Director Software Engineer Startup Jobs in Kentucky

As a Director of Software Engineering for the Core Software Engineering group, you will drive engineering projects and development support by collaborating with cross-functional teams across NetApp, including our partners in Cloud Storage and AI.

You will direct the activities of software systems development and quality assurance functions to build and maintain solutions in ONTAP. You will impact the planning, execution, and delivery of parallel projects, enabling NetApp customers to embrace our Enterprise, Cloud, and AI solutions.

This position is a hybrid role, located in our Raleigh, NC office.

As a Director, Software Development, you will:

• Help define strategic direction for software development and architecture across multiple teams and product lines.
• Lead and scale engineering teams, ensuring alignment with business objectives and technical excellence.
• Drive end-to-end software development lifecycle in an Agile environment, from feature definition to production support.
• Establish and optimize development processes, operational metrics, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Mentor and develop engineering managers and senior engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and inclusion.
• Collaborate with senior leadership and cross-functional teams to define priorities and deliver customer‑centric solutions.
• Champion operational excellence, including reliability, scalability, and performance of cloud‑native services.
• Recruit and retain top talent, building diverse, high-performing teams.
• Advocate for best practices in engineering and operations across the organization.

• 15+ years of industry experience in software development, including large-scale distributed systems.
• 7+ years of leadership experience, managing engineering teams and technical leaders.
• Track record of delivering scalable, available, and low-latency cloud services.
• Well versed in using agentic engineering.
• Hands-on experience using Distributed Storage Systems.
• Strong business acumen and ability to influence strategy & direction with senior leadership.
• Strong communication skills, capable of presenting complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Experience defining and implementing best practices for the full software development lifecycle.
• Solid understanding of performance, scalability, and enterprise system architecture.
• Experience with data processing, analytics, and AI/ML systems.
• Prior experience building CI/CD infrastructure for large-scale deployments.

Preferred qualifications

• Domain expertise on knowledge graphs, semantics and data modeling.
• Hands-on experience with Distributed Database Systems.
• Hands-on experience with training and deploying AI models.

Compensation:
The target salary range for this position is 227,800 - 338,800 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.

Why You'll Thrive at NetApp

At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.

NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise‑grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

Our culture

We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision-making.