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Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Hybrid
About Ovative Group:
Ovative Group is an independent, full-funnel media, measurement, and creative firm. Leveraging our deep industry expertise, we help brands like Best Buy, Domino's, American Eagle, The Home Depot, Post, Disney, Tumi, Michael Kors, Boost Mobile, and UnitedHealth Group transform their media and measurement programs. The result? Profitable growth that speaks for itself.
At Ovative, we don't just track data, we redefine success. How do we do it? Our proprietary MarTech platform, EMRge helps businesses transform marketing into a driver of sustainable growth. Powered by Enterprise Marketing Return (EMR), our differentiated approach to holistic media buying, planning, and measurement, EMRge is the first MarTech platform to measure businesses holistically. We're all about raising the bar every day, and it shows. Our work has been recognized by organizations like Digiday, Google, Inc. 5000, USA Today, and Search Engine Land.
About the Role:
We are looking for a seasoned Director of Engineering to join our Engineering organization at Ovative Group. In this role, you will lead the Data Products and BI & Reporting Engineering teams, serving as the senior leader responsible for the quality, operational health, and delivery, while sitting as part of our broader Engineering leadership org. These teams are central to how Ovative scales as Data is at the heart of who we are and how we serve our clients. Data Products creates the data foundation to serve more clients reliably, and BI & Reporting turns that data into insights that create real impact for them.
You'll lead in a modern data environment (Databricks, Azure/GCP, dbt, etc.) with genuine autonomy over technical direction, not just implementation of decisions made elsewhere. You will own the engineering systems, standards, and processes that enable your teams to build and ship high-quality software reliably and at pace. You’ll be partnering closely with Product Managers, Data Scientists, and cross-functional stakeholders to drive the EMRge tech stack forward. The ideal candidate brings deep engineering leadership experience, a strong instinct for operational excellence, and a track record of building healthy, high-performing engineering teams.
Responsibilities of a Director of Engineering:
Engineering Excellence
Define, implement, and continuously improve development standards, coding guidelines, and engineering governance controls across all product teams
Own the quality framework for engineering: code review standards, testing strategy, release gates, and technical debt management
Champion security, compliance, and data governance best practices within the engineering organization, including SOC2 alignment
Drive architectural consistency and scalability across the EMRge platform, our proprietary technology product stack, and associated services
Evaluate and introduce new tools, technologies, and practices that advance engineering maturity
Developer Operations
Own and partner across the full software development lifecycle (SDLC) from planning through deployment, ensuring predictable, repeatable delivery processes
Build and maintain the DevOps infrastructure and toolchain that enables developer productivity and deployment confidence
Partner with Engineering Managers to deliver sprint planning, capacity management, and delivery forecasting
Track and deliver engineering health metrics including cycle time, deployment frequency, change failure rate, and mean time to recovery
Identify and systematically resolve developer experience friction across environments, tooling, and workflows
Engineering Team
Directly manage and develop a team of Engineering Managers and Lead Engineers, providing coaching, expectation-setting, and career development support
Foster a culture of accountability, psychological safety, continuous learning, and high standards
Partner with recruiting to attract and retain outstanding engineering talent; participate actively in hiring processes and candidate assessment
Drive team health through regular engagement, team metric reviews, meaningful 1:1s, and fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement
Elevate Ovative’s engineering brand through internal development programs, external community engagement, and content creation
Product Delivery
Serve as the senior engineering accountability layer for on-time, high-quality delivery of product features and platform capabilities
Partner with Product leadership to align roadmap priorities with engineering capacity and technical constraints
Remove cross-functional blockers that impede delivery; escalate and resolve dependency and coordination issues across teams
Provide transparent, accurate delivery forecasting and status communication to engineering and product leadership
Balance velocity and sustainability—ensuring teams can maintain delivery pace without compromising quality or team health
Requirements:
10+ years of engineering leadership experience, including direct management of Engineering Managers or senior technical leads
Experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure) and modern data infrastructure
Demonstrated ability to build and run engineering operating systems: SDLC ownership, DevOps maturity, quality governance, and delivery metrics
Track record of developing high-performing, engaged engineering teams through coaching, accountability, and culture-building
Strong cross-functional collaboration skills with the ability to lead discussions with technical and non-technical stakeholders, including senior product and business leaders
Experience driving engineering standards and governance in a complex, multi-team product environment
Ability to communicate technical concepts, tradeoffs, and delivery risk clearly to executive audiences
Previous hands-on software development experience (front-end, back-end, or data engineering)
Preferred:
Experience in a data-intensive SaaS or analytics product environment
Familiarity with SOC2 compliance requirements and implementation in an engineering context
Background in marketing technology, measurement, or analytics platforms
Pay Transparency
At Ovative, we offer a transparent view into three core components of your total compensation package: Base Salary, Annual Bonus, and Benefits. The salary range for this position below is inclusive of an annual bonus. Actual offers are made with consideration for relevant experience and anticipated impact. Additional benefits information is provided below.
For our Director positions, our compensation ranges from $170,000 to $228,000, which is inclusive of a 30% bonus.
Benefits of Working at Ovative Group:
We provide strong, competitive, holistic benefits that understand the importance of your life inside and out of work.
Culture:
Culture matters and we’ve been recognized as a Top Workplace for ten years running because of it. We demand trust and transparency from each other. We believe in doing the hard and complicated work others put off. We’re open in communication and floor plan. We’re flat – our interns sit next to VPs, our analysts work closely with senior leaders, and our CEO interacts with every single person daily. Put together, these elements help foster an environment where smart people can support each other in performing to their highest potential.
Ovative is committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can participate and thrive. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, including on the basis of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Our policies reflect this commitment—for example, our medical leave benefits are inclusive of same-sex partners, ensuring equitable care and support for all families.
Compensation and Insurance:
We strive to hire and retain the best talent. Paying fair, competitive compensation, with a large bonus incentive, and phenomenal health insurance is an important part of this mix.
We’re rewarded fairly and when the company performs well, we all benefit.
Tangible amenities we enjoy:
Access to all office spaces in MSP, NYC, and CHI
Frequent, paid travel to our Minneapolis headquarters for company events, team events, and in-person collaboration with teams
Generous paid vacation policy
401k match program
Top-notch health insurance options, inclusive of same sex partners
Family formation benefits including reimbursement options for fertility, pregnancy, and parenting needs
Monthly stipend for your mobile phone and data plan
Sabbatical program
Charitable giving via our time and a financial match program
Shenanigan’s Day
Working at Ovative won’t be easy, but if you like getting your hands dirty, driving results, and being surrounded by the best talent, it’ll be the most rewarding job you’ll ever have. If you think you can make us better, we want to hear from you!