Director of Software Engineering

Job Description

Job Description

Director of Software Engineering

City/State: Colorado Springs, CO USA

Type and Schedule: Full-Time, Salary/Exempt, on-site with limited remote work flexibility.

Annualized Salary Range: $155,000 - $215,000 commensurate with experience.

About Us: Caliola is a woman-owned small business that is improving and protecting our Nation's way of life through secure collaboration and resilient communications. Our engineers, subject matter experts, and veterans are developing and delivering trusted solutions for mission-critical communications. We seek teammates who share our core values:

I 3 for C 3 - Insight, Innovation, and Integrity for Command, Control, and Communications

These values guide how we work every day. At Caliola, you will find technically challenging, mission-focused work within a flexible and collaborative culture that is uncommon in the defense industry. We offer flexible PTO, subsidized health insurance, 401(k) matching, professional development, and a competitive compensation structure designed to support long-term growth.

Our performance has driven rapid growth and national recognition, being named twice to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ and inclusion on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies. We have also been recognized as a Colorado Company to Watch, a ColoradoBiz Top Company in Aerospace & Defense, and the #2 Gazette's Best Workplace (medium size) in 2025.

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, we operate in a leading aerospace and defense hub with proximity to major military installations. Set against the Rocky Mountains, the region offers year-round outdoor recreation and a high quality of life for professionals and families considering relocation.

As a part of our selection process, we ask all applicants to complete a short, 10–12-minute survey from Culture Index. This is a survey, not a test; no passing or failing. The purpose of this survey is to identify your unique strengths as they relate to our open positions. Please copy and paste the following link into a separate browser window to complete: 

Position Description: Caliola is seeking a Director of Software Engineering to lead Caliola's software organization as we scale our mission-critical communications products, programs, and technical solutions. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, this leader will provide Leadership, Management, and Accountability for software engineers building software solutions, including web applications, backend signal processing for communications and alternate positioning/navigation/timing solutions, and applications that run over mesh networks.

Caliola's software teams operate in complex and restricted environments, including secured development spaces, classified programs, controlled workflows, and systems that must meet customer, accreditation, and mission requirements. As Caliola scales, this role will mature the software organization from project-by-project execution into a disciplined, repeatable software delivery engine by developing technical leads, strengthening engineering standards, improving delivery predictability, supporting productization of DoD-funded solutions, and guiding adoption of AI-enabled software engineering practices.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Provide Leadership, Management, and Accountability for Caliola's software organization, including establishing software leads, mentoring technical talent, and strengthening team capability across in-person, remote, and restricted development environments.
• Define, maintain, and continuously improve software engineering standards for architecture, code quality, testing, CI/CD, documentation, secure development, and AI-enabled software engineering practices.
• Maintain awareness of Caliola's software technology stack and guide standards, tooling, and staffing decisions across languages, frameworks, development environments, and deployment targets.
• Improve delivery predictability by monitoring staffing, dependencies, technical risks, quality, technical debt, execution blockers, and team capacity across current contracts, future awards, and internally funded development efforts.
• Establish and continuously improve agile software development practices, including sprint planning, backlog management, prioritization, estimation, retrospectives, accountability, issue escalation, and follow-through.
• Partner with program management, business development, product/design, engineering leaders, and customers as needed to support proposals, translate requirements into executable software plans, and validate technical approaches, staffing assumptions, and delivery commitments.
• Support productization of DoD-funded and internally developed solutions by promoting reusable components, common patterns, maintainable architectures, disciplined software sustainment practices, and appropriate adoption of approved AI-enabled tools and workflows.
• Drive healthy team dynamics by setting clear expectations, coaching through conflict, escalating issues early, and creating an environment where software teams can execute with focus and accountability.

What We Require:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science