Head of Software Engineering (Atlanta)

Head of Software Engineering, Sr. Director (hybrid- Monday- Thursday onsite )
Location: US-GA-Atlanta (Sandy Springs)
FLSA: Exempt

About Safe-Guard Products International

Safe-Guard Products International is the industry leader in automotive protection products and F&I solutions, partnering with the world's top OEM brands and a nationwide network of franchised and independent dealerships. Our platforms power the full lifecycle of vehicle protection—from dealer enrollment and incentive management to real-time rating, quoting, contracting, claims adjudication, cancellations, and consumer-direct experiences. We are transforming into an AI-first future culture, embedding intelligence across every platform our dealers, OEM partners, and internal operations teams rely on daily. As we accelerate AI transformation, we are seeking a proven Head of Software Engineering to lead the engineering organization responsible for our client-facing and internal operations platforms. This is a career-defining opportunity for a technology leader who has built AI-native engineering cultures, delivered AI-powered platforms in complex regulated industries, and knows how to win in both the automotive and insurance environments.

Role Overview

The Head of Software Engineering owns software engineering strategy and execution across Safe-Guard's core platform portfolio. You will lead a multi-team engineering organization that builds and operates the systems underpinning dealer enrollment, incentive programs, rating, quoting, and remitting workflows, claims adjudication, cancellations, payment processing, and direct-to-consumer product experiences. You will partner with Sales, Key Partner Management, Operations, and executive leadership to align engineering capacity and roadmaps with company strategy, and you will help champion Safe-Guard's vision of AI-native software development, operationalizing the use of Claude, Cursor, and similar LLMs and software tools across engineering teams. Note: This role does not have responsibility for ERP / Financial Systems or Business Analytics / BI reporting platforms.

What You Will Do

Engineering Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing software engineering organization across multiple product domains, client-facing dealer and OEM platforms, internal operations systems, and direct-to-consumer applications.
• Own recruiting, hiring, and retention of top engineering talent; build career progression that reward technical excellence and leadership growth at every level.
• Establish and sustain a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous learning for engineers do their best work.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development conversations; actively develop direct reports into future leaders.
• Partner with HR and Talent Acquisition to strengthen Safe-Guard's employer brand within the software engineering community.

Platform Ownership & Technical Strategy

• Own the engineering roadmap and outcomes for Safe-Guard's client-facing platforms (dealer enrollment, rating, quoting, contract remittance, incentive management, direct-to-consumer) and internal platforms (claims adjudication, cancellations, and payments).
• Define and help drive the technical architecture strategy, balancing modernization, and scalability, across a portfolio of applications serving automotive and insurance workflows.
• Partner with Sales, Product Management, and Operations to translate business objectives into executable technical roadmaps, ensuring alignment between engineering capacity and company priorities.
• Drive continuous improvement in system reliability, performance, and security; establish engineering standards for code quality, testing, observability, and incident response.
• Make sound architectural and build/buy/partner decisions, clearly communicating trade-offs to senior leadership and stakeholders.

AI-Native Culture & Platform Development

• Help champion Safe-Guard's AI vision by embedding AI-assisted development practices as standard practice across all engineering teams.
• In collaboration with technology leadership, help design and delivery of AI-native platform capabilities, including intelligent automation in claims adjudication, contract processing, rating workflows, and dealer-facing experiences.
• Build a team culture where engineers default to AI-first thinking: leveraging AI to accelerate development velocity, improve code quality, reduce operational work, and expand product capabilities.
• Stay current on AI tooling and agentic AI approaches; bring informed recommendations to the technology and product leadership on emerging capabilities applicable to Safe-Guard's platforms.
• Establish evaluation frameworks and responsible-use guidelines ensuring AI capabilities deployed in production meet Safe-Guard's quality, compliance, security, and reliability standards.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as the primary engineering voice in executive and cross-functional forums; communicate technical strategy, progress, risks, and trade-offs clearly to both technical and business stakeholders.
• Partner with Operations, Compliance, and Legal teams to ensure platforms meet the regulatory requirements of automotive and insurance administration.
• Collaborate closely with our dealer network, OEM partners, and Key partner executive teams to incorporate external feedback into the platform roadmap.
• Drive alignment across peer technology leaders—Product, Architecture, Data, Security, and IT to deliver cohesive, integrated platform experiences.

Delivery Excellence & Operational Maturity

• Own end-to-end software delivery accountability ensuring teams execute with predictability, quality, and a consistent sense of urgency.
• Implement and refine delivery practices, release cadences, and engineering health metrics that give leadership clear visibility into team performance and platform health.
• Drive operational excellence: runbooks, post-incident reviews, and a culture of proactive reliability over reactive firefighting.
• Identify and remove organizational and technical blockers that impede team velocity.

Experience & Qualifications

WHAT YOU WILL BRING

• 15+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including 7+ years leading engineering organizations of 70 or more engineers across multiple teams and domains including offshore contracting resources.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling AI-native engineering cultures to fundamentally transform how engineering teams design and build software.
• Hands-on experience building AI-powered production platforms; familiarity with LLMs, agentic AI architectures, and practical integration patterns for regulated business workflows.
• Direct experience with AI-assisted development tooling including Anthropic's Claude, Cursor, and similar LLMs and products at team or organizational scale.
• Proven track record in the automotive industry with direct experience working with dealer networks, OEM brands, or automotive F&I platforms strongly preferred.
• Meaningful experience in insurance or insurance-adjacent domains (policy administration, claims processing, coverage rating and quoting, or similar regulated workflows).
• Track record delivering complex, client-facing SaaS or platform products in a B2B environment where uptime, performance, and compliance are non-negotiable.

Technical & Domain Expertise

• Strong command of modern software architecture patterns: microservices, event-driven systems, API-first design, cloud-native infrastructure, and DevSecOps practices.
• Deep familiarity with the software development lifecycle: code quality standards, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, release management, and production observability.
• Understanding of the regulatory and compliance landscape relevant to automotive protection products, vehicle service contracts, and insurance product administration.
• Experience with payment processing platforms, financial transaction workflows, or claims administration systems is a strong advantage.

Leadership & Communication

• Exceptional ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable narratives for executive, business, and cross-functional audiences.
• Proven ability to build trust with internal and external customers operating as a credible technology partner, not just an internal function.
• High emotional intelligence; skilled at navigating organizational complexity, building consensus across competing priorities, and leading through change.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field required; advanced degree a plus. Equivalent experience will be considered.

What Success Looks Like

In your first 90 days, you will have built strong relationships with your engineering leads, Product partners, and key business stakeholders; completed a candid assessment of platform health, team capabilities, and delivery practices; and established your presence as a trusted, decisive leader within the Technology organization. Within 6 months, your teams will be operating with measurably improved delivery predictability, AI-assisted development will be embedded in daily engineering workflows, and you will have a clear roadmap for elevating AI-native capabilities across Safe-Guard's platform portfolio. At one year, Safe-Guard's engineering organization will reflect your leadership: higher engineeri]]> <