Director Software Development Jobs in California

Our Company
Changing the world through digital experiences is what Adobe's all about. We give everyone-from emerging artists to global brands-everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences. We're passionate about empowering people to create beautiful and powerful images, videos, and apps, and transform how companies interact with customers across every screen.
We're on a mission to hire the very best and are committed to creating exceptional employee experiences. We realize that new ideas can come from everywhere in the organization, and we know the next big idea could be yours.
The Challenge
Adobe Developer Platforms has the mission to help Developers "write better software, faster." Our goal is to provide integrated experiences for technical folks, to streamline the tasks of building, testing, deploying and operating services at scale. We strive to build into all our product offerings strong defaults around security, cost efficiency, reliability and operational observability, to minimize the cognitive load and toil needed to effectively build and run services at web scale.
We build platforms and work to deliver them as an integrated product to our customers, who come in two main classes:

• Developers, Site Reliability Engineers, Database Engineers and other technical folks inside Adobe who build our products, our platforms and internal IT systems.
• Outside Developers and employees at our customer companies, consultancies and independent software vendors, who are building on, extending and integrating with our products to add new capabilities or to solve unique integration challenges.

The role
For this role, we are looking for an exceptionally strong, hands-on technical leader to own and evolve the Kubernetes Platform for Adobe's Infrastructure Engineering team. This role demands deep expertise-not surface-level familiarity. You must have a proven track record of operating, scaling, and debugging Kubernetes in production at significant scale.
This is a high bar role. We are explicitly looking for candidates who:

• Have expert-level understanding of Kubernetes internals (scheduler, control plane, networking, storage, autoscaling, etc.)
• Are deeply experienced with cloud-native and open-source ecosystems, and actively leverage or contribute to them
• Have production experience with managed Kubernetes platforms such as EKS and AKS, including their limitations and trade-offs
• Can debug complex, distributed systems issues end-to-end (networking, performance, reliability, scaling bottlenecks)
• Are capable of designing and implementing novel solutions, not just applying known patterns

We seek a self-starter who operates with high ownership and urgency, capable of driving ambiguous, complex infrastructure initiatives to completion. You should be equally comfortable designing large-scale architectures and diving deep into low-level technical problems.
You will act as a technical authority across teams-setting direction, making hard architectural calls, and raising the engineering bar. You must be able to influence senior engineers and executives alike, articulating clear, well-reasoned technical strategies. Strong opinions, backed by deep expertise and data, are expected.
This is not a delegative leadership role. You will be expected to personally engage in design, implementation, and production operations, and to lead by example through technical depth and execution.
This is an operations-heavy environment. Your team owns a critical portion of Adobe's compute infrastructure, and you must bring extensive experience running high-scale, highly reliable, always-on systems. You should have a strong bias toward automation, resilience, and operational excellence, and be comfortable being accountable for production outcomes.
Success in this role requires someone who thrives in complexity, pushes systems beyond their limits, and consistently raises the technical bar for everyone around them.
What you'll do
• Lead the Kubernetes Platform team. This team manages hundreds of K8s clusters across multiple cloud providers and Adobe-managed data centers.
• Act as a liaison to client and partner engineering teams to share the Infrastructure Engineering mission, vision and roadmap
• Gather input on client needs and proposed integration points with technical services which are delivered by our partner organizations
• Inspire and encourage our internal customer teams to contribute to the kubernetes platform via an internal open source and open contribution model
• Review and provide feedback on features, technology, architecture, designs, time & budget estimates, and test strategies
• Manage projects risks & engage in creative problem solving
• Develop and evolve engineering and business processes to optimize team efficiency
• Partner with other teams across Adobe on achieving common goals
What you need to succeed •

• Deep customer empathy for developers, with a strong track record of building platforms that materially improve developer velocity, reliability, and productivity at scale
• Expert-level understanding of distributed systems, including consensus, fault tolerance, networking, and data consistency, with deep specialization in Kubernetes and cloud-native architectures
• Proven ability to design, build, and operate highly reliable, large-scale, cost-efficient cloud platforms, with clear ownership of production systems under real-world load
• Demonstrated expertise in writing and reviewing highly optimized code, and applying advanced architectural patterns for performance, scalability, and efficiency
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts, trade-offs, and architectural decisions to both engineers and executive stakeholders
• 12+ years of hands-on engineering experience, with deep, production-grade expertise in Kubernetes (K8s), EKS, AKS, and cloud networking-including debugging and operating these systems at scale
• 10+ years of engineering leadership experience, with a strong track record of raising the technical bar, mentoring senior engineers, and driving execution on complex, ambiguous initiatives
• 5+ years leading leaders (manager-of-managers / Director-level scope), with demonstrated ability to scale organizations without compromising on technical excellence
• A strong track record of building and retaining high-performing, diverse engineering teams, with uncompromising hiring standards
• Strong influence and decision-making ability, capable of driving alignment on contentious technical topics with well-reasoned, data-backed arguments
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience, with a strong foundation in systems, algorithms, and software design
• Preferred: Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science (or equivalent), particularly with focus on distributed systems, systems engineering, or related fields

About Adobe
Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe's industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Manager, and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact, powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.
Our 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We're on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.
Let's Adobe together
At Adobe, we believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. Learn more about Adobe life, including our values and culture, focus on people, purpose and community, Adobe for All, comprehensive benefits programs, the stories we tell, the customers we serve, and how you can help us advance our mission of empowering everyone to create.
Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Learn more.
Adobe aims to make our Careers website and recruiting process accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process, email accommodations@adobe.com or call +1 408-536-3015.
AI Use Guidelines for Interviews:
Our interviews are designed to reflect your own skills and thinking. The use of AI or recording tools during live interviews is not permitted unless explicitly invited by the interviewer or approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation. If these tools are used inappropriately or in a way that misrepresents your work, your application may not move forward in the process.
At Adobe, we empower employees to innovate with AI - and we look for candidates eager to do the same. As part of the hiring experience, we provide clear guidance on where AI is encouraged during the process and where it's restricted during live interviews. See how we think about AI in the hiring experience.
Expected Pay Range:
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $186,500 -- $358,250 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.
In California, the pay range for this position is $247,400 - $358,250
At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).
In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.
State-Specific Notices:
California:
Fair Chance Ordinances
Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and "fair chance" ordinances.
Colorado:
Application Window Notice
If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting), the application window will remain open until at least the date and time stated above in Pacific Time, in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location, no specific application window applies, and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.
Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Legal Notice
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.