Director of Software Engineering

Job Type

PetSafe Brands, formerly known as Radio Systems Corporation, is headquartered in Knoxville, TN. It has been named “The Marble City” and "Scruffy City", names we have embraced for our unique charm. We are the home of 1982 World’s Fair and we boast of 21 craft breweries around the city (click here for the Ale Trail). If you like to hike or camp, visit the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Take your pick of outdoor activities from walking, tubing, running, or biking in our Urban Wilderness. Knox County has an amazing public-school system, no state income tax, low property taxes and cost of living. We host Music and Shakespeare on the Square as well as Family Movie Nights on the Square during the summer months in downtown Knoxville.

Our Company: PetSafe Brands is the world leader in pet products through our family of brands:Pet Safe® Brand, Sport DOG® Brand, Invisible Fence® Brand, Kurgo and Premier Pet. Pet Safe® Brand makes every product from leashes and harnesses to water fountains and and litter boxes. We have an ambitious goal of touching over 21 million pets, people, and communities around the world each year. We serve a broad range of pet owners from providing the hunter the best gear for a successful hunt to accommodating the “Not-So-Crazy Cat Lady” with all the entertaining toys and effective solutions she could ever imagine. We do this by creating a culture of enthusiasm, resilience, adaptability, and teamwork every day in the office. We work hard to be our community’s employer of choice as we all live our purpose: We exist to unleash freedom for pet parents by keeping their pets happy, healthy and safe. 

Summary of Position:

The Director of Software Engineering will lead software, firmware, and quality engineering execution across PetSafe’s connected product ecosystem and digital experiences, including cloud backend services, mobile applications, DTC web/e-commerce, and embedded/firmware. This leader will drive engineering excellence, delivery predictability, and product quality through disciplined engineering practices, scalable architecture, and a modern quality strategy.

The Director will manage a team of engineering managers and will be accountable for building an operating model and organization structure that balances internal development capacity with external extensions to achieve speed, quality, and cost effectiveness.

Responsibilities:

Engineering Execution & Velocity

• Lead and manage engineering managers and teams across cloud backend, mobile, web/e-commerce, firmware/embedded, and QA.
• Drive consistent execution through modern software development lifecycle practices, including Agile delivery, CI/CD, automation, and telemetry-driven insights.
• Deliver product increments and releases that meet functional, schedule, reliability, and customer experience targets across digital and device domains.

Firmware, IoT, and Full-Stack Systems Leadership

• Ensure scalable, secure, and modular architecture across device-to-cloud-to-app experiences, enabling efficient feature development and lifecycle management.
• Establish engineering standards and practices for embedded/firmware development, release discipline, and maintainability across connected and non-connected product lines (RF/RTK/GPS).
• Partner with Hardware Engineering, Product, and Operations to ensure integrated system performance across electronics, firmware, apps, and cloud services.

Quality Engineering Strategy & QA Leadership

• Lead the QA/Quality Engineering function across software and firmware; establish robust validation frameworks and release readiness expectations.
• Revamp quality strategy, including test architecture (automation strategy and tooling), environments, and quality gates aligned to consumer products and IoT ecosystems.
• Improve quality outcomes through prevention-oriented practices (clear acceptance criteria, shift-left testing, telemetry/observability, defect escape reduction).

Organization Design, Capacity Planning, and Hybrid Workforce Model

• Build and scale a high-performing engineering organization with clear roles, accountability, and leadership mechanisms across software, firmware, and QA.
• Define and implement a capacity model to support roadmap planning, allocation decisions, forecasting, and transparent tradeoffs across run/support and new development.
• Design and manage a hybrid delivery model that balances internal capability with nearshore teams (staff augmentation and project-based delivery) while maintaining engineering ownership, code quality, and knowledge retention.

Technology Standards, Reliability, and Security

• Define and enforce technical standards for cloud and mobile infrastructure, embedded systems, quality practices, and secure SDLC controls.
• Establish operational excellence practices, including observability, incident response, postmortems, and reliability targets appropriate for customer-facing services and connected devices.
• Ensure compliance with relevant cybersecurity, privacy, and regulatory expectations through engineering discipline and partner governance.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Partner closely with Product Management, Hardware Engineering, PMO/Program Leadership, Finance, and Customer Care to translate roadmap priorities into executable plans.
• Communicate progress, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to executive stakeholders; drive alignment across dependencies and shared outcomes.
• Strengthen vendor/partner governance through measurable outcomes, delivery transparency, and performance management.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years leading multi-team organizations (engineering managers + senior IC leaders).
• Proven ability to lead full-stack engineering across multiple domains: cloud/backend services, mobile applications, web/e-commerce, embedded/firmware, and quality engineering.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling hybrid teams, including nearshore/rightshored models and vendor-managed delivery (staff augmentation and project-based).
• Strong track record improving engineering execution through SDLC modernization (Agile, CI/CD, automation, release governance, telemetry/observability).
• Proven experience leading QA/Quality Engineering and implementing measurable improvements in quality, release stability, and defect prevention.
• Deep understanding of scalable cloud infrastructure and modern engineering practices; experience with embedded/firmware development lifecycles in consumer products preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.

Relationships:

• Reports to the VP of Product Engineering

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BENEFITS:

Working for PetSafe Brands definitely has its benefits. We offer a collaborative and creative team-oriented work environment where we encourage you to take risks to learn and grow! We offer a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, and 401K match. In addition we offer a rich wellness program which includes an onsite health clinic, workout facility and of course, we encourage you to bring your dog to work, which is our whole reason for what we do!

PetSafe Brands is dedicated to offering equal employment opportunity for all teammates and fostering a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. At PetSafe Brand, our teammates are our greatest strength. We strive to build a workforce as diverse as the customers we serve by hiring great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, life experiences, knowledge, self-expression and talent. We recruit and reward teammates based on capability and performance and together we are building a culture that welcomes all dimensions of an individual’s identity including race, color, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, educational background, national origin or ancestry, religion, veteran status, or physical ability. We embrace these differences and the unique contributions each teammate brings not just because it is the right thing to do but because it makes our company stronger. While we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and a culture of belonging, we recognize that we still have more work to do and a lot more to learn.