Director, Software Engineering

JLL empowers you to shape a brighter way. Our people at JLL are shaping the future of real estate for a better world by combining world class services, advisory and technology for our clients. We are committed to hiring the best, most talented people and empowering them to thrive, grow meaningful careers and to find a place where they belong. Whether you’ve got deep experience in commercial real estate, skilled trades or technology, or you’re looking to apply your relevant experience to a new industry, join our team as we help shape a brighter way forward. About JLL and JLL Technologies JLL is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. Our vision is to reimagine the world of real estate, creating rewarding opportunities and amazing spaces where people can achieve their ambitions. In doing so, we will build a better tomorrow for our clients, our people, and our communities. JLL Technologies is a specialized group within JLL. At JLL Technologies, our mission is to bring technological innovation to commercial real estate. We deliver unparalleled digital advisory, implementation, and services solutions to organizations globally. Our goal is to leverage technology to increase the value and liquidity of the world's buildings, while enhancing the productivity and happiness of those that occupy them. Director Engineering – Research Technology Location: New York City (On-site) Role Overview As Senior Engineering Manager for Research Technology & AI Agents, you will lead the engineering execution of JLL's Research transformation in close partnership with the Product Manager – Research Technology and the Research organization. This is a hands-on leadership role focused on building AI-powered platforms and agents that automate research workflows, democratize insights, and enable advanced analytics at global scale. You will champion an AI-augmented engineering culture where the team delivers high-quality, reliable, and scalable outcomes at speed by orchestrating AI development tools, enterprise software agents, and strong engineering judgment. A creative and collaborative thinker at heart, you thrive on solving novel problems alongside product managers, researchers, and data scientists — locking arms across disciplines to passionately build what hasn't been built before. Your role is to set the quality bar, establish effective AI-assisted development practices, and ensure the team leverages these tools to maximize velocity without compromising production standards - all in service of bringing a truly groundbreaking AI-enabled research platform to life. This role is intentionally co-located in NYC with Product and Research to enable rapid daily iteration between product vision, technical execution, and real researcher feedback — critical for effective AI agent development and deployment. Key Responsibilities Engineering Leadership & Execution Lead and mentor high-impact engineering team, including senior engineers Operate as a hands-on player-coach, contributing to architecture, design, and code reviews Establish and evolve team practices for AI-augmented development — ensuring AI coding assistants and enterprise software agents are leveraged effectively across the development lifecycle Set clear expectations that engineering judgment, code review rigor, and quality validation remain the responsibility of the engineer, not the AI tool Partnership with Product & Research Partner closely with the Product Management – Research Technology on discovery, roadmap execution, and prioritization Work directly with Research users to understand current workflows and future plans and translate them into effective tooling Enable rapid iteration cycles through tight collaboration with Product and Research teams AI Agents & Platform Development Design and build AI agents that automate research processes and assist insight generation Lead integration of LLMs, agent orchestration, evaluation, and monitoring capabilities Build scalable services, APIs, and internal tools that support agent-driven analytics Define and enforce quality gates — automated testing, evaluation benchmarks, and guardrails — for agent-driven outputs Continuously evaluate and adopt emerging AI development tools and agent platforms available within the enterprise Architecture & Cloud Platforms Design and evolve cloud-native, microservice-based architectures Develop and maintain secure, scalable APIs consumed by internal products and platforms Collaborate with data, platform, security, and architecture teams to align with enterprise standards, architecture patterns, and Critical Design Reviews (CDRs) Participate in and drive high level design reviews for team-owned systems, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture governance Delivery & Ways of Working Support agile delivery across multiple initiatives and teams Manage technical backlogs, dependencies, and delivery risks Communicate technical decisions and progress clearly to product and senior stakeholders Qualifications Required 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 3+ years in an engineering leadership role Proven experience as a hands-on Engineering Manager (player-coach) Strong back-end expertise in Python, Node.js, Java, Go, or C# Demonstrated proficiency using AI coding tools and agents to accelerate team delivery, and experience establishing AI-augmented development practices within a team Strong ability to set quality standards for reviewing, validating, and debugging AI-generated code across a team Experience designing microservice architectures, distributed systems, and complex platforms Proven experience building and maintaining RESTful or gRPC APIs Deep experience with a major cloud platform (AWS or Azure) Solid experience with relational (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, DynamoDB) databases Strong understanding of CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and containerization (Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes) Experience partnering closely with Product Managers and business stakeholders Preferred Experience building AI/ML or LLM-enabled systems, including agent-based workflows Experience working with data engineering, analytics, or platform teams Front-end experience with React, Angular, or Vue.js for internal tools Experience in Commercial Real Estate, Research, Financial Services, or other data-intensive domains Experience modernizing legacy platforms and driving technical change This position does not provide visa sponsorship. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship. Estimated compensation for this position: 300,000.00 – 375,000.00 USD per year This range is an estimate and actual compensation may differ. Final compensation packages are determined by various considerations including but not limited to candidate qualifications, location, market conditions, and internal considerations. Location: On-site –New York, NY If this job description resonates with you, we encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet all the requirements. We’re interested in getting to know you and what you bring to the table! Personalized benefits that support personal well-being and growth: JLL recognizes the impact that the workplace can have on your wellness, so we offer a supportive culture and comprehensive benefits package that prioritizes mental, physical and emotional health. Some of these benefits may include: 401(k) plan with matching company contributions Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision Care Paid parental leave at 100% of salary Paid Time Off and Company Holidays Early access to earned wages through Daily Pay At JLL, we harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to efficiently accelerate meaningful connections between candidates and opportunities. Using AI capabilities, we analyze your application for relevant skills, experiences, and qualifications to generate valuable insights about how your unique profile aligns with the specific requirements of the role you're pursuing. JLL Privacy Notice Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading global provider of real estate and investment management services. We take our responsibility to protect the personal information provided to us seriously. Generally the personal information we collect from you are for the purposes of processing in connection with JLL’s recruitment process. We endeavour to keep your personal information secure with appropriate level of security and keep for as long as we need it for legitimate business or legal reasons. We will then delete it safely and securely. For more information about how JLL processes your personal data, please view our Candidate Privacy Statement. For additional details please see our career site pages for each country. For candidates in the United States, please see a full copy of our Equal Employment Opportunity policy here. Jones Lang LaSalle (“JLL”) is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process – including the online application and/or overall selection process – you may email us at View email address on click.appcast.io. This email is only to request an accommodation. Please direct any other general recruiting inquiries to our Contact Us page > I want to work for JLL. Pursuant to the Arizona Civil Rights Act, criminal convictions are not an absolute bar to employment. Pursuant to Illinois Law, applicants are not obligated to disclose sealed or expunged records of conviction or arrest. Pursuant to Columbia, SC ordinance, this position is subject to a background check for any convictions directly related to its duties and responsibilities. Only job-related convictions will be considered and will not automatically disqualify the candidate. 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If you're a current JLL employee, please apply using the Internal Career Site At JLL, we give you the opportunity, knowledge and tools to own your success, because we value what makes each of us unique. We help our people thrive, grow meaningful careers and find a place where they belong. Together, we strive to be exceptional and shape a better world. For over 200 years, JLL (NYSE: JLL), a leading global commercial real estate and investment management company, has helped clients buy, build, occupy, manage and invest in a variety of commercial, industrial, hotel, residential and retail properties. A Fortune 500® company with operations in over 80 countries around the world, our employees bring the power of a global platform combined with local expertise. Driven by our purpose to shape the future of real estate for a better world, we help our clients, people and communities SEE A BRIGHTER WAYSM. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. 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