivering scalable backend platforms and data products. You will set direction, empower engineering managers, drive roadmaps, ensure reliability, data governance, and partner with product, architecture, data, security, and business stakeholders to align strategy with enterprise goals.

This leadership role emphasizes operational excellence, strategic thinking, and hands-on technical judgment to deliver