Director, Software Development

**26WD101520, Director, Software Development** **Position Overview**Autodesk is seeking an experienced Director, Software Development to help build the next generation of AI platform capabilities that support Autodesk products and customers worldwide. In this role, you will lead your team of developers in the development of scalable SaaS services, platform components, data solutions, and AI-driven experiences. Working closely with Product Management, UX, Architecture, and Engineering teams, you will define technical direction, drive execution, and deliver high-quality software that enables innovation across Autodesk's product ecosystem. This is a deeply hands-on engineering leadership role where you will lead by example—setting the technical direction, shaping architecture, solving the organization's most complex engineering challenges, and raising the engineering bar across the team. You will champion modern AI-augmented software engineering practices while mentoring developers, fostering technical excellence, and cultivating a culture of innovation, ownership, and continuous improvement. You will remain actively engaged in software design, architecture, code reviews, and the delivery of critical initiatives, balancing strategic leadership with meaningful technical contributions. We're looking for an exceptional technical leader who leads by example, combines deep architectural expertise with strong people leadership, and thrives on solving complex engineering problems while developing others. If you have experience leading developers in a scaled Agile environment, building modern cloud platforms, developing engineering talent, and delivering complex software systems while remaining deeply involved in the technology, we'd love to hear from you. ## Responsibilities* Lead the planning and successful delivery of software releases and strategic engineering initiatives* Define the technical vision and engineering direction for the team while remaining actively engaged in architecture, design, and implementation* Partner with Product Management, UX, and Architecture to understand business priorities, evaluate new capabilities, and influence product and technology roadmaps* Solve complex technical challenges and guide the team through critical architectural and implementation decisions* Champion AI-augmented software engineering practices to improve developer productivity, software quality, and engineering velocity* Promote engineering excellence through modern software development practices, architectural rigor, code reviews, testing, and operational discipline* Drive adoption of open-source and inner-source development models that encourage collaboration across Autodesk* Collaborate with engineering teams across Autodesk to deliver cross-organizational initiatives and reusable platform capabilities* Hire, mentor, coach, and develop exceptional developers while building a high-performing and inclusive engineering team* Foster a culture of technical curiosity, ownership, accountability, innovation, and continuous learning* Remove technical and organizational barriers that impact execution while maintaining a strong focus on customer outcomes* Champion Autodesk's Culture Code and lead by example through technical excellence, collaboration, and servant leadership**Minimum Qualifications*** Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Architecture, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience* 15+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience leading engineering teams while remaining deeply hands-on* Demonstrated expertise across the full software development lifecycle, from technical strategy and architecture through implementation, delivery, and operations* Demonstrated success delivering enterprise-scale software products, cloud services, distributed systems, or SaaS platforms* Current knowledge of AI-augmented software engineering practices, developer tooling, and modern software development workflows* Proven ability to lead through technical influence, establish engineering best practices, and raise the technical bar across an organization* Experience managing complex software initiatives with multiple technical and organizational dependencies* Experience hiring, mentoring, coaching, and developing high-performing engineering talent* Excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills, including professional-level English proficiency* Strong proficiency in one or more of the following technology stacks: Java and Spring Boot, C++ and/or .NET/C#, JavaScript/TypeScript and modern web technologies* Hands-on experience building cloud-native applications, distributed systems, or SaaS platforms* Hands-on experience with AWS or comparable cloud platforms* Experience designing and developing APIs and services using REST, GraphQL, gRPC, or similar technologies* Deep understanding of object-oriented design, software architecture, distributed systems, and engineering best practices* Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, observability, and modern software delivery practices* Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills* Experience working effectively within globally distributed engineering teams **Preferred Qualifications*** Experience with Autodesk products, BIM workflows, AEC technologies, or design and engineering software* Experience building cloud-native architectures and large-scale distributed systems* Experience developing AI-powered applications, intelligent automation systems, agentic workflows, or AI platform capabilities* Experience with 2D/3D visualization systems, rendering engines, graphics technologies, or real-time visualization* Experience building APIs, SDKs, extensibility frameworks, developer platforms, or shared platform capabilities* Familiarity with observability, monitoring, reliability engineering, and production operations* Demonstrated contributions to engineering communities through architecture leadership, technical publications, conference presentations, open-source contributions, patents, or other forms of technical impact #J-18808-Ljbffr