# Senior Director of Engineering – Technical Strategy & Execution
**Company:** [System1](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/system1)
**Location:** Los Angeles, CA
**Experience:** 12+ years
**Skills:** Distributed Systems, Cloud Infrastructure, Data Platforms, System Architecture, Technical Strategy, Executive Leadership, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Performance Optimization, Scalability, Reliability
**Posted:** 2026-02-18
> Senior engineering leader partnering with the CTO to shape technical strategy, guide architectural decisions, and drive execution across multiple businesses and platforms at System1. Requires 12+ years building large-scale distributed systems and proven leadership of senior technical teams.
## Job Description
## Responsibilities
- Provide strong, opinionated technical leadership across multiple engineering organizations and businesses
- Own and evolve System1’s technical strategy and architectural principles
- Act as the final decision-maker for cross-business and cross-org architectural initiatives
- Partner closely with the CTO as a trusted thought partner on technical, organizational, and execution decisions
- Represent engineering leadership in executive forums, reviews, and cross-functional discussions
- Lead and influence senior engineering leaders, architects, and principal engineers
- Set clear standards and expectations that balance speed, quality, scalability, cost, and long-term optionality
- Drive clarity around decision rights, escalation paths, and accountability
- Partner deeply with Product, Data, and Business leadership to translate strategy into technical execution
- Push back constructively when scope, timelines, or approaches are unrealistic
- Remove ambiguity, unblock execution, and raise the quality of technical decision-making across the organization

## Requirements
- 12+ years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale, distributed systems
- Deep architectural expertise across cloud infrastructure, data platforms, and application systems
- Strong judgment evaluating tradeoffs across performance, reliability, cost, and complexity
- Hands-on technical background; lead by example and stay close to the code and architecture
- Proven experience leading senior engineers, managers, and technical leaders
- Track record of making and defending difficult technical decisions
- High emotional intelligence and strong executive presence
- Ability to influence outcomes through clarity, credibility, and trust
- Strong understanding of how technology decisions impact revenue, margins, and risk
- Experience partnering with product, finance, and business leaders
- Comfortable saying no, explaining tradeoffs, and aligning stakeholders

## Nice-to-Haves
- Curiosity and willingness to stay current with modern development practices, including emerging approaches such as agentic and AI-assisted coding
- Opinionated but pragmatic; decisive without being dogmatic
- Calm under pressure and credible in high-stakes situations
- Low-ego, high-ownership mindset
- Comfortable operating with ambiguity and incomplete information

## Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive salary + bonus + equity
- Generous PTO + 11 company holidays
- Open sick time
- 100% covered Medical, Dental, Vision for employees
- 401k with match
- Health & Dependent Care Flex Spending Account
- Paid professional development
- Leadership & growth opportunities
- Virtual company and team building events
**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/senior-director-of-engineering-technical-strategy-execution-at-system1-377fa4ef-9917-4613-af26-4e2c7da0b2eb
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/senior-director-of-engineering-technical-strategy-execution-at-system1-377fa4ef-9917-4613-af26-4e2c7da0b2eb