Senior Director Engineering

Paylocity is an award-winning provider of cloud-based HR and payroll software solutions, offering the most complete platform for the modern workforce. The company has become one of the fastest-growing HCM software providers worldwide by offering an intuitive, easy-to-use product suite that helps businesses automate and streamline HR and payroll processes, attract and retain talent, and build a strong workplace culture. 

While traditional HR and payroll providers automate basic HR processes such as payroll and benefits administration, Paylocity goes further by developing tools that HR and businesses need to compete for talent and deliver against the expectations of the modern workforce.

We give our employees what they need to succeed, including great benefits and perks! We offer medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and a 401(k) match, as well as perks that support you, your family, and your finances. And if it’s career development you desire, we provide that, too! At Paylocity, people matter most and have always been at the heart of our business.

Help Paylocity enhance communication and enable employees to connect, collaborate, and create from anywhere with a position in Product & Technology!

Want to develop the strategies and principles needed to deliver compelling software? Join our team and help us enhance our all-in-one software platform, elevate our one-of-a-kind technology, and improve the employee experience. 

Take your career to the next level at one of G2's Top 100 Software Companies. Explore our Product & Technology positions to see where you fit!

The Senior Director of Engineering Applications has a critical role in our Engineering organization. We are unique and afford leaders the opportunity to lead in an integrated environment, working closely with Product Management on the product vision, Design for discovery and user experience, as well as Engineering for delivery and implementation. 

This position requires a strategic technical leader committed to finding and delivering against our internal application teams and our customers' unmet needs across a wide variety of core services powering our Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions. This role will enable a culture of innovation and ownership across all of Engineering – ensuring the teams are entrepreneurial and self-sufficient while still focused on a shared vision. 

Primary Responsibilities: 

• Develop and drive the engineering roadmap, ensuring alignment with business objectives, product vision, and emerging technology trends.

• Architect and oversee the development of high-scale, high-performance SaaS solutions, ensuring reliability, security, and efficiency.

• Help to continually improve upon our engineering processes, monitoring strategies, and reliability engineering practices by continuously identifying and implementing best-in-class improvements to maintain 24x7 availability of mission-critical applications.

• Partner closely with Product, Design, Data, and other engineering leaders to align on priorities, delivery timelines, and strategic initiatives.

• Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing engineering team, fostering a culture of inclusion, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Lead engineering teams in the successful execution of complex software projects, ensuring high quality, scalability, and on-time delivery.

• Stay ahead of industry trends, continuously evaluating new technologies and methodologies to improve development efficiency and product capabilities.

• Organize and manage engineering teams to maximize efficiency, ensuring resource allocation aligns with budget constraints and business goals.

• Drive a customer-first mindset, developing solutions that enhance user experience, reduce friction, and create measurable value.

• Ensure all engineering practices align with Paylocity security standards, regulatory requirements, and compliance frameworks.

Who you are:

• A highly technical and creative thinker with the ability to design a vision for our applications that allows them to scale to our customer’s needs.

• An influential leader who rallies multiple product teams around the vision and creates an atmosphere where teams are empowered to deliver.

• Collaborative, innovative, and humble.

• Determined and willing to experiment, embracing constant feedback loops.

• A proactive change agent, ensuring engineering teams embrace best practices while fostering a culture of innovation.

• Encourage a culture of continuous improvement by leveraging setbacks as learning opportunities to enhance team performance and product innovation. 

• A model for exhibiting grit and the entrepreneurial spirit.

• A leader who focuses on talent development by creating enabling and inclusive environments and identifying, coaching, and cultivating high potential.

• Always curious about current market and technology trends, competitive landscape, and influences product strategy accordingly.

• A superior communicator with an affinity for change management.

• Steadfast in your desire for production stability, high quality solutions and high performing teams.

Required Experience:

• BS degree or higher in Computer Science, Information Technology or equivalent experience.

• 15+ years of experience in the SaaS software space using both public and private cloud infrastructure. Experience in the Human Capital Management space preferred but not required depending on domain experience.

• 10+ years of total experience leading multiple technical teams with 5+ years of leading teams larger than 50 people.

• Proven leader within a technology organization and demonstrable experience as a people manager.

• Ability to lead, mentor, and grow large high performing teams to meet business objectives and quality standards.

• Possess a blend of business acumen to have a big-picture vision as well as the drive and attention to detail that transforms strategy into action.

• A proven track record of defining business goals and then delivering on those goals to drive profitable growth.

• Exceptional decision-making, prioritization, and collaboration skills. A leader that doesn’t use words like “they”, but words such as “we” and “us”.

• Mastery in applying & coaching technology patterns, frameworks, principles, best practices, and skills across the organization, with a bias for customer & business value.

• Demonstrated ability in integration, delivery, 24x7 operations, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

• Hands-on knowledge of agile engineering practices and prevalent accelerating technologies, including mobile, big data, cloud, machine learning, and open sourcing.

• Detail-oriented, organized, self-sufficient, and able to find creative solutions at all levels of the business, product, platform, and organization.

• Solid interpersonal and communication, and collaboration skills with proven ability to work across the organization with a one-team mindset.

Paylocity is an equal-opportunity employer. Paylocity is committed to the full inclusion of all individuals. We recruit, train, compensate, and promote regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law. At Paylocity, we believe diversity makes us better. 

We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, culture, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion or spiritual belief, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique. We actively cultivate these differences through our employee resource groups (ERGs), employee experiences, perspectives, talents, and approaches to drive innovation in the software and services we provide our customers.

We comply with federal and state disability laws and make reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. To request reasonable accommodation in the job application or interview process, please contact accessibility@paylocity.com. This email address is exclusively designated for such requests, aligning with federal and state disability laws. Please do not send resumes to this email address, as they will be removed.

The base pay range for this position is $177,200 - $253,100/yr; however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. This position is eligible for an annual bonus and restricted stock unit grant based on individual performance in addition to a full range of benefits outlined here. This information is provided per the relevant state and local pay transparency laws for the location in which this position will be performed. Base pay information is based on market location. Applicants should apply via www.paylocity.com/careers.