Director of Engineering, Mobile Applications

Director Engineering, Mobile Apps

Location:

Remote work

Duration:
Full time

The Director of Engineering will lead technical efforts in United Parks’ digital transformation. This position is responsible for mobile apps across 12 theme parks, and focused on the in-park customer experience and revenue through digital platforms. Reporting to the Chief Digital Officer, this position will take a leadership role in building and managing a growing team of developers and QA staff.

The Director of Engineering will also influence broader digital/tech strategy and drive innovative solutions across the company.

• Enterprise Architect:
  Lead the architectural design and integration of complex solutions that seamlessly interact with multiple legacy systems, ensuring scalability and future-proofing.
• Team Leadership:
  Mentor and guide a team of 10-15 remote engineers (mix of U.S. & nearshore) across native iOS/Android development, React-based web interfaces, API/services development, and quality assurance. Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Cross-functional Collaboration:
  
  Partner with internal teams such as infrastructure, product management, and UX/UI design, as well as external vendors and platforms, to deliver high-quality, user‑centric digital solutions.
• Feature Ideation and Development:
  Spearhead the ideation, development, and implementation of features related to ticketing, day planning, interactive maps & navigation, in‑park purchasing (including mobile food ordering), loyalty programs, payment processing, and third‑party partner integrations.
• Performance Monitoring and Optimization:
  Utilize tools like Datadog, Quantum Metric, and Optimizely to monitor application performance in real‑time, identifying and resolving issues proactively to ensure a seamless customer experience.
• Software Development Lifecycle Improvement:
  Continuously enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the software development lifecycle through the implementation of QA automation, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices, and other industry best practices.
• Release Management and Deployment:
  Oversee the release management process, ensuring robust CI/CD pipelines are in place for seamless deployments to cloud environments. Manage cloud hosting infrastructure to support high availability, performance, and security.
• Hands‑on Development:
  Maintain a hands‑on approach to development, with the ability to step in as an individual contributor to tackle complex challenges or drive key feature development when necessary.
• Prioritization and Road mapping:
  Collaborate with functional leaders across UX, Analytics, Operations, and Product Management to define strategy, establish roadmaps, prioritize initiatives, and allocate resources effectively to meet business objectives.

• Experience:
  
  8+ years of progressive experience in engineering management within respected consumer focused businesses such as eCommerce, marketplaces, or subscription services, with a strong focus on mobile app development and mobile specific experiences.
• Leadership:
  Proven experience leading remote and diverse teams of 10-15 professionals, including roles such as native app developers, front‑end web developers, and QA engineers.
• Development Methodologies:
  Deep expertise in modern development methodologies, including Lean and Agile, with a track record of successfully implementing these practices.
• Project Lifecycle Management:
  Expert understanding of the entire project lifecycle, from initiation and requirements gathering to analysis, design, development, release, version control, automated testing, and deployment management. Experience with ground-up implementations is essential.
• Data-Driven Decision-Making:
  Demonstrated ability to leverage large datasets to analyze and improve product capabilities, benefiting multiple user groups. Strong proficiency in making data-informed decisions through A/B testing, user testing, and performance monitoring.
• Leadership & Communication:
  Exceptional leadership, management, and communication skills, with experience in building and managing relationships with executive and senior management levels. Ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical senior leaders with clarity and precision.
• Execution & Strategy:
  Strong ability to meet deadlines and manage a heavy workload while maintaining visibility into workflows and portfolios. Flexibility to shift easily between big-picture strategy and hands‑on execution as needed.