Executive Director, System Software Development

Description

The company builds retail store solutions, including self-checkout and payment systems, for major retail brands and holds the largest installed market share worldwide. It is based in Research Triangle Park, NC, and describes itself as a billion-dollar global company.

This executive role leads the strategy, development, delivery, quality, productivity and lifecycle support of the systems software behind the company's global retail hardware platforms. You will manage a global, multi-level engineering organization covering Linux, SKY and Android operating systems, Open Systems drivers, device drivers and utilities, diagnostics, hardware SDKs, system images and preloads, and related technologies.

You will set the technical and organizational direction for the group and keep execution predictable across new product development, software releases, customer deployments and lifecycle support. A major goal is to raise engineering productivity through automation, CI/CD, modern development practices and full adoption of AI-enabled tools across the software development lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Lead the systems software organization and provide executive direction for the global team that develops, integrates, validates, releases and supports Linux, SKY and Android operating systems, Open Systems and device drivers, utilities, hardware diagnostics, SDKs, system images and preloads, and related system software.
• Lead through several layers of management and technical leadership, setting clear ownership for product delivery, quality, productivity, automation, technical standards and customer support.
• Build team capability through workforce planning, talent development, succession planning, performance management and skills development.
• Set the long-term strategy and technology roadmap for the systems software portfolio, working with hardware and software architecture, product management and development leaders on platform direction, hardware and software alignment, reuse, reduction of technical debt, migration paths and support for future hardware across operating environments.
• Weigh customer needs, innovation, security, maintainability, productivity, cost and long-term support when making platform decisions.
• Oversee planning, prioritization, resource management and execution across new product enablement, OS releases, drivers, diagnostics, SDK delivery, preloads, lifecycle releases and customer-specific requirements, so commitments are met with predictable quality and transparency.
• Identify and reduce technical and execution risks early, working across hardware and software development groups.
• Own the adoption and expansion of AI, automation and CI/CD across systems software, including design, code generation and review, test generation, defect analysis, requirements, knowledge search, planning, field issue work and routine engineering tasks.
• Drive automation of builds and integration, regression testing, validation gates, configuration management and releases.
• Set governance, security, intellectual property protection, standards and measures for AI-enabled engineering, and define measurable goals for AI adoption, automation, productivity, quality, cycle time, throughput and speed of delivery.
• Build a culture focused on quality across the lifecycle, and drive improvements in design practices, automated testing, defect prevention, release readiness, root cause analysis, reliability, maintainability and field issue resolution.
• Lead major customer and field issues to fast resolution, with clear accountability and lasting corrective action, and feed lessons from deployments back into architecture, development, validation, automation and release processes.
• Use engineering metrics to find bottlenecks and improve cycle time, automation coverage, test effectiveness, quality, release performance, technical debt and throughput.
• Lead efforts on leadership development, succession, AI and automation skills, organizational design, global resource use, hiring and retention of key talent, and developing managers and senior technical leaders.
• Encourage collaboration across global engineering sites, knowledge sharing and continuous learning.

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive experience in software, systems software, embedded software or related product development.
• 10+ years of technical and organizational leadership with growing responsibility.
• At least 5 years in an executive or senior executive engineering role, managing managers, senior technical leaders and complex development organizations.
• Significant experience leading engineering teams spread across several locations.
• Proven record of delivering complex commercial software through the full development lifecycle.
• Solid understanding of operating systems, device drivers, hardware and software interfaces, diagnostics, SDKs and system-level software.
• Experience leading software work that depends closely on hardware and software integration.
• Ability to set technology strategy and turn it into executable product and engineering roadmaps.
• Track record of measurable gains in engineering productivity, cycle time, quality and speed of execution.
• Experience introducing and scaling automation, automated testing, DevOps and CI/CD across a large engineering organization.
• Experience leading the adoption of AI-enabled engineering tools in production workflows, beyond experimentation.
• Ability to set measurable AI adoption, productivity, quality and execution goals and deliver results against them.
• Experience leading critical customer and field issue resolution across technical and business teams.
• Experience managing complex portfolios with competing priorities, limited resources and customer commitments.
• Ability to build and lead high-performing engineering organizations.
• Strong executive communication skills, including presenting technical strategy, business trade-offs, risks, investments and recommendations to senior leaders.
• Preferred: a master's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, software engineering or a related technical field, or an MBA.
• Preferred: executive leadership experience in a global technology, software, hardware or product development organization.
• Preferred: experience building commercial systems software for retail, point-of-sale, embedded or edge-computing environments.
• Preferred: deep knowledge of Linux and Android.
• Preferred: experience with proprietary or specialized operating system platforms.
• Preferred: experience building and supporting device drivers, diagnostics, SDKs, utilities and system images.
• Preferred: experience maintaining software across several hardware generations and long product lifecycles.
• Preferred: knowledge of software security, vulnerability management and secure development.
• Preferred: experience leading large engineering transformations involving AI, automation, DevOps, CI/CD, test automation and productivity.
• Preferred: experience with Agile, modern engineering toolchains, configuration management and automated build, test and release environments.
• Preferred: experience managing global engineering teams and external development partners.
• Preferred: experience supporting platforms used by large enterprise customers running business-critical systems.

Conditions

Based in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Competitive salary.

Benefits

• Group health coverage: medical, dental and vision.
• Employee assistance programs.
• Pre-tax spending accounts.
• 401(k) plan with company match.
• Company-provided life insurance.
• Pet insurance.
• Employee discounts.
• Generous paid holidays, paid vacation and sick/personal days.