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 for 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.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

* 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.

Minimum Qualifications:

* 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

Preferred Qualifications:

* 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 and 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,…