Senior Director, Platform Engineering & Cloud Architecture

American Bureau of Shipping (ABS); Houston (TX); On-site; USD 225,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Benefits package

Job summary

ABS Group Digital Solutions seeks a Senior Director, Platform Engineering & Cloud Architecture to lead the platform engineering, cloud architecture, and developer experience foundation for the modernization of digital products across the business.

You will partner with product, engineering, AI, and program leadership to define cloud strategy, enable rapid build/test/deploy, and establish a reusable technical platform with strong governance and security.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.

Responsibilities

• Lead platform engineering strategy for modern web and SaaS product development.
• Define and own cloud architecture patterns with an Azure-first approach.
• Establish engineering platform standards for CI/CD, IaC, observability, and release discipline.
• Design and improve the developer experience across repositories and release processes.
• Define and operationalize an AI-enabled SDLC with governance and quality controls.
• Collaborate with architecture, AI, application engineering, QA, and product leadership to ensure platform capabilities support speed and quality.
• Evaluate and implement platform tooling and engineering automation for consistency and quality.
• Embed security, reliability, and governance into the engineering operating model with stakeholders.
• Build and mentor a high-performing platform engineering team.
• Lead architecture and engineering forums to raise engineering maturity.

Skills

Platform engineering

Cloud architecture

DevOps

Developer experience

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Decision making

Education

Bachelor’s degree (CS/Engineering/IS)

Tools

Azure

Kubernetes

Infrastructure as Code

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

ABS Group’s Digital Solutions is seeking an exceptional Senior Director, Platform Engineering & Cloud Architecture to join us full-time. In this role, you will lead the platform engineering, cloud architecture, and developer experience foundation for the modernization of our digital products and the establishment of the baseline for the next generation of web and SaaS solutions across the business.

You will partner closely with product, engineering, AI, and program leadership to define the cloud and platform strategy that enables teams to build, test, deploy, secure, and scale software rapidly and reliably. This role will help shape how ABS modernizes legacy technology, improves engineering velocity, and creates a reusable technical foundation for future digital products.

You will establish the technical operating environment that supports high-quality software delivery at scale, including cloud architecture, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, release discipline, and developer workflows. You will also help define and operationalize an AI-enabled software development lifecycle (SDLC), ensuring that AI-assisted development and engineering automation are implemented with strong governance, security, and quality controls. While you will contribute to architecture and delivery decisions across multiple initiatives, your primary focus will be building the engineering platform and standards that allow product teams to move with speed, consistency, and control.

Preferred locations for this role are Houston, Texas or Knoxville, Tennessee.

What You Will Do

• Lead the platform engineering strategy for ABS digital solutions, with responsibility for establishing the engineering and cloud foundation for modern web and SaaS product development.
• Define and own cloud architecture patterns, with an Azure-first approach aligned to ABS standards, including hosting, networking, identity and access, scalability, resilience, containerization, deployment, and disaster recovery.
• Establish engineering platform standards for CI/CD, infrastructure as code, environment management, secrets and configuration management, observability, and operational readiness.
• Design and improve the developer experience across repositories, build pipelines, local and cloud development workflows, release processes, and engineering tooling to reduce friction and improve productivity.
• Help define and operationalize an AI-enabled SDLC, including guardrails for AI-assisted coding, automated validation, testing, documentation, and release readiness.
• Partner with solution architecture, AI engineering, application engineering, QA, and product leadership to ensure platform capabilities support delivery speed, quality, and long-term maintainability.
• Lead the evaluation and implementation of platform tooling and engineering automation that improves consistency, traceability, repeatability, and quality across teams.
• Embed security, reliability, and release discipline into the engineering operating model by partnering with security and enterprise stakeholders and ensuring platform patterns support business-critical readiness gates.
• Build and mentor a high-performing platform engineering capability, including internal staff, contractors, and strategic technical hires as needed.
• Serve as a senior technical leader in architecture and engineering forums, helping drive decisions, align stakeholders, and raise overall engineering maturity across the organization.

What You Will Need

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field is preferred.
• 12+ years of overall professional experience in software engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, cloud architecture, or related technical leadership roles.
• 5+ years leading platform engineering, cloud architecture, DevOps, or engineering enablement functions in complex software environments.
• Proven track record designing and implementing cloud-native platforms and engineering standards that support scalable product delivery.
• Experience leading technical teams and influencing cross-functional organizations spanning architecture, engineering, security, and operations.
• Experience in enterprise software, SaaS, or modernization programs involving multiple teams, shared platforms, and complex delivery environments.
• Strong experience with at least one major cloud platform, preferably Azure, in enterprise or production settings.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Deep understanding of platform engineering, cloud architecture, DevOps, and developer experience concepts in modern software organizations.
• Strong command of cloud-native architecture, including infrastructure as code, containers, Kubernetes, deployment automation, identity and access, observability, resilience, and operational readiness.
• Demonstrated ability to define and implement engineering standards that improve speed, quality, consistency, and control across multiple teams.
• Hands-on familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation tools, source control workflows, and engineering productivity tooling.
• Experience establishing platform guardrails for security, reliability, release governance, and compliance in enterprise environments.
• Strong understanding of how AI-assisted software development, coding agents, and engineering automation can be applied safely and effectively within an enterprise SDLC.
• Ability to translate platform and architecture strategy into clear standards, reference patterns, and implementation roadmaps for engineering teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with executives, architects, engineers, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Excellent leadership, stakeholder management, and decision-making skills, with a history of creating order and momentum in fast-moving technical programs.
• Ability to balance standardization and governance with the need for product teams to move quickly and deliver business value.

Reporting Relationships

This role reports to the SVP, Digital Solutions or delegated technology executive and is expected to work closely with product leadership, program leadership, architecture leads, AI engineering, and application engineering teams. Direct reports may be included as the platform engineering function scales.

Salary

Expected U.S. base salary range for this role is $225,000 - $275,000, depending on experience, qualifications, location, and overall fit for the role.

This role may also be eligible for an annual incentive bonus and other benefits consistent with ABS Group Digital Solutions compensation practices.