EY Parthenon - Strategy and Execution - Platforms - Software Engineering - Director

Location:

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, McLean, New York, Hoboken, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle

EY-Parthenon’s unique combination of transformative strategy, transactions and corporate finance delivers real-world value. The Growth Platforms team focuses on building durable technology and AI capabilities that power long-term enterprise growth. The Software Engineering Director for AI Tooling plays a pivotal role in translating strategy into execution—designing and scaling modern software platforms, AI-enabled tools, and internal products that create measurable value for Fortune 500 and growth-stage clients alike.

As a Software Engineering Director, you will lead the design and delivery of production-grade software systems and AI-enabled tooling that underpin high-visibility client engagements and internal platforms. You will own architectural decisions, development standards, and technical direction across multiple work streams.

• Architect, build, and scale core software platforms that integrate data, AI services, and user-facing applications.
• Lead the development of AI-powered tools, including decision support systems, copilots, internal developer tools, and domain-specific agents.
• Design and maintain robust service architectures (APIs, event-driven systems, batch and real-time pipelines) optimized for reliability, security, and extensibility.
• Establish engineering best practices across code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, and performance.
• Collaborate with AI/ML engineers to product ionize models and agents, ensuring seamless integration into real-world workflows.
• Partner directly with business leaders and C-suite executives to translate strategic objectives into scalable technical solutions.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leads, fostering a culture of ownership, craftsmanship, and continuous improvement.

Successful candidates will bring strong engineering judgment, fluency in modern AI tooling, and the ability to operate comfortably across strategy and execution.

• Lead development of backend and full-stack systems using modern languages and frameworks (e.g., Python, Java, Scala, Type Script).
• Design and manage cloud-native architectures on platforms such as AWS or GCP, using containerization and infrastructure-as-code.
• Build AI-ready application layers that integrate LLMs, retrieval systems, vector databases, and model orchestration frameworks.
• Develop internal tooling and developer platforms that improve velocity, reliability, and reuse across teams.
• Define and enforce standards for security, privacy, reliability, and compliance (e.g., SOC 2, HIPAA, enterprise governance).
• Translate ambiguous business problems into concrete system designs and incremental delivery plans.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders.

• A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field and 5+ years of professional engineering experience; or a graduate degree and approximately 3+ years of relevant experience.
• Demonstrated experience in senior software engineering, platform engineering, or technical leadership roles.
• Strong proficiency in modern software development practices, including APIs, distributed systems, and cloud services.
• Hands‑on experience deploying AI-enabled applications or tooling into production environments.
• Comfort operating in fast-paced, client-facing environments with evolving requirements.
• You must either reside in or be in a commutable distance to your office location for this position.
• The ability and willingness to travel and work in excess of standard hours when necessary. In certain circumstances, travel may be required beyond your work location based on client and project needs.

• Experience working in management consulting, product-led organizations, or high-growth startups.
• Familiarity with modern AI ecosystems, including LLM frameworks, agent architectures, and prompt/tool orchestration.
• A strong product mindset—understanding not…