Sr. Director, Software Engineering - Digital Product Engineering

Here at Scout Motors, we're carrying forward the heritage of one of the most iconic American vehicles in history. A vehicle dating back to 1960. One that forged the path for future generations of rugged SUVs and trucks and will do so once again.

But Scout is more than just a brand, it’s a legacy steeped in a culture of exploration, caretaking, and hard work.

The Scout brand is all about respect. Respect for the past and the future by taking an iconic American brand that hasn’t been around for a while, electrifying it, digitizing it, and loading it with American innovation. Respect for communities by creating a company that stands for its people and its customers. Respect for both work and play, with vehicles that are equally at home at a camp site, a job site, or on a Tuesday commute. And respect for our customers by developing two powertrains that meet their requirements — an all-electric powertrain as well as the Harvester™ range extender powertrain which includes a built-in gas-powered generator with an estimated 500 miles of combined range.

At Scout Motors, we empower our talented, inclusive, and entrepreneurial teams to innovate. What makes a Scout employee? Someone who is a visionary and a leader, who seeks new paths and shares lessons learned. A knowledgeable doer who collaborates across the company to build better. A go-getter with unrivaled passion.

Join us at Scout Motors and be part of shaping the future of transportation. If you're ready to drive change and make history, apply now!

Overview

As the Senior Director, Digital Product Engineering, you will lead Scout Motors' Digital Product Engineering organization responsible for delivering and operating the software platforms that power the complete customer lifecycle, from vehicle discovery and purchase through ownership and service.

This role is accountable for engineering strategy, organizational effectiveness, technology execution, platform scalability, reliability, security, and operational excellence across customer-facing and business-enabling digital products.

You will lead a multidisciplinary engineering organization through a team of Directors and senior engineering leaders while partnering closely with Product, Customer Experience, Commercial, Marketing, Operations, Vehicle Engineering, Manufacturing, IT, and executive leadership.

As a senior leader, you will define long-term technology strategy, scale engineering talent and operating models, drive technical excellence, and ensure Digital Products can support Scout's growth objectives and direct-to-consumer business model.

This leader will also define the organization's approach to AI-enabled software engineering and AI-native digital products, ensuring both the development organization and the products it builds leverage advances in generative AI, autonomous agents, and intelligent workflows to improve customer experiences, business operations, and engineering productivity.

Organizational Scope

This role provides leadership and oversight for the following software engineering organizations:

Sales Software Engineering

Responsible for vehicle reservation, configuration, ordering, financing, checkout, payments, trade-in, and digital commerce capabilities.

Aftersales Software Engineering

Responsible for ownership experiences including service scheduling, maintenance, warranty, accessories, customer support integrations, roadside assistance experiences, and post-purchase customer engagement platforms.

User Experience Software Engineering

Responsible for customer-facing web and mobile experiences including brand engagement, product discovery, customer identity, account management, connected vehicle applications, and end-to-end digital customer journeys.

Utility Tools Software Engineering

Responsible for internal applications, developer productivity tools, shared services, integrations, automation platforms, engineering enablement, platform operations, and common technical capabilities that support the broader Digital Product organization.

What you’ll do

Become part of an iconic brand that is set to revolutionize the electric pick-up truck & rugged SUV marketplace by achieving the following:

Organizational Leadership

Lead and scale multiple software engineering organizations through a team of Directors, managers, and senior technical leaders.

Establish organizational strategy, operating models, staffing plans, budget priorities, and delivery governance.

Build a high-performing engineering culture focused on accountability, ownership, quality, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Develop engineering leaders and strengthen succession planning across the organization.

Foster strong cross-functional partnerships across Product, Design, Data, IT, Commercial, Customer Experience, and Operations teams.

Engineering Strategy & Architecture

Define and execute the long-term engineering vision supporting Scout's digital ecosystem.

Establish technology standards, architecture principles, software development practices, and operational excellence frameworks.

Drive platform modernization, cloud adoption, scalability, resilience, performance, and security initiatives.

Ensure engineering investments align with company priorities, customer outcomes, and business objectives.

Guide major build-versus-buy decisions, vendor strategy, technical roadmaps, and platform evolution.

Define the organization's strategy for AI-assisted and agentic software development, establishing standards, governance, tooling, and operating models that accelerate engineering productivity while maintaining high standards for quality, security, reliability, and compliance. Develop KPIs and measurement frameworks to continuously assess the effectiveness, quality, and business value of AI-powered engineering capabilities, coding agents, and autonomous software development workflows.

Drive the architecture and adoption of AI-native capabilities across Scout's digital customer-facing products and internal commercial operations platforms. Establish standards, patterns, and shared services that enable AI models, agents, and intelligent workflows to securely interact with digital products, platform services, business systems, and proprietary data through modern integration approaches such as Model Context Protocol (MCP), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), agent orchestration frameworks, APIs, and emerging AI interoperability standards. Ensure the Digital Product portfolio is designed to be AI-enabled, agent-ready, and capable of supporting next-generation customer and employee experiences.

Product & Business Partnership

Partner closely with Product leadership to align engineering investments with product strategy and customer outcomes.

Collaborate with executive leadership to support strategic initiatives across sales, ownership, aftersales, customer experience, and commercial operations.

Influence company-wide decisions regarding digital platforms, customer-facing technologies, integrations, and engineering investments.

Serve as a trusted technology advisor to senior leaders across the organization.

Delivery Excellence

Own execution across a broad portfolio of digital products and platforms.

Establish metrics, KPIs, operating reviews, and reporting mechanisms to ensure predictable planning and delivery.

Drive software quality, platform reliability, security compliance, operational readiness, and incident management practices.

Create scalable engineering processes that support rapid company growth while maintaining exceptional customer experiences and operational effectiveness.

Talent & Culture

Recruit, retain, and develop exceptional engineering talent and leadership.

Build inclusive teams that foster collaboration, innovation, learning, and career growth.

Promote engineering craftsmanship, accountability, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.

Drive employee engagement and organizational health across a distributed organization.

Location & Travel Expectations:

This role will be based out of Scout Motors HQ location in Charlotte, NC, or our Northern California office in San Ramon, CA.

This role has a hybrid office policy, with regular in-person meetings and events. Subject to change.

Applicants should expect that the role will require the ability to convene with Scout colleagues in person and travel to participate in events on behalf of the company from time to time.

What you’ll bring

We expect all Scout employees to have integrity, curiosity, resourcefulness, and strive to exhibit a positive attitude, as well as a growth mindset. You’ll be comfortable with change and flexible in a fast-paced, high-growth environment. You’ll take a collaborative approach to achieve ambitious goals. Here's what else you'll bring:

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or substantial experience working in the software engineering field.

15+ years of software engineering experience with progressively increasing leadership responsibility.

8+ years of engineering leadership experience managing managers and senior leaders.

Demonstrated success leading large engineering organizations through multiple levels of management.

Experience leading Directors and organizations consisting of multiple engineering teams and functions.

Proven track record delivering large-scale customer-facing digital products and platforms.

Strong understanding of cloud-native architectures, APIs, microservices, mobile applications, web platforms, integrations, and modern software development practices.

Experience establishing engineering strategy and operating models for high-growth organizations.

Exceptional communication, executive presence, organizational, and leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience building and scaling e-commerce solutions, digital commerce platforms, and customer-facing transactional experiences.

Experience supporting customer experience, ownership, service, and digital engagement platforms.

Experience supporting mobile applications, customer identity platforms, CRM ecosystems, and enterprise integrations.

Experience leading geographically distributed engineering organizations.

Experience driving organizational transformation and technology modernization initiatives.

Experience establishing AI-assisted software development practices or integrating generative AI, intelligent agents, and AI models into digital products and platforms.

MBA or advanced technical degree preferred.

Leadership Expectations

This leader operates at an enterprise level, influencing company strategy while building world-class engineering capabilities and organizational capacity across the Digital Product portfolio.

Success in this role requires the ability to:

Lead through leaders.

Balance strategic thinking with operational execution.

Build scalable organizations and sustainable technology foundations.

Drive alignment across business, product, and engineering teams.

Make decisions with enterprise-wide impact.

Develop future leaders and strengthen organizational capability.

Establish a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.

Deliver measurable business outcomes and exceptional customer experiences.

Success in the First 12 Months

Within the first 12 months, this leader will be expected to:

Build and mature a high-performing Digital Product Engineering organization.

Establish scalable engineering processes, operating rhythms, and leadership mechanisms.

Deliver key digital product initiatives supporting reservation, ordering, ownership, and service experiences.

Improve engineering velocity, quality, reliability, and organizational effectiveness.

Develop a strong leadership bench across all engineering functions.

Establish measurable standards, governance, and operating practices for AI-assisted and agentic software development.

Advance an architecture that enables AI models and agents to securely interact with digital customer products and internal commercial operations platforms.

Create a technology foundation capable of supporting Scout's long-term growth, customer experience vision, and AI-enabled future.

What you'll gain

The benefits of joining Scout include the chance to build products and a company from the ground up. This is a chance to create something new and lasting – with an iconic brand at its foundation. In addition, Scout provides competitive compensation and benefits to support your physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. Program specifics are detailed in company policies and employee benefit guides, select highlights:

Competitive insurance including:

Medical, dental, vision and income protection plans

401(k) program with:

An employer match and immediate vesting

Generous Paid Time Off including:

20 days planned PTO, as accrued

40 hours of unplanned PTO and 14 company or floating holidays, annually

Up to 16 weeks of paid parental leave for biological and adoptive parents of all genders

Paid leave for circumstances related to bereavement, jury duty, voting time, or military leave

Corporate Vehicle Program with:

Eligibility for 1 assigned vehicle

A mobility stipend

Pay Transparency

This is a full-time, exempt position eligible to receive a base salary and to participate in an annual performance bonus program. Final salary offered will be determined based on factors including but not limited to the candidate's skills and experience. The annual performance bonus program is preset and not candidate dependent.

Initial base salary range = $245,000.00 - $297,500.00

Initial California base salary range= $269,500 - $327,250

Internal leveling code: M5

Notice to applicants:

To be considered for career opportunities at Scout Motors, applicants must be 18 years of age or older.

Residing in San Francisco: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Scout Motors will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Residing in Los Angeles: Scout Motors will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.

Residing in New York City: This role is not eligible for remote work in New York City.

Equal Opportunity

Scout Motors is committed to employing a diverse workforce and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, disability, pregnancy, or any other characteristics protected by law. Scout Motors is committed to compliance with all applicable fair employment practice laws. If you require reasonable accommodation to complete a job application, pre-employment testing, or a job interview or to otherwise participate in the hiring process, please contact ScoutAccommodations@scoutmotors.com.