Director of Engineering
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Zignal Labs
Washington, DC, US
Summary
The Director of Engineering will lead and scale AI and engineering teams while driving technical strategy and application architecture. They will operationalize advanced AI capabilities and transform the engineering lifecycle to an AI-first SDLC.
Job Description
About Zignal Labs
Zignal Labs is at the forefront of real-time media intelligence and AI analytics, supporting mission-critical defense and intelligence programs worldwide. Our platform ingests massive volumes of social media, news, forums, broadcast, and online content, transforming them into curated datasets and actionable insights for national security, defense, and commercial missions.
Fully remote, with Silicon Valley roots and team members in over 20 states, Zignal serves customers around the world. Learn more at zignallabs.com.
About the Role
We are seeking a Director of Engineering to lead and scale our AI and Engineering teams. In this role, you will drive technical strategy, application architecture, and delivery across our frontend, backend, and AI feature teams. You will transform complex machine learning models and multi-source analytics into intuitive, enterprise-ready web applications for national security operations.
Key Responsibilities
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Lead, mentor, and scale software teams across full stack engineering, core application services, data engineering, and AI/ML integrations
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Architect and drive the execution of user-facing web platforms, ensuring seamless integration between UI workflows, backend APIs, and real-time AI model inference
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Collaborate with Data Science and Product teams to operationalize and productize advanced AI capabilities (e.g., LLMs, computer vision, narrative detection) within high-performance, enterprise-ready features.
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Drive the transformation of our engineering lifecycle to an AI-first SDLC, leveraging AI-assisted coding, automated code review, and intelligent CI/CD pipelines to accelerate developer velocity.
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Implement an AI-driven automated QA strategy, utilizing generative testing and self-healing test suites to increase release confidence and reduce manual regression cycles.
Required Qualifications
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8+ years of software engineering experience, including 4+ years in engineering leadership managing full stack and software development teams; Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
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Proven track record of shipping and scaling enterprise-grade full stack web applications that leverage production AI/ML services
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Proven experience leading the implementation of AI-augmented development environments and CI/CD pipelines.
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Strong understanding of shifting quality left through AI-driven automated testing strategies.
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Demonstrated experience operationalizing AI-driven services and integrating machine learning models into robust, scalable full-stack web applications.
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Demonstrated success recruiting, hiring, and retaining top-tier remote engineering talent
Preferred Qualifications
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Experience supporting software delivery for DoD, IC, or defense contractor environments
Why Join Zignal Labs?
At Zignal, you will work at the forefront of AI data intelligence, supporting mission-critical defense and intelligence programs worldwide. You will play a pivotal role in shaping our engineering culture, leading top-tier software talent, and building the intuitive full stack applications that power national security decisions.
Zignal delivers AI and agentic intelligence for national security, enabling earlier warning and sustained decision advantage across complex missions. Built on more than 15 years of operational experience, Zignal transforms publicly available information into a structured, mission-aligned intelligence layer that supports analysts, operators, and partner platforms across the full mission lifecycle. Zignal helps organizations protect people, secure places, and defend operational position by providing upstream awareness, persistent context, and repeatable intelligence workflows designed to integrate into existing systems and operations.
Founded
2011
Company size
51-200 employees
Industry
Software Development
Org type
Privately Held
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Zignal delivers AI and agentic intelligence for national security, enabling earlier warning and sustained decision advantage across complex missions. Built on more than 15 years of operational experience, Zignal transforms publicly available information into a structured, mission-aligned intelligence layer that supports analysts, operators, and partner platforms across the full mission lifecycle. Zignal helps organizations protect people, secure places, and defend operational position by providing upstream awareness, persistent context, and repeatable intelligence workflows designed to integrate into existing systems and operations.
Founded
2011
Company size
51-200 employees
Industry
Software Development
Org type
Privately Held
Headquarters
San Francisco, California