Senior Director of Engineering, Platform Modernization
Why Work Here Headquarters is in Charlotte, NC Recently expanded to nearshore isolved ranked for SMB Payroll in 2023 Sapient Report Voted top places to work in USA 2023 Job Description isolved is executing a multi-year decomposition of a 7M+ line HCM monolith into modern, domain-isolated microservices, and we're looking for the person to lead it. This is a hands-on technical leadership role reporting directly to the CTO, responsible for both running the program and staying close enough to the work to make good decisions about it. You'll lead a program of approximately 20 engineers organized into domain teams (Tax, Benefits, Time, Payroll, Shared Logic), with two Engineering Managers and a Data Architect. You're not just managing delivery - you're a technical voice in how the work gets done, an escalation point when teams hit hard problems, and the person accountable to the CTO for outcomes. Core Job Duties Own the modernization program end-to-end - roadmap, sequencing, dependencies, risks, and delivery outcomes across all five workstreams Drive extraction sequencing decisions in partnership with the Lead Architect, balancing technical risk, business continuity, and team capacity Maintain visibility across all domain teams and surface issues before they become blockers Represent the modernization program to senior leadership and the CTO, with clear, data-grounded communication on progress, risks, and tradeoffs Stay close enough to the architecture and implementation to make informed decisions, challenge assumptions, and support teams when they hit difficult problems Partner with the Lead Architect on technical direction - event schema strategy, infrastructure standards, paved road compliance, cross-workstream data dependencies Understand the full technology stack well enough to assess quality, identify risk, and have credible technical conversations with principal-level engineers Ensure AI-assisted development practices are embedded across teams and delivering real productivity gains Directly manage two Engineering Managers, each supporting approximately 10 engineers Build and maintain a high-performance team culture in a remote, distributed environment Own hiring for the program in partnership with the CTO - identifying, recruiting, and closing principal-level engineers and architects Support career development for EMs and, through them, the broader engineering team Minimum Qualifications 10+ years of engineering experience, with at least 3–5 years in a senior engineering leadership role Direct experience leading a large-scale modernization, re-platforming, or decomposition program - you understand what makes these programs succeed and fail Strong enough technical depth to engage credibly with principal engineers on architecture, data modeling, and distributed systems tradeoffs - you don't need to write all the code, but you need to understand it Experience managing engineering managers and leading through them at scale Track record of delivering complex, multi-team programs with cross-cutting dependencies in a production environment Clear, direct communication style - comfortable presenting to executives and working through ambiguity without needing complete information Familiarity with the Azure ecosystem and modern distributed systems patterns (event-driven architecture, microservices, IaC) HCM, payroll, benefits, or tax domain experience Hands-on background with .NET / C#, Cosmos DB, or Azure Service Bus Experience building or scaling engineering teams from the ground up About isolved isolved is a leading provider of human capital management (HCM) solutions that combines modern technology with expert services and support. Purpose-built for People Heroes™, isolved gives HR, payroll and benefits leaders the tools and insights to streamline operations and deliver employee experiences that matter. isolved People Cloud™ is a connected HCM platform with built-in artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics that brings together HR, payroll, benefits, workforce management and talent management in one experience. Built on a legacy of 40 years in the market, isolved is trusted by more than 200,000 employers and used by 9 million U.S. employees, representing about one in 20 American workers. Visit www.isolvedhcm.com. #LI-KJ1 Apply To This Job