Director, Software Engineering

Role Description

We are looking for a Director of Engineering to lead the engineering side of the Partner Experience organization — the group responsible for the end-to-end partner journey across two product teams: Partner Quoting & Delivery and Partner Reporting & Insights.

• Partner Acquisition & Delivery: Owns the platforms and products that answer "did the partner receive what they bought" — partner onboarding, prospect quoting, and the lead delivery pipeline.
• Partner Reporting & Insights: Owns the platforms and products that ensure "how the partner sees the value they purchased" — platform performance reporting, monthly insight reports, and the insights engine.

Together, the organization is oriented around how partners onboard, what Niche delivers, how value is reported back, and how that loop drives retention and expansion. This Director will be the engineering co-lead of that mission — partnering tightly with product leadership to set direction, build the teams, and raise the bar on how Niche builds software.

What You Will Do

• Own team health, technical strategy, and delivery velocity across both teams.
• Drive alignment from discovery through delivery as the engineering counterpart to the organization's product leadership.
• Champion AI-native engineering as an operating model.

During the First Month:

• Learn about Niche by meeting with various team members through Onboarding meetings.
• Meet all direct reports and key cross-functional partners; build an initial read on team strengths and gaps.
• Get deep on the partner-facing product surfaces, current tech stack, and delivery patterns across both teams.
• Understand the partner experience end to end — onboarding speed, lead pacing, platform engagement — and identify engineering leverage points.
• Form an initial point of view on the teams' AI tooling adoption and gaps.

Within 2 Months:

• Present your assessment of the organization's engineering health to the CTO and Sr. Director of Product.
• Align with product leadership on near-term technical priorities and pressing architectural decisions.
• Identify the top 2–3 changes for the first half of your tenure and propose a plan.
• Begin actively coaching EMs on embedding AI-native practices into their teams' workflows.

Within 3 Months:

• Own the engineering roadmap and resourcing for both teams with confidence.
• Have a defined velocity measurement framework in place that accounts for AI-augmented output.
• Lead at least one meaningful initiative to accelerate agentic engineering adoption.
• Establish a strong operating rhythm with the product lead, CTO, and Sr. Director of Product.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering, with at least 3+ years managing engineering managers.
• Demonstrated experience driving a team's transition to AI-assisted or agentic engineering workflows.
• Track record of shipping high-quality product at scale in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment.
• Strong communicator — able to represent engineering credibly to product and GTM partners.
• Experience working alongside embedded data engineers, with exposure to modern data tooling (dbt, Snowflake, or similar).
• Systematic thinker who brings structure to ambiguous problems without over-processing.

Nice to Have

• Experience in EdTech, marketplace, or consumer platform businesses.
• Familiarity with spec-driven development (SDD) or similar AI-paired engineering operating models.
• Experience in B2B2C businesses with CRM-integrated product surfaces.
• Exposure to partner-facing reporting systems, data pipelines, or lead delivery infrastructure.

Compensation

Our national target base salary range is $168,640-$210,800, plus participation in our Annual Bonus and Stock Option Program. Base compensation will be commensurate with experience and skills.

Benefits

• Best-in-class 100% paid employee health plan, including vision and dental and supplemental coverage.
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy.
• Stipend for building your work from home office.
• Parental leave for all employees (12 weeks fully paid) in addition to short term disability for birthing parents.
• Meaningful 401(k) with employer match.
• Your ideas and work will make an immediate impact on our company and millions of users.
• You will join a team that cares about you, our mission, our work - and celebrates our wins together!

Interview Process

• Phone Screen with Talent Acquisition Partner - 30 Minutes.
• Video Interview with Hiring Manager - 45 Minutes.
• Team Interview - 4 Leaders across Product and Engineering.
• Case Study - 1 Week to Complete.

Company Description

Niche is the leader in school search. Our mission is to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search tools, we help millions of people find the right school for them.

Niche is all about finding where you belong, and that mission inspires how we operate every day. We want Niche to be a place where people truly enjoy working and can thrive professionally.