Director, Application Engineering

The Director, Application Engineering leads the strategy, architecture, and delivery of mobile applications and GenAI-powered capabilities. This role partners closely with Product, Design, Data, Security, and Operations to build reliable, scalable, and user‑centric experiences.

The individual will be responsible for managing a highly efficient, effective and successful engineer‑driven team that partners with the business to provide outstanding software development and delivery to support operational systems and related processes.

Bright Horizons is a leading education and care company that helps employees thrive at work and at home by partnering with employers to offer high‑quality child care, elder care, and educational support. Our workplace reflects this commitment—with collaborative environments, meaningful benefits, and a culture that supports both career growth and personal well‑being. Whether you’re caring for children or powering the systems and partnerships that make it all possible, at Bright Horizons, you’re the difference.

• Mobile and Gen AI Engineering
  • Lead end‑to‑end development and delivery of mobile and AI/GenAI applications using modern engineering practices.
  • Define mobile and GenAI architecture, including modularization, release processes, CI/CD, observability, and platform strategy.
  • Drive AI/GenAI feature development; select models, build pipelines, design evaluation frameworks, optimize latency, and ensure responsible AI usage.
  • Guide teams through technical decisions; remove blockers; promote best‑in‑class engineering practices.
  • Establish engineering KPIs, quality standards and drive continuous improvement.
  • Own cloud and AI inference cost governance and resource allocation.
  • Manage staffing strategy and talent development for mobile and GenAI engineering teams.
  • Maintain clear technical documentation and progress reporting for leadership.
• Product Partnership
  • Translate product strategy into engineering roadmaps, sequencing, and technical trade‑offs.
  • Partner with PMs on KPI creation, prioritization, and customer‑centric decisions.
  • Work cross‑functionally with design, support, research, operations, and marketing.
  • Communicate engineering impacts in clear, business‑aligned language.
• People Management & Leadership
  • Lead, mentor, and grow engineers, senior ICs, and engineering managers.
  • Build a high‑performing culture centered on accountability, collaboration, and modern engineering excellence.
  • Recognize contributions; develop succession plans; guide career development.
  • Influence engineering strategy across the team including architecture, security, data, and cloud teams.
  • Present technical strategy and program updates to executive leadership.
  • Drive enterprise‑level modernization initiatives (mobile platform upgrades, AI adoption, cloud modernization).
  • Exercise independent judgment in technical strategy, staffing, architectural choices, and delivery commitments.
  • Manage risk, compliance, privacy, and AI governance considerations in decision making.

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Technology or related field, 3 additional years of experience would be considered in lieu of the applicable degree.
• 7+ years technical engineering experience with coding for application engineering.
• 5+ years experience and skills in leading engineering teams.
• 3+ years experience and skills in building cloud‑based SaaS applications.
• 1+ years delivering AI and GenAI applications, including model integration, evaluation, RAG, and deployment.

• 5 years experience and skills in building mobile development and technology (Angular(Ionic), React Native, Flutter or native iOS/Android or similar) or building applications with Python, Perl or similar — Preferred
• Proven track record delivering mobile or AI powered products at scale.
• Familiarity with modern LLM providers and tooling (Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Lang Smith, vector databases).
• Experience with reliability engineering, automated testing, CI/CD, APM/observability, and performance optimization.
• Experience working with security, privacy, and AI governance requirements.
• Strong verbal and written…