Director of Product Engineering

Overview

Purple Wave is seeking an experienced and strategic Director of Product Engineering to lead our product engineering organization. Reporting directly to the VP of IT, this role will drive innovation, velocity, and quality across all product engineering teams. This is a remote‑eligible position and a key leadership role responsible for delivering exceptional software solutions that power Purple Wave's online auction business.

The Director of Product Engineering is accountable for leading all product engineering functions at Purple Wave. This leader manages four departments:
Mobile Engineering, Agility, Test Engineering, and Product Engineering. The role requires strategic vision, exceptional leadership, and technical acumen to ensure the delivery of high‑quality software products that meet business objectives and delight customers.

• Strategic Leadership and Vision
  • Define the long‑term strategy and vision for product engineering aligned with business goals.
  • Partner with engineering leaders to guide technology decisions and modern development practices.
  • Drive innovation and continuous improvement across all engineering teams.
  • Ensure alignment between team goals and business strategy.
  • Translate business requirements into clear engineering objectives.
• Team Structure and Growth
  • Build and scale the four departments:
    Mobile Engineering, Agility, Test Engineering, and Product Engineering.
  • Hire, mentor, and develop high‑performing engineering managers and technical staff.
  • Drive a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and an agile mindset.
  • Inspire and motivate teams to deliver innovative solutions with appropriate urgency.
  • Create clear career paths and development opportunities for engineering talent.
• Engineering Enablement and Operations
  • Establish policies and procedures to improve the software development lifecycle.
  • Enable results by improving and automating processes with clear definitions of success.
  • Remove impediments by collaborating with stakeholders where teams cannot self‑organize to reach resolution.
  • Ensure teams have the tools, resources, and support needed to succeed.
  • Foster collaboration across engineering teams and with other departments.
• Agility and Continuous Improvement
  • Coach leaders and managers throughout the enterprise on benefits of agile practices and successful implementation.
  • Support teams in modeling an agility mindset by promoting practical applications of agile principles.
  • Champion experimentation, inspection, and continuous improvement methodologies.
  • Drive adoption of best practices in software delivery and team collaboration.
• Product and Customer Focus
  • Work closely with Product teams to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.
  • Ensure engineering teams understand business context and customer impact.
  • Balance technical excellence with business value and time‑to‑market.
  • Oversee mobile application strategy and web platform development.
• Quality and Delivery Excellence
  • Partner with Test Engineering to establish quality standards and automation strategies.
  • Ensure code quality, testing practices, and deployment processes meet organizational goals.
  • Drive metrics and visibility into engineering performance and delivery health.
  • Foster accountability for quality throughout the development process.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration
  • Collaborate with Platform Engineering, Data, and Infrastructure teams to ensure seamless delivery.
  • Partner with Product Management to align engineering capacity with business priorities.
  • Provide guidance and coaching to managers, leaders, and teams.
  • Serve as a bridge between technical teams and business leadership.
• Budget and Resource Management
  • Administer expense and compensation budgets.
  • Make strategic decisions on tooling, technology investments, and vendor partnerships.
  • Optimize resource allocation across engineering initiatives.
• Undertake additional assigned duties as requested.

• Directly manage four department managers:
  Mobile Engineering, Agility, Test Engineering, and Product Engineering.
• Define organization structure and resource allocation with the VP of IT.
• Provide coaching, performance management, and career development.

• Bac…