Sr. Director, Engineering

Sr. Director, Engineering - Westlake, TX

Who We Are

Solera is a global leader in data and software services that strives to transform every touchpoint of the vehicle lifecycle into a connected digital experience. In addition, we provide products and services to protect life’s other most important assets: our homes and digital identities. Today, Solera processes over 300 million digital transactions annually for approximately 235,000 partners and customers in more than 90 countries. Our 6,500 team members foster an uncommon, innovative culture and are dedicated to successfully bringing the future to bear today through cognitive answers, insights, algorithms and automation.  For more information, please visit solera.com.

The Role

We are looking for a visionary Sr. Director of Engineering who leads with AI — not just as a tool, but as a force multiplier for team capability, product velocity, and developer experience. This role sits at the intersection of people leadership, platform engineering, and intelligent automation. You will own the engineering operating model for a global, high-performing team and drive measurable outcomes through disciplined delivery, thoughtful change management, and a relentless commitment to upleveling talent. 

What You’ll Do

AI-First Engineering Leadership

• Champion the integration of AI-powered tooling (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, CodeWhisperer, and emerging LLM-based agents) across the engineering organization to measurably improve developer throughput and code quality

• Architect and own an AI product enablement strategy — working with Product and Design to embed AI capabilities (intelligent automation, predictive features, RAG pipelines, agentic workflows) into Solera's core offerings

• Build internal AI engineering platforms, reusable prompt libraries, and guardrails that ccelerate adoption safely and responsibly

• Stay ahead of the AI tooling landscape; evaluate, pilot, and institutionalize tools that reduce toil and amplify engineering leverage

Delivery Excellence & Execution

• Own and continuously improve the engineering operating model — from planning and roadmap execution to retrospectives and capacity forecasting

• Maintain a high say/do ratio across global teams through consistent agile delivery practices, OKR alignment, and data-driven accountability

• Establish predictable release cadences with robust CI/CD pipelines, automated quality gates, and observable, secure systems

• Lead quarterly and annual engineering planning cycles; translate business objectives into engineering commitments with clarity and confidence

• Track leading and lagging indicators of delivery health (cycle time, deployment frequency, MTTR, change failure rate) and drive continuous improvement

People Leadership & Change Management

• Lead, coach, and scale a global engineering organization including multiple Engineering Managers and senior ICs across regions

• Design and execute structured skills uplevel programs — with particular focus on AI literacy, cloud-native patterns, and modern software delivery practices

• Drive change management for technology transformations (legacy modernization, AI adoption, platform migrations) with clear communication plans, stakeholder buy-in, and measurable milestones

• Build a culture of psychological safety, radical candor, and continuous learning where feedback is prompt, actionable, and welcomed

• Partner with Talent Acquisition to build diverse, global engineering pipelines; own engineering brand and hiring bar

Technical Strategy & Architecture

• Provide hands-on technical leadership across Solera's cloud-native microservices platform (.NET, Java, React, cloud infrastructure)

• Work with Software Architects and Product leaders to define and deliver technology roadmaps with organizational visibility and on-time milestones

• Champion platform engineering principles — golden paths, internal developer portals, self-service infrastructure — to reduce friction and scale delivery

• Own technical debt strategy: quantify, prioritize, and systematically reduce debt while preserving delivery velocity

• Ensure engineering practices meet compliance, security, and regulatory requirements across all jurisdictions

Cross-Functional & Stakeholder Leadership

• Serve as the primary engineering voice in executive conversations — communicating risk, progress, and tradeoffs with clarity

• Partner deeply with Product Management, Design, Data Science, and Operations to foster a unified product engineering culture

• Break down organizational silos through cross-team initiatives, shared platforms, and inner-source practices

• Contribute to annual budget planning, headcount strategy, and vendor/tooling decisions

What You’ll Bring

• 15+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with 7+ years leading engineering teams at scale

• Demonstrated track record of delivering complex, multi-quarter programs on time — with a verifiable high say/do ratio

• Hands-on experience integrating AI/ML tools into developer workflows and/or shipping AI-enabled product features

• Proven change management experience — leading technology transformations, modernization efforts, or cultural shifts in engineering organizations

• Experience managing and coaching Engineering Managers across distributed, global teams

• Deep fluency in cloud-native architecture, microservices, and modern SDLC practices (CI/CD, DevSecOps, SRE principles)

• Experience in highly regulated or compliance-sensitive domains (automotive, insurance, fintech, health tech) is a strong advantage

• Strong command of engineering metrics and how to use data to drive decisions and accountability

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

 It is impossible to list every requirement for, or responsibility of, any position.  Similarly, we cannot identify all the skills a position may require since job responsibilities and the Company’s needs may change over time.  Therefore, the above job description is not comprehensive or exhaustive.   The Company reserves the right to adjust, add to or eliminate any aspect of the above description.  The Company also retains the right to require all employees to undertake additional or different job responsibilities when necessary to meet business needs.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
The Solera group is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws.