[Remote] Director, Software Engineering (Partner Platform)

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Niche is a school search company that helps people research and enroll in schools while helping schools recruit best-fit students. The Director of Software Engineering will lead engineering for the Partner Experience organization, owning team health, technical strategy, roadmap, resourcing, and delivery across partner acquisition, delivery, reporting, and insights teams. The role also champions AI-native engineering practices and partners with product leadership to improve software development.

Responsibilities

• Learn about Niche by meeting with various team members to learn more about our company through our Onboarding meetings
• Meet all direct reports and key cross-functional partners; build an initial read on team strengths and gaps
• Get deep on the partner-facing product surfaces, current tech stack, and delivery patterns across both teams
• Understand the partner experience end to end — onboarding speed, lead pacing, platform engagement — and where the biggest engineering leverage points are
• Form an initial point of view on the teams' AI tooling adoption and where the gaps are
• Present your assessment of the organization's engineering health — delivery, architecture, team org, AI readiness — to the CTO and Sr. Director of Product
• Align with product leadership on near-term technical priorities and any pressing architectural decisions
• Identify the top 2–3 things you'd change in the first half of your tenure and propose a plan
• Begin actively coaching EMs on embedding AI-native practices into their teams' day-to-day workflows
• Own the engineering roadmap and resourcing for both teams with full confidence
• Have a defined velocity measurement framework in place that accounts for AI-augmented output
• Be actively leading at least one meaningful initiative to accelerate agentic engineering adoption
• Have established a strong operating rhythm with the product lead, CTO, and Sr. Director of Product

Skills

• 8+ years in software engineering, with at least 3+ years managing engineering managers
• Demonstrated, hands-on experience driving a team's transition to AI-assisted or agentic engineering workflows — building the culture, tooling, and measurement systems, not just personal AI usage
• Track record of shipping high-quality product at scale in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment
• Strong communicator — able to represent engineering credibly to product and GTM partners and translate fluidly between technical and business language
• Experience working alongside embedded data engineers, with meaningful exposure to modern data tooling (dbt, Snowflake, or similar)
• Systematic thinker who brings structure to ambiguous problems without over-processing
• Niche will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future for this opening
• We are currently hiring in states where we currently have employees: AZ, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, DC, WV
• Sorry, we do not offer relocation assistance
• Experience in EdTech, marketplace, or consumer platform businesses
• Familiarity with spec-driven development (SDD) or similar AI-paired engineering operating models
• Experience in B2B2C businesses with CRM-integrated product surfaces
• Exposure to partner-facing reporting systems, data pipelines, or lead delivery infrastructure

Benefits

• Participation in the Annual Bonus and Stock Option Program
• Fully flexible workforce empowering employees to choose to work remotely, in the Pittsburgh office or whatever combination suits them
• Best-in-class 100% paid employee health plan, including vision and dental and supplemental coverage
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy
• Stipend that allows you to build your work from home office in a style and function that suits your personal preferences
• Parental leave for all employees (12 weeks fully paid) in addition to short term disability for birthing parents
• Meaningful 401(k) with employer match
• Your ideas and work will make an immediate impact on our company and millions of users
• You will join a team that cares about you, our mission, our work - and celebrates our wins together!

Company Overview