Director, Engineering - Chicago - Coates Group

Description

Overview

Be Part of Our Next Chapter

For almost 60 years, our solutions have enabled impactful connections between leading brands and their customers. We are a global technology company focused on creating dynamic, smart, personalized and engaging customer experiences powered by our digital hardware, proprietary content management system and signage solutions. We work in over 50 global markets with 9 offices worldwide, and our global headquarters is located in Sydney, Australia.

Coates Group has the values of a family-owned business and the innovative spirit of a start-up, driving our purpose – Creating Connections. Empowering Partnerships. Always Evolving. We are industry leaders who have won awards and set records while remaining focused on continual growth and evolution. We are a 2x Australia Good Design Award winner and completed the largest hardware deployment in Quick Service Restaurant history.

We value diversity and strive to be curious, authentic and collaborative. We are imaginers, kindness enthusiasts, experts, creators, thinkers, challengers, collaborators and over-achievers. Together, we revolutionize how the world's leading brands leverage technology to deliver the best customer experiences.

Role Summary

The Director, Engineering enables high-performing engineering squads to deliver reliable, maintainable, and high-quality software solutions. This role provides technical leadership, builds capability across engineers and technical leads, ensures adherence to engineering standards, and removes blockers that impede delivery. You will partner with Product, Delivery and QA leadership to achieve business and customer outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Engineering Enablement: Ensure squads have the technical capability, processes, and practices to deliver reliably, removing blockers and supporting predictable outcomes in partnership with Delivery leadership.
• Engineering Leadership & Capability: Act as a chapter-style leader for engineers and technical leads, building capability, setting standards, and driving consistent engineering practices across squads.
• Technical Leadership, Debt & Design Quality: Ensure sound technical design and implementation, actively managing technical debt and addressing complexity.
• Quality in Delivery: Embed quality-by-design within engineering teams, partnering with QA to achieve agreed quality outcomes.
• Platform Health & Operability: Own the operational health of systems within scope, ensuring reliability, performance, and readiness across production and pre-production environments.
• People & Partner Leadership: Lead and develop permanent and partner engineers, including performance management, engagement, and effective integration.
• Delivery Flow & Dependencies: Enable squads to operate autonomously by removing blockers, managing dependencies, and improving delivery flow in partnership with Product and Delivery.

Capabilities

• Hands-on Technical Leadership: Leads with strong engineering credibility and models high-quality full-stack engineering practices.
• Execution Focus: Translates architectural direction and standards into practical, repeatable engineering practices at squad level.
• Problem Solving & Judgement: Quickly diagnoses technical and delivery issues, makes sound trade-offs, and removes blockers.
• People Development: Develops a high-performing team through clear expectations, feedback, and coaching.
• Collaboration & Influence: Partners with Product, Delivery and QA to align engineering effort to shared outcomes.
• Ownership & Accountability: Builds ownership for code quality, operability, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years in engineering leadership roles managing engineers and technical leads
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or related discipline, or equivalent practical experience
• Proven experience delivering enterprise-scale software platforms or digital products within complex environments
• Strong hands-on background in modern full-stack software engineering, building scalable web applications with cloud-native or serverless architectures (AWS preferred), CI/CD pipelines, and distributed systems
• Experience leading cross-functional engineering teams in agile or product-led delivery models
• Experience establishing and enforcing engineering standards and delivery discipline across multiple squads
• Proven ability to manage a blended workforce, including permanent staff and staff-augmented delivery partners
• Demonstrated ability to align plans with business objectives and growth

Compensation

Salary range: $190,000 - $210,000 per year. Pay is based on relevant experience, skills, education, internal equity, and market data. Well-qualified candidates may receive offers around the midpoint; placement near the minimum or maximum depends on experience and role alignment.

About Coates

We are industry leaders who have won awards and set records. We are a 2x Australia Good Design Award winner and completed the largest hardware deployment in Quick Service Restaurant history. We are led by a forward-thinking CEO who focuses on people and growth, enabling rapid career advancement opportunities.

Together, we are creators, delivering immersive brand experiences for everyone.

Join a Crew that Cares

Join a global team of talented, ambitious, creative people who value integrity, individuality and inclusivity. We support Equality + Empowerment Initiatives.

Benefits

Benefits include an annual market-competitive bonus program and the Thrive Program, offering flexible work options, health and wellbeing initiatives, a paid Global Wellness day off, and a Give Back Day to support community impact.

Be inspired To Be More

We stay nimble, encourage ideas, and value authentic collaboration. We believe the best is yet to come.

Equal Opportunity & Fraud Advisory

Coates Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate. Fraud Advisory: be aware of impersonation by fraudulent emails or domains. All applications should be submitted through our official site or LinkedIn profile. If you receive suspicious communications, do not respond or provide personal information.