Director of Technology Operations & Assurance

Director of Technology Operations & Assurance

Location: San Diego, CA — In Office

Employment: Full-Time

Reports to: CEO

Works closely with: Chief Architect/CTO and Director of Engineering & AI Product Development

The Mission

Create the operating discipline and independent verification system around the technology organization.

Engineering builds the technology.

You make sure leadership knows what was promised, whether it was delivered, whether it works, whether it is documented, and where risk exists.

Your operating model is:

Commitment → Owner → Date → Verification → QA → Documentation → Risk → CEO Visibility

You are not responsible for building the company's software or managing engineers.

You are responsible for making technology execution visible, accountable, testable and resilient .

What You Own

Technology Program Governance

Maintain the company's single source of truth for technology execution.

Every meaningful initiative should have:

• Defined objective
• Accountable owner
• Deliverables
• Dependencies
• Committed dates
• Current status
• Risks
• Blockers
• Acceptance criteria
• Definition of done

You do not decide how engineering builds something.

You make sure commitments are explicit and measurable.

Problems should surface before deadlines are missed.

Independent QA & Release Assurance

Own the verification layer between:

"Engineering says it's finished"

and

"The company has verified that it works."

Establish processes for:

• QA
• Acceptance testing
• Regression testing
• Release verification
• Production validation
• Defect tracking
• Post-release verification

Engineering owns building and fixing the software.

Technology Operations owns independently determining whether it meets the agreed requirements.

A project is not complete because code exists.

It is complete when it meets its acceptance criteria and works in production.

Documentation & Key-Person Risk

Make sure critical company technology does not exist only inside someone's head.

Establish documentation requirements covering:

• System architecture
• Infrastructure
• Databases
• Data flows
• APIs
• AI agents
• Repositories
• Deployment procedures
• Environments
• Integrations
• Vendors
• Access requirements
• Technical decisions
• Runbooks
• Recovery procedures

Engineering creates and maintains technical documentation.

You verify that required documentation exists, is current and can actually be used by another qualified person.

Security Governance & Operational Resilience

Establish visibility and accountability around:

• Infrastructure access
• Credentials and permissions
• Source-code repositories
• Production environments
• Data security
• Vendors
• Backup and recovery
• Business continuity
• Incident response
• Security policies
• Technical risk

You are not expected to personally operate every security system.

You ensure appropriate controls exist, ownership is clear and material risks are surfaced.

Technology Risk

Maintain a technology risk register covering areas such as:

• Key-person dependency
• Security exposure
• Infrastructure concentration
• Undocumented systems
• Vendor dependency
• Data risks
• Production instability
• Recovery capability
• Technical operational risk

Escalate material risks directly to leadership.

CEO Technology Visibility

Create a simple executive technology dashboard that answers:

What are we building?

Who owns it?

When was it promised?

What's at risk?

What's blocked?

What shipped?

Did it pass QA?

Does it work in production?

Is it documented?

The CEO should not have to chase engineers for answers.

What You Do NOT Own

You do not own:

• Writing production software
• Engineering architecture
• Engineering implementation
• Managing software engineers
• Assigning engineering resources
• Code reviews
• Choosing frameworks
• Building AI agents
• Technical product development
• Resolving engineering problems yourself

Those responsibilities belong to the Director of Engineering and Chief Architect/CTO.

Your role is to measure, verify, challenge, document and escalate—not become a shadow engineering department.

First 90 Days

First 30 Days: Map projects, commitments, systems, ownership, access, documentation, security exposure and key-person risks. Establish the technology source of truth.

By Day 60: Implement delivery reporting, QA standards, acceptance criteria, documentation requirements, risk tracking and CEO reporting.

By Day 90: Establish a repeatable Technology Assurance operating system providing independent visibility into whether engineering is delivering working, documented and resilient technology.

How Success Is Measured

• Can leadership see exactly what engineering is working on?
• Are commitments and dates explicit?
• Are missed commitments identified early?
• Does released technology pass independent verification?
• Are defects being identified systematically?
• Is critical technology documented?
• Is key-person dependency decreasing?
• Are security risks visible?
• Are operational risks being addressed?
• Can leadership understand technology status without chasing engineers?

Your job is to create accountability and assurance without creating bureaucracy.