Head of Engineering - Seattle

About Us

Wowhead was created with one sole intent: providing World of Warcraft players with tools and information to make their gameplay more enjoyable. All staff members are passionate fans of World of Warcraft, which helps us keep abreast of the most important features other players are interested in! We pride ourselves on our comprehensive database with helpful user comments, popular tools like the Dressing Room and Flying Tracker, lightning-fast datamining to uncover the latest test realm updates, and detailed guides written by professional players on all popular WoW topics including classes, collections, secrets, and raids. We’ve branched out to cover the Diablo franchise and are planning our next stage of growth.

Role Summary

As the Head of Engineering, you will be the senior-most technical leader in the organization, responsible for the vision, strategy, and execution of our entire engineering function. You will lead and mentor our engineering leadership team, including the AD of Software Engineering and the AD of Digital Operations, ensuring their teams are effective, collaborative, and aligned.

This is a critical leadership role that owns the complete technical health of our platform, from application development to infrastructure and operations. You will be responsible for driving technical strategy, ensuring timely and high-quality delivery of all product initiatives, and championing a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Salary for this position: $190,000 to $290,000

Salary range for successful applicant depends on a variety of job-related factors, including but not limited to geographic location (Example Tier 1: SF Bay Area, NYC Metro, Tier 2: Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Tier 3 Austin, Dener, Chicago), market demands, experience, training, and education. This position is bonus eligible.

Key Responsibilities

Unified Engineering Leadership & Management:

• Lead, mentor, and manage the entire engineering leadership team (AD of Software Engineering, AD of Digital Operations, and other Pod Leads), conducting regular 1:1s, setting clear performance expectations, and driving their professional development.
• Foster a cohesive, accountable, and high-performing engineering culture that values quality, operational rigor, and collaboration across all technical domains.
• Oversee the entire engineering function, driving hiring, onboarding, career pathing, and retention strategies.

Holistic Technical Strategy & Architecture:

• Define and execute a unified, long-term technical vision for our platform, encompassing both application architecture and infrastructure strategy.
• Lead the AD of Software Engineering and AD of Digital Operations in creating a cohesive technical roadmap that ensures application and infrastructure scale in harmony.
• Drive the strategy for modernizing legacy systems, managing technical debt, and adopting new technologies that provide clear business value.
• Own the overall technical security and compliance posture of the platform, ensuring development and operational practices adhere to privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

Execution & Operational Excellence:

• Oversee the agile development process and operational management across all pods, ensuring teams are working effectively and delivering on their commitments
• Partner with Product and Content leadership to translate business objectives into a clear, executable engineering roadmap
• Ensure timely and high-quality delivery of key business initiatives, especially the upcoming game expansions
• Drive continuous improvement in engineering operations, focusing on key metrics like Lead Time for Changes, Deployment Frequency, Change Failure Rate, and Uptime

Cross-Functional Partnership & Communication:

• Build and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with Product, Content, Design, and other business stakeholders to ensure alignment and smooth execution of initiatives
• Act as the primary engineering representative in senior leadership meetings, effectively communicating technical strategies, project status, resource needs, and risks
• Ensure clear communication channels and processes exist within the engineering function and with other departments

Professional Experience/Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7-10+ years of progressive engineering leadership experience, with a proven track record of managing and scaling software development and operations teams. Direct experience managing other managers or senior technical leads is required.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience with a strong, broad technical background in building and operating high-traffic, consumer-facing web applications.
• Demonstrated experience in defining and executing a holistic technical strategy, including leading teams through technology transitions and modernizing legacy systems.
• Proven ability to lead teams in an agile environment, driving execution and delivering complex projects on time.
• Deep understanding of modern software architecture, cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), CI/CD, testing, and operational best practices.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to articulate a compelling technical vision to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Self-motivated, independent, process-oriented, and adaptable with a high attention to detail.
• Familiarity working occasional odd hours with teams in different time zones is beneficial.
• World of Warcraft & Diablo/ARPG gamer with extensive knowledge of the games and communities.

We offer great perks:

• Eligibility for an annual discretionary performance bonus.
• Gaming allowance.
• Comprehensive benefit package including fully paid medical/dental/vision premiums for you and your family!
• Generous 401(k) matching contributions.
• Generous annual PTOs and paid holidays.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer and committed to leveraging the diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experience of our workforce to create opportunities for our colleagues and our business. We do not discriminate in employment decisions on any protected category.

Originally posted on Himalayas