Dir, Software Engineering

Realtor.com Careers•Austin, TX

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Realtor.com is looking for a Director of Engineering, Consumer Enablement to lead the platform and enablement organization that powers all consumer-facing web and mobile experiences. This is a high-impact engineering leadership role responsible for three core pillars: Web & Mobile Platforms, Consumer Services, and Quality Enablement — the foundational systems and tooling that every consumer product team at Realtor.com builds on. You will lead a multi-team org of ~40 engineers (FTE + contractors), managing senior engineering managers and staff engineers across web platform, mobile platform, component systems, backend services, and quality engineering. You'll report to the VP of Consumer Engineering. This role is equal parts technical depth and organizational influence. You're not shipping features — you're building the paved path that lets dozens of engineers ship faster, safer, and with higher quality.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience with at least 5 years leading engineering teams, including managing managers
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
Demonstrated experience owning platform, infrastructure, or developer tooling organizations — not just product delivery teams
Deep understanding of modern frontend architecture: micro-frontends, component systems, React, TypeScript, CI/CD pipelines
Experience with backend GraphQL/API services and federated architecture patterns
Strong track record of improving engineering velocity and developer experience at scale (DORA metrics, lead time, deployment frequency)
Excellent cross-functional communication and stakeholder management — able to influence without authority, represent platform value to product and business leaders, and navigate competing priorities across multiple stream-aligned teams

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI developer tooling strategy: evaluating, deploying, and driving adoption of AI-assisted development tools across an engineering organization
Hands-on background with FinOps practices: cloud cost attribution, unit economics for platform operations, CI/CD spend optimization, and engineering budget ownership
Experience with mobile platform engineering (iOS/Android release processes, CircleCI, React Native or native)
Familiarity with Apollo Federation, GraphQL schema governance, and Pantheon-style API gateway patterns
Background in quality engineering transformation — shifting from manual QA models to developer-owned quality
Experience with headless CMS platforms and content-driven architecture
Familiarity with AWS infrastructure (EKS, Lambda, DynamoDB, CloudFront, ArgoCD)

Responsibilities

Platform Strategy & Execution
Own the technical roadmap for web and mobile platform infrastructure, including the MFE architecture (web-islands), CI/CD pipelines, React Router 7 migration (Project Oracle), and headless CMS platform
Drive the next evolution of Realtor.com's design system (rdc-ui V4: Panda CSS migration) and component ecosystem used across 41 codebases
Lead the decomposition of legacy monolithic services (Hestia) and the transition to domain-owned GraphQL subgraphs via Pantheon federation
Engineering Enablement
Define and deliver the "paved path" — standardized patterns, tooling, and guardrails that reduce cognitive load for 100+ consumer engineers
Own DORA metrics for the org
Partner with stream-aligned teams (Buyers & Sellers, Search, Personalization, New Homes, Rentals, Mobile squads) as an internal platform provider
Quality at Scale
Evolve the quality enablement model — shifting quality left through automation, AI tooling, and developer-owned testing
Oversee the testing pyramid: reducing E2E test reliance, scaling Playwright frameworks, and rolling out the AI Quality Toolkit
Cloud Cost & FinOps
Own the engineering cost envelope for Consumer Enablement — AWS spend, CircleCI credits, and third-party tooling budgets
Partner with FinOps and infrastructure teams to instrument cost attribution, identify rightsizing opportunities, and enforce cost-aware development practices across the paved path
Establish unit cost baselines for key platform operations (e.g., cost-per-deploy, cost-per-test-run) and drive measurable efficiency improvements quarter over quarter
People & Organization
Lead and develop 3 senior engineering managers and multiple staff engineers across 7 sub-teams
Create clear career frameworks and growth paths that retain top engineers and set expectations at every level
Build inclusive team cultures with high psychological safety — where engineers do their best work, managers are effective coaches, and feedback flows in all directions
Drive hiring rigor: define role profiles, calibrate leveling, and make high-quality talent decisions in partnership with recruiting
Manage headcount planning, contractor-to-FTE ratios, and capacity allocation across competing priorities in a lean org
AI Strategy & Developer Enablement
Partner with engineering managers to embed AI practices into daily workflows — code review, documentation, incident response, sprint planning
Represent the Consumer Engineering perspective in AI investment decisions: what to build internally, what to buy, and what to deprecate