Director of Engineering - Platform Services

What we’re looking for

We are seeking a visionary Director of Engineering to lead the Platform Services team. This critical leadership role drives the architecture, development, and operation of the foundational services powering our next-generation SaaS product. The ideal candidate will possess a strong background in scaling SaaS platforms, deep expertise in security services (Identity, AuthZ/AuthN), and proven experience building enterprise-grade administration and internal tooling. This role will define technical strategy, foster engineering excellence, and manage a high-performing team to deliver robust, scalable, and secure platform capabilities.

What you’ll be working on

Strategy and Leadership

• Define and execute the Platform Services technical roadmap, ensuring alignment with company strategy and security requirements.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering team, fostering a culture of innovation and rigor.
• Establish and enforce best practices for software development, QA, deployment, and operational excellence (DevOps/SRE).
• Manage budgets, resource allocation, and project timelines for the Platform Services domain.

Platform Development and Architecture

• Identity and Access Management (IAM): Own the strategy and delivery for core security services (Identity, AuthN, AuthZ), including SSO, OAuth 2.0/OIDC, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).
• Enterprise Administration: Architect and implement scalable, multi-tenant solutions for enterprise customer administration, user provisioning, and account management at scale.
• Internal Tooling: Oversee the development of secure, efficient, and user-friendly Customer Service Administration Tools for platform support, auditing, and debugging.
• Drive the adoption of modern microservices architecture, cloud-native patterns, and performance optimization for high availability and low latency.

Collaboration and Security

• Partner with Product Management to translate business requirements into technical specifications and clear development plans.
• Collaborate with Security and Compliance teams to ensure all services meet stringent security standards (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001) and maintain robust logging and auditing capabilities.
• Work with other Engineering Directors to seamlessly integrate Platform Services into product-facing features and infrastructure.

We’d love to hear from people with

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with 4+ years in a senior leadership role managing multiple engineering teams in a high-growth SaaS environment. 
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field (or equivalent practical experience), combined with excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Proven track record in building and scaling mission-critical, 24/7 services.
• Extensive knowledge of core platform services, including AuthN/AuthZ protocols, modern IAM systems, federation, cryptographic security best practices, and architecting multi-tenant/enterprise administration solutions.
• Strong architectural understanding of distributed systems, microservices, and cloud computing platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Experience with specific identity providers (e.g., Okta, Auth0, Ping Identity).
• Hands-on experience with modern DevOps practices: CI/CD, Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform), and cloud monitoring/logging tools.
• Prior experience building robust, internal-facing tools for operations or customer support.

SurveyMonkey believes in-person collaboration is valuable for building relationships, fostering community, and enhancing our speed and execution in problem-solving and decision-making. As such, you will be required to work from a SurveyMonkey office up to 1 day per week.
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