Acentra - Director - Engineering Excellence (15-20 yrs)

About the Company Acentra Health delivers a broad range of health information technology enterprise solutions and customizable products to a diverse base of state and federal agencies.

We align, build, and manage innovative, high-quality, cost-effective solutions that help customers achieve their mission, enhance business performance, reduce costs, and improve the health of over 50 million Americans.

With locations throughout the U.S and in India, Acentra Health employs a world-class team of technologists, healthcare subject matter experts, and program managers, all of whom have experience with large-scale, mission-critical information technology implementations.

Innovation and commitment to our mission are core to our DNA, and through our shared values, we foster an environment of inclusion, empowerment, accountability, and fun!.

About the Role To lead and drive engineering excellence across the organization by establishing best practices, fostering innovation, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality, scalable, and secure software solutions.

This role provides strategic leadership, empowers development teams, oversees the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, and ensures alignment with business goals while fostering a high-performing team environment.

Key Responsibilities/ Accountabilities: Listing of key responsibilities / major activities necessary to fulfill the position's purpose.

If possible, please include the percentage of time spent on each key responsibility.

Strategic Leadership (35%):

- Define and implement the organization's engineering excellence vision, strategy, and roadmap.

- Champion the adoption of modern engineering practices, including Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD methodologies, to enhance efficiency and quality.

- Partner with senior leadership to align engineering strategies with business objectives, ensuring measurable outcomes.

- Lead organizational change initiatives, ensuring successful adoption of cloud-native, containerized, serverless technologies, and AI-augmented architectures to future-proof software solutions.

Innovation and Technology Oversight (25%):

- Establish and lead Generative AI initiatives for software development, testing, and operational improvements, leveraging tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or custom AI models.

- Drive the integration of AI-assisted tools for automated code generation, predictive analysis, and intelligent test case creation to improve development productivity.

- Drive innovation by identifying and evaluating emerging technologies such as AI/ML, low-code platforms, and observability tools.

- Lead proof-of-concept (POC) initiatives to assess new tools and methodologies for organization-wide adoption.

- Establish and enforce coding, security, and architectural standards to maintain the integrity of software solutions.

- Collaborate with product teams to architect solutions that are scalable, secure, and user-focused.

- Ensure compliance with ethical engineering practices, organizational policies, and regulatory standards while deploying technologies.

Team Leadership and Development (20%):

- Build and mentor high-performing development teams, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and innovation.

- Establish clear performance expectations and measurable goals for team members that align with organizational objectives.

- Conduct regular performance reviews, provide constructive feedback, and identify opportunities for development and growth.

- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement within the engineering team.

- Recognize and reward high-performing employees to boost morale, productivity, and retention.

- Address performance challenges proactively and implement improvement plans to support team success.

- Mentor and guide engineering managers and team members in leadership development and career progression.

- Act as an advocate for team members, ensuring their contributions are recognized and aligned with strategic goals.

- Provide guidance and career development opportunities to engineering managers and engineering employees.

- Develop and implement training programs and workshops to upskill teams on modern technologies and best practices.

Operational Excellence and Metrics (10%):

- Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to evaluate engineering productivity, quality, and delivery timelines.

- Oversee the creation and maintenance of dashboards and reporting systems to provide visibility into project status and team performance.

- Ensure compliance with regulatory and organizational standards, including 508 compliance, security best practices, and accessibility standards.

Education and Experience:

- Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field.

- 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in a leadership role.

Required Skills:

- Proven track record of leading large-scale software development initiatives with a focus on cloud-based and enterprise-scale systems.

- Expertise in modern software development frameworks and architectures, including microservices, event-driven systems, serverless, and AI-augmented technologies.

- Demonstrated experience in mentoring teams, resolving performance challenges, and fostering professional growth.

Technical Expertise :

- Software Development Leadership: Demonstrated ability to oversee the strategic design and delivery of robust, scalable, and high-performing software solutions using modern development methodologies and tools.

- System Design and Architectural Vision: Expertise in defining and guiding the implementation of scalable, maintainable, and secure architectures, including cloud-native, distributed, and microservices-based systems, to align with organizational goals.

- Development Lifecycle Management: Comprehensive understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), ensuring streamlined processes for requirements gathering, solution design, testing, deployment, and maintenance.

- Cloud Strategy and Infrastructure Oversight: Proven experience in leveraging cloud ecosystems (e.g , AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and infrastructure automation tools to drive operational efficiency and scalability.

- Quality Assurance and Risk Mitigation: Strategic oversight of manual and automated testing processes to ensure system reliability and alignment with organizational quality standards.

- DevOps and CI/CD Enablement: Leadership in establishing continuous integration and delivery pipelines to improve delivery timelines, ensure system stability, and support organizational agility.

- Data Governance and Optimization: Understanding of data management strategies, including relational and non-relational database systems, to ensure data integrity, scalability, and alignment with enterprise goals.

- Security and Regulatory Compliance: Strategic focus on embedding security and compliance frameworks into development processes, ensuring adherence to industry standards and regulatory requirements such as GDPR and accessibility standards.

- Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement: Expertise in fostering collaboration through modern version control and project management tools while ensuring alignment between technical initiatives and organizational objectives.

- Technical Communication and Documentation: Proven ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, ensuring clarity and alignment while supporting cross-functional initiatives with comprehensive documentation.