Director, Digital Foundry

Join the world's largest HVAC company, named by Forbes as one of America's Best-In-State Employers 2025!

Daikin Applied Americas (DAA) is seeking a talented Director, Digital Foundry. The Director, Digital Foundry serves as the senior software engineering leader for Technology Innovation, accountable for delivery execution, engineering capability development, and business outcomes across the Digital Foundry portfolio. The role leads teams that deliver custom software solutions, enterprise platform extensions, and digital products, with success measured by predictable delivery, engineering quality, developer effectiveness, stakeholder satisfaction, and realized business value. 

Working within the Digital Delivery Lifecycle (DDLC), the Director helps define how technology initiatives are prioritized, planned, delivered, measured, and continuously improved. This includes establishing engineering standards, delivery practices, team structures, and operating rhythms that enable secure, scalable, high-quality software delivery. 

The Director partners with Technology Innovation and business leaders to align engineering investments with strategic priorities, accelerate value realization, and continuously improve engineering capability, developer experience, and delivery effectiveness. Come be a part of an exciting journey at Daikin Applied, where innovation and excellence drive everything we do!

Location: Plymouth, MN – hybrid or Remote

What You Will Do

• Lead the Digital Foundry function, with accountability for software engineering delivery, execution discipline, team performance, and business outcomes
• Oversee teams delivering custom software, enterprise platform extensions, integrations, APIs, and digital capabilities that support strategic business priorities
• Establish and continuously improve engineering standards, delivery practices, governance, and operating rhythms aligned with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, QA, and DDLC expectations
• Contribute to the Technology Innovation operating model, operating system, and innovation processes to improve prioritization, predictability, transparency, and value realization
• Build, develop, and lead high-performing engineering teams, managers, contractors, vendors, and strategic partners; strengthen engineering culture, accountability, and talent development
• Partner across Product, Architecture, QA, Cybersecurity, Integration, Data, Infrastructure, SaaS Platform, and business leadership to deliver integrated, scalable, and extensible solutions
• Collaborate with leaders responsible for Salesforce, IFS, and other enterprise platforms to ensure effective software engineering delivery, platform extensibility, and lifecycle-based improvements
• Define and use engineering metrics, operational reporting, and value measures to improve visibility into capacity, delivery performance, quality, reliability, risk, and business impact
• Drive modernization, technical debt reduction, platform evolution, automation, and engineering productivity improvements across the Digital Foundry portfolio
• Champion modern engineering practices, including DevOps, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability, platform engineering, and AI-assisted software development
• Communicate engineering strategy, priorities, risks, dependencies, trade-offs, and delivery outcomes to executive leadership and stakeholders

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, application development, SaaS platform delivery, digital product engineering, or related technical leadership roles
• 5+ years leading teams, managers, vendors, or cross-functional engineering delivery
• Knowledge of modern software engineering practices, including application architecture, front-end and back-end development, APIs, integrations, data flows, and cloud-based solution patterns
• Knowledge of SaaS platform delivery models and development/configuration practices for enterprise platforms such as Salesforce and IFS or comparable
• Skill in leading software engineering teams, managers, contractors, vendors, and cross-functional delivery partners to execute complex digital initiatives
• Skill in establishing engineering standards, DevOps/DevSecOps practices, CI/CD approaches, release governance, and lifecycle-based delivery controls
• Ability to translate business priorities into engineering plans, capacity models, delivery roadmaps, trade-off decisions, and measurable outcomes
• Ability to collaborate across Product, Architecture, QA, Cybersecurity, Integration, Infrastructure, Data, Operations, and business leadership stakeholders
• Ability to manage portfolio-level risks, dependencies, delivery commitments, resource constraints, and executive communications in a dynamic environment
• Knowledge of quality, security, reliability, performance, scalability, maintainability, and operational readiness practices for enterprise software solutions
• Skill in defining and using delivery metrics, engineering KPIs, dashboards, and value reporting to improve predictability and decision making
• Ability to lead change, build trust, develop talent, strengthen engineering culture, and drive continuous improvement across distributed teams
• Work visa sponsorship is not available for this position

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a technical, engineering, business, or technology management discipline
• 12+ years of experience leading enterprise-scale software engineering organizations, modernization programs, SaaS platform enablement, and product-aligned delivery models in a matrixed environment
• Experience with Salesforce, IFS, ERP, PLM, CRM, or other enterprise SaaS/application ecosystems
• Experience with Azure, Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitHub Copilot, automated testing, infrastructure as code, observability, and release automation
• Experience applying AI-enabled development, developer experience, platform engineering, or internal software factory concepts to improve engineering throughput and quality
• Experience in manufacturing, industrial products, HVAC, building automation, connected products, or customer-facing digital solutions
• Experience modernizing legacy applications and moving teams toward product-aligned, lifecycle-driven delivery models

Daikin Applied offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:  

• Multiple medical insurance plan options + dental and vision insurance
• 401K retirement plan with employer contributions matching 100% of the first 3% of employee contributions and 50% on the next 2% of employee contributions 
• Short term and long term disability 
• 3 weeks of paid time off for new employees + 11 company paid holidays
  • Vacation accrues on a monthly basis, unless applicable federal, state and local law requires a faster accrual
• Paid sick time in accordance of the federal, state and local law 
• Paid parental leave and tuition reimbursement after 6 months of continuous service
• Company provided life insurance + optional employee paid voluntary life insurance, dependent life coverage and voluntary accident coverage

The typical annual base salary for this position ranges from $142,600 - $250,900 (+ 30% bonus) in MN. The range displayed represents the pay range for all positions in the job grade which this position falls. Individual base pay will depend on a wide range of factors including your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

#LI-RS11 #LI-hybrid #LI-remote

Employment is contingent upon successful completion of pre-employment requirements, including verification of employment history, education, background screening, and drug testing where permitted by law. Safety-sensitive positions may require cannabis (marijuana) testing. All testing and employment decisions will comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

If you're looking for an engaging career with growth opportunities in a supportive environment, you'll love a career at Daikin Applied!