Executive Director - Director of Software Engineering

We are seeking an Executive Director to lead a Software Engineering team within Wealth Management Technology, with a mandate to embed applied AI and modern engineering practice into how the business builds software. This is a hands-on, fast-moving leadership role: the successful candidate will build and run a high-performing engineering organization, apply generative AI and AI-assisted development tools as a core part of how the team ships software, and serve as the Atlanta site lead for AWM Technology — recruiting local talent, shaping engineering culture, and establishing Atlanta as a center of engineering excellence. AWM technology moves fast; we are looking for an energetic, technically fearless leader who can operate at that speed and bring others along with them.

Job responsibilities

• Serve as the site lead for AWM Technology in Atlanta, acting as the face of the organization for the local site and a key partner to firmwide site leadership

• Own local talent strategy: recruit, hire, and build a high-performing engineering team in the Atlanta market; build the pipeline and brand needed to make Atlanta a magnet for top engineering talent

• Shape and promote a strong local engineering culture — instill engineering principles, technical excellence, and a builder mindset across the Atlanta site

• Foster energy, speed, and accountability consistent with AWM's fast-paced operating environment; create an environment where engineers want to stay, grow, and do their best work

• Represent the Atlanta site in cross-regional planning, resourcing, and culture-building efforts alongside other AWM Technology site and functional leaders

• Lead a software and data engineering teams delivering production-grade systems for Wealth Management, holding an uncompromising bar for code quality, testability, observability, and maintainable architecture

• Drive adoption of AI-enabled practices across the engineering lifecycle—from AI-assisted development tools to embedding AI capabilities into products that accelerate delivery of customer and business features, as force multipliers for the team (not one-off experiments).

• Set technical direction and review architectural decisions, balancing classical software engineering rigor with the speed and possibilities of the GenAI era

• Establish and enforce engineering standards, playbooks, and best practices (CI/CD, code review, testing, observability, where applicable) to raise the bar for delivery quality and velocity

• Partner with senior business and technology stakeholders to shape requirements, bridge business and engineering, and ensure delivery of strategic initiatives on time and on-strategy

• Formal training or certification on software engineering concepts and 7+ years applied experience 

• Hands-on engineering leadership role; experience in financial services / Wealth Management is a plus

• Strong software engineering fundamentals — proven ability to guide architectural decisions, enforce code quality standards, and design for reliability and scale

• Hands-on familiarity with applied AI / generative AI and AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar), with a clear point of view on how these tools change engineering workflows

• Demonstrated track record building and scaling engineering teams, including recruiting and talent development, ideally with experience establishing or growing a technology presence in a regional site

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to lead, motivate, and set culture for cross-functional and geographically distributed teams

• Energetic, fast-moving, and comfortable operating with ambiguity and shifting priorities in a fast-paced environment

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and represent the site externally and internally

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (business, product, risk, compliance) to identify technology-driven opportunities that grow the business

• Champion responsible engineering and AI practices — model risk management, security, privacy, and secure development standards — as systems move into production

• Communicate strategy, progress, and risk/benefit trade-offs to senior and executive audiences; synthesize technical topics into clear, actionable narratives

• Stay current on industry trends, emerging technologies (especially in applied AI and AI-assisted engineering), and best practices to keep the team and the Atlanta site at the leading edge