Head of Engineering Strategy

Three Pillars; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Three Pillars seeks a deeply technical engineering leader to serve as Head of Engineering Strategy. This role shapes how the engineering organization operates, modernizes, and scales, providing cross-organization technical strategy, modernization efforts, standards, and major engineering initiatives.

The ideal candidate brings hands-on software engineering experience, strong architecture instincts, and a track record of leading multi-team technical discussions.

Qualifications

• Hands-on software engineering background with system-level design experience.
• Ability to align senior engineers and drive technical decisions.
• Experience with automated testing, CI/CD, and cloud-based SaaS.

Responsibilities

• Own modernization initiatives including AI-assisted development tooling.
• Define and enforce engineering standards for testing, reviews, and deployment.
• Lead cross-team architectural discussions and drive decisions into implementation.

Skills

Software architecture

Technical leadership

Cross-team collaboration

DevOps practices

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

MS or PhD preferred

Tools

CI/CD tooling

Observability platforms

Cloud platforms

Job description

The client is seeking a deeply technical, highly collaborative engineering leader to serve as Head of Engineering Strategy. This role will shape how the engineering organization operates, modernizes, and scales, providing cross-organization technical strategy, modernization efforts, standards, and major engineering initiatives. While it is not a people-management role, it emphasizes technical leadership: aligning senior engineering voices, setting direction, driving adoption, and ensuring key initiatives move from discussion to implementation.

Key responsibilities include owning and driving engineering modernization, such as adopting AI-assisted development tools, modern workflows, and new technologies that improve speed, quality, and developer effectiveness. The Head of Engineering Strategy will also evolve and drive engineering-wide standards for practices including unit and automated testing, code review, CI/CD, release processes, and technical documentation. In addition, the role will lead cross-team technical and architectural discussions to evaluate tradeoffs, establish clear direction, and drive decisions through implementation, while continuously assessing new tools and approaches from experimentation through adoption.

The ideal candidate will bring a strong hands-on software engineering background, with the ability to review code and engage deeply in technical discussions, plus significant experience in senior technical leadership across multiple engineering teams. Required strengths include software architecture knowledge, engineering practices, and scalable SaaS systems, along with awareness of current and emerging engineering technologies and modern software-development practices, including AI-assisted development and developer tooling. The client expects experience with automated testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and cloud-based SaaS environments, along with strong technical judgment, the ability to influence experienced engineers without relying on formal authority, and excellent communication skills to explain complex topics to non-engineering leadership.