Vice President of Software Development (Moscow, ID)

The Vice President of Software Development leads Lightcast's engineering organization, responsible for building and operating web-based SaaS products. This role involves setting technical direction, establishing a high-velocity engineering operating model, and ensuring the delivery of secure, reliable, enterprise-grade software at scale. The VP partners with Product, AI/Data Science, Data Engineering, API, and TechOps leaders to align roadmaps and scale the engineering team, fostering a high-trust, low-ego, co-ownership culture.

Must Have

• Own delivery and operational excellence across product and shared platform teams.
• Partner with Product leadership to define shared goals, priorities, and accountability.
• Lead and develop Engineering Directors and Managers.
• Drive measurable, end-to-end software delivery velocity.
• Lead HCM/HRIS integrations, including APIs, SFTP/flat files, SCIM provisioning, and SSO (SAML/OIDC).
• Apply a disciplined contractor/vendor model.
• Advance SDLC automation best practices, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, testing, release controls, and progressive delivery.
• Embed AI-assisted development through tooling, governance, standards, and productivity measurement.
• 10+ years building web-based SaaS products.
• 5+ years leading multi-team engineering organizations (managers of managers), ideally at enterprise scale.
• Experience leading teams of 20+ engineers, and working with off-shore teams.
• Deep experience building for enterprise customers, including SSO (SAML/OIDC), RBAC/ABAC, audit logging, compliance, tenant isolation, data governance, and security/procurement workflows.
• Strong background in data-driven applications (analytics/dashboards), including performance at scale, caching/materialization, data modeling, and metrics correctness.
• Solid understanding of modern web architectures: React (or equivalent), backend services (Node/Java/Python), and REST/GraphQL APIs.
• Proven cloud-native delivery experience (AWS), CI/CD, infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform), and production observability.
• Track record integrating with HCM/HRIS platforms using SCIM, SSO, webhooks, bulk data exchange, and enterprise security patterns.
• Ability to design and run an effective engineering operating system: planning, delivery metrics, quality standards, architecture governance, and incident response.
• Experience scaling teams using a mix of full-time and contract engineers, with strong quality and knowledge-retention practices.
• Experience driving adoption of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot-style workflows) with appropriate measurement and guardrails.
• Excellent written communication across architecture docs, operational runbooks, incident communications, and executive updates.
• Willingness to relocate to Moscow, ID.

The VP of Software Development leads the engineering organization responsible for building and operating a portfolio of web-based SaaS products, reporting to the CTO. This is a strategy-and-execution role: setting technical direction, establishing a high-velocity engineering operating model, and ensuring teams deliver secure, reliable, enterprise-grade software at scale.

You will partner closely with Product, AI/Data Science, Data Engineering, API, and TechOps leaders to align roadmaps to customer outcomes and scale a primarily full-time engineering organization, augmented by contractors as needed.

Culture and collaboration are critical. This leader thrives in a high-trust, low-ego environment and practices true co-ownership with Product, sharing accountability for outcomes end to end.

Location matters. The engineering hub is in Moscow, Idaho, and strong preference is given to candidates willing to relocate to lead in person and build deep cross-functional relationships.

Major Responsibilities:

• Own delivery and operational excellence across product and shared platform teams
• Partner with Product leadership to define shared goals, priorities, and accountability for quality, speed, and customer impact
• Lead and develop Engineering Directors and Managers through coaching, feedback, career frameworks, and high hiring standards
• Drive measurable, end-to-end software delivery velocity
• Lead HCM/HRIS integrations, including APIs, SFTP/flat files, SCIM provisioning, and SSO (SAML/OIDC), in coordination with partners and vendors
• Apply a disciplined contractor/vendor model, defining externalizable work, quality gates, and knowledge transfer while retaining core IP and architecture in-house
• Advance SDLC automation best practices, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, testing, release controls, and progressive delivery
• Embed AI-assisted development through tooling, governance, standards, and productivity measurement

Experience & Education:

• Willingness to relocate to Moscow, ID (highly preferred) and lead primarily in person.
• Strong culture and collaboration skills; proven trust-building across Engineering and Product with shared ownership of outcomes.
• 10+ years building web-based SaaS products; 5+ years leading multi-team engineering orgs (managers of managers), ideally at enterprise scale.
• Experience leading teams of 20+ engineers, and working with off-shore teams.
• Deep experience building for enterprise customers, including SSO (SAML/OIDC), RBAC/ABAC, audit logging, compliance, tenant isolation, data governance, and security/procurement workflows.
• Strong background in data-driven applications (analytics/dashboards), including performance at scale, caching/materialization, data modeling, and metrics correctness.
• Solid understanding of modern web architectures: React (or equivalent), backend services (Node/Java/Python), and REST/GraphQL APIs; strong systems thinking even if not hands-on daily.
• Proven cloud-native delivery experience (AWS), CI/CD, infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform), and production observability.
• Track record integrating with HCM/HRIS platforms using SCIM, SSO, webhooks, bulk data exchange, and enterprise security patterns.
• Ability to design and run an effective engineering operating system: planning, delivery metrics, quality standards, architecture governance, and incident response.
• Experience scaling teams using a mix of full-time and contract engineers, with strong quality and knowledge-retention practices.
• Experience driving adoption of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot-style workflows) with appropriate measurement and guardrails.
• Excellent written communication across architecture docs, operational runbooks, incident communications, and executive updates.