Director, Engineering

Hi, I’m Paul, VP of Engineering at Customer.io. I’m looking for an experienced engineering leader to own Customer.io's product development engineering teams. The most important near-term project is delivering our new billing platform from the ground up. This is a high-priority, zero-to-one initiative with direct exe...

Over 9,000 companies — from scrappy startups to global brands — use our platform to send billions of emails, push notifications, in-app messages, and SMS every day. Customer.io powers automated communication that people actually want to receive.

We help teams send smarter, more relevant messages using real-time behavioral data. Under the hood: Go, React and AI help us ship fast and scale with confidence.

Own the vision, roadmap, and execution for Customer.io's billing platform: a custom, in-house system built for real SaaS complexity — usage-based billing, subscription management, and multi-tier pricing
Partner with Product, Finance, and Engineering leadership to align billing strategy with company goals and unlock Customer.io's next phase of growth
Make build-vs-buy decisions with conviction, and lead the team through them
Mentor and develop engineering managers and senior technical leaders on your team
Drive a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement across the org
Leverage AI tools to accelerate team velocity and bring an AI-native perspective to how the team builds

12+ years of software engineering experience, with 8+ years leading engineering teams
At least 4+ years managing engineering managers and/or directors
Proven track record of taking complex, custom platform initiatives from zero-to-one at a SaaS or marketplace company — you've built something from near-nothing and seen it through to production at scale
Deep understanding of SaaS software architecture, cloud-native infrastructure, and the tradeoffs that come with building in-house vs. buying
Experience in domains requiring real platform complexity — not just feature development, but systems that other parts of the business depend on
Ability to translate technical complexity into clear strategy and communicate effectively with both engineers and executives
Strong track record building high-performing teams: hiring, developing talent, creating career paths, and navigating team transitions with care
Demonstrated AI-native leadership — not just personal fluency, but a track record of bringing AI-first development practices into how your team works
Comfort operating in ambiguity and making difficult tradeoffs between competing priorities
Experience at high-growth SaaS companies; you have delivered results at a startup
Track record of shipping in high-velocity product orgs where your domain was treated as a first-class engineering concern
Experience in the domains of audience segmentation, customer data platforms (CDPs), self-service or growth