Director of Operations Excellence (Austin)

Recognized as the No. 1 site trusted by real estate professionals, Realtor.com has been at the forefront of online real estate for over 25 years, connecting buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights and expert guidance to find their perfect home. Through its robust suite of tools, Realtor.com not only makes a significant impact on the real estate industry at large, but for consumers, navigating the biggest purchase they will make in their life, by providing a user experience that is easy to use, easy to understand, and most of all, easy to make decisions.Join us on our mission to empower more people to find their way home by breaking barriers to entry, making the right connections, and building confidence through expert guidance.Director, Operations Excellence, based in Austin, TXWe're looking for a Director of Operations Excellence to build and lead a new centralized organization that drives operational maturity, reliability, and efficiency across Realtor.com's 600+ developer engineering organization. This role will establish and scale our Operations Excellence function, bringing together Platform Reliability Engineering, Quality Engineering Operations, Financial Operations, and Release & Change Operations into a unified, strategic capability.You will be responsible for defining the vision, strategy, and execution roadmap for operational excellence at scale. This includes building high-performing teams, establishing operational frameworks and standards, driving adoption of operational best practices, and delivering measurable improvements in site reliability, product quality, cost efficiency, and release velocity. You'll partner closely with engineering leadership, product teams, and platform engineering to elevate operational maturity across the entire technology organization.This is a unique opportunity to build something from the ground up - shaping culture, processes, and systems while strategically integrating existing talent from across Realtor.com into a cohesive, high-impact organization.What You'll DoOrganization Building & LeadershipBuild and lead the Operations Excellence organization, scaling teams across Platform Reliability Engineering, Quality Engineering Operations, Financial Operations, and Release & Change OperationsRecruit, develop, and retain top engineering and operations talent while fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and operational disciplineEstablish team structures, roles, and responsibilities that balance centralized expertise with embedded support modelsIntegrate existing Realtor.com employees strategically into the new organization, leveraging institutional knowledge while establishing new operational standardsCreate career development frameworks and technical growth paths for operational excellence team membersDrive cultural transformation around operational excellence, making reliability, quality, and efficiency core engineering valuesStrategy & VisionDefine and communicate the long-term vision and strategy for operational excellence across reliability, quality, cost optimization, and release managementEstablish operational excellence frameworks aligned with industry best practices including SRE principles, DORA metrics, FinOps methodologies, and quality engineering standardsSet strategic priorities and investment roadmaps across all operational excellence domainsPartner with executive leadership to align operational excellence initiatives with business objectives and technology strategyDrive the integration of AI-augmented operational tools and developer productivity enhancements into operational workflowsInfluence engineering and product roadmaps to prioritize operational health, reliability improvements, and technical debt reductionOperational Execution & DeliveryOwn operational KPIs and SLAs across site reliability, quality metrics, cloud cost efficiency, and release management performanceDrive measurable improvements in MTTR, change failure rates, incident reduction, deployment frequency, and cost optimization targetsEstablish governance models and operational review cadences with engineering leadership to maintain visibility and accountabilityBuild and maintain operational dashboards, scorecards, and reporting systems that provide real-time visibility into operational healthLead incident response coordination, blameless postmortems, and systemic reliability improvement initiativesOversee implementation of operational tooling ecosystems including monitoring platforms, quality tools, cost management systems, and CI/CD pipelinesChampion chaos engineering, resilience testing, and proactive operational readiness practicesCross-Functional Partnership & InfluencePartner with Platform Engineering, Infrastructure, Security, and product teams to embed operational excellence practices into development workflowsCollaborate with engineering leadership to drive adoption of paved path platforms, standardized tooling, and operational best practicesServe as the voice of operational excellence in technology leadership forums, advocating for operational investments and architectural improvementsBuild strong relationships with product portfolio leaders to understand domain-specific operational challenges and tailor support accordinglyWork closely with Developer Productivity and AI Initiatives teams to integrate operational excellence with broader engineering productivity goalsEngage with vendor partners and industry peers to stay current on operational excellence trends and emerging practicesFinancial & Resource ManagementOwn budget planning and resource allocation across the Operations Excellence organizationBuild business cases and secure funding for operational excellence initiatives, tooling investments, and headcount growthDrive cloud cost optimization initiatives, working with FinOps team to reduce AWS spend while maintaining reliability and performanceDemonstrate ROI on operational excellence investments through metrics on incident reduction, deployment velocity, quality improvements, and cost savingsManage vendor relationships and contract negotiations for operational tooling and servicesHow We WorkWe balance creativity and innovation on a foundation of in-person collaboration. For most roles, our employees work three or more days in our office in Austin, TX, where they have the opportunity to collaborate in-person, adding richness to our culture and knitting us closer together.Who You AreYou're a proven engineering leader who knows how to build organizations from the ground up while driving operational transformation at scale. You understand that operational excellence isn't just about tooling—it's about culture, discipline, and making the right things easy to do. You've led teams through the journey from fragmented operational practices to mature, centralized capabilities.You're someone who:Builds high-trust, high-performance teams that deliver both strategic vision and tactical executionBalances technical depth with executive presence, able to debug production incidents and present to C-suite leadershipDrives change through influence and partnership, not mandates, earning credibility through demonstrated valueUnderstands the interconnections between reliability, quality, cost, and velocity—and knows how to optimize across all dimensionsThrives in ambiguity and can establish structure, process, and accountability where none existsChampions operational discipline while remaining pragmatic about tradeoffs and business prioritiesWhat You'll Bring10+ years in engineering, operations, or platform leadership roles with significant experience in operational excellence domains5+ years leading engineering teams, with proven ability to build, scale, and develop high-performing organizationsBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experienceDeep expertise across multiple operational excellence domains: Site Reliability Engineering, Quality Engineering, FinOps/cost optimization, and/or Release ManagementStrong understanding of AI-enhanced operational and development tools and their strategic applicationDemonstrated success establishing operational excellence frameworks, KPIs, and governance models at scaleExperience with modern operational tooling ecosystems including monitoring and observability platforms (NewRelic, Datadog, Splunk), quality tools (SonarQube, test automation), cost management tools (AWS Cost Explorer, FinOps platforms), and CI/CD systemsTrack record driving measurable improvements in DORA metrics, MTTR, incident reduction, deployment frequency, and operational costsProven ability to influence without authority and drive organizational change across engineering teamsStrong business acumen with experience building budgets, business cases, and ROI models for operational investmentsExcellent communication and executive presence, with ability to translate operational complexity into business impactBonus PointsExperience building or scaling centralized operational excellence, SRE, or platform engineering organizations from the ground upBackground in both product engineering and operational roles, bringing empathy for developer experienceDeep expertise in cloud architecture and AWS operational best practicesExperience with large-scale incident management, crisis response, and operational resilience programsKnowledge of chaos engineering frameworks and resilience testing methodologiesFamiliarity with developer productivity measurement and engineering effectiveness frameworksTechnical certifications in SRE, cloud architecture, or operational excellence domainsExperience working in high-growth technology companies or digital marketplace platformsTrack record publishing thought leadership on operational excellence, SRE practices, or engineering effectivenessDo the best work of your life at Realtor.comHere, you’ll partner with a diverse team