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Senior Director, Software Engineering

Austin, Texas, USA; New York City

WHAT WE DO MATTERS:

At The Knot Worldwide, we champion celebration - and that starts with celebrating our people. Our employees are passionate dreamers, thoughtful doers, and lifelong learners who power meaningful moments for millions around the world. We’re united by authentic connection, shared purpose, and a deep commitment to the global community we serve. Here, flexibility and belonging go hand in hand with high performance. We believe the best ideas come from empowered teams: those who consistently collaborate with intention to design solutions, spark ideas, and drive impact. We inspire, we build, and we celebrate. We dream big, love our users, hustle every day, and always do the right thing to win - together. Our people are at the heart of our success. 

ABOUT THE ROLE AND THE TEAM:

The Knot Worldwide is seeking a seasoned and strategic Senior Director of Engineering to lead our Consumer Growth and Lifecycle engineering teams in NYC or Austin. This critical role is centered on expanding our user base, driving core engagement metrics, and maximizing customer lifetime value through innovative technology and data utilization.

You will lead teams responsible for the engineering systems that power our direct-to-consumer growth loops, personalization, marketing technology (MarTech), customer relationship management (CRM), and organic search visibility. This is a high-impact role requiring a leader who can blend engineering excellence with a deep understanding of business drivers like activation, retention, conversion, and organic acquisition.

The successful candidate will have a proven track record of creating scalable, world-class consumer experiences within an agile, data-driven environment. You will lead a combination of full-stack web and platform teams, actively partnering with Product, Design, Data Science, and Marketing leaders to define and execute a winning strategy.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Engineering Leadership & Execution: Lead and mentor multiple engineering teams and engineering managers to deliver high-impact, outcome-driven results focused on core business growth metrics.
  • Strategy & Planning: Collaborate closely with Product, Design, Data, and Marketing leadership to define technical and product strategy, set ambitious OKRs, and align execution across multiple teams to meet company objectives.
  • Organic Search & Content Visibility: Drive the technical strategy and execution for Home Page and core site-wide SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) to maximize organic discovery, authority, and traffic.
  • Growth & Engagement Systems Ownership: Own the technical vision and delivery for key growth systems, including A/B testing frameworks, personalization engines, experimentation platforms, and the MarTech/CRM ecosystem that powers our user lifecycle communications (email, push, in-app messaging, etc.).
  • Technical Excellence & Scalability: Champion engineering excellence through robust practices (e.g., code reviews, automated testing, incident management) and ensure the quality, performance, and scalability of all growth and engagement systems.
  • Talent Development: Coach and mentor engineering managers and senior individual contributors, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous improvement, and career growth.
  • Data-Informed Culture: Instill a strong data-informed approach, leveraging analytics and experimentation to optimize feature development, operational efficiency, and drive impactful business outcomes.
  • Cross-Functional Alignment: Manage complex, cross-functional initiatives, ensuring tight alignment between engineering and marketing teams on critical consumer communication and segmentation strategies.

SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES HAVE:

  • Experience: 10+ years of progressive engineering experience, including 5+ years managing multiple teams and engineering leaders.
  • Growth Domain Expertise: Proven success in leading engineering teams focused on consumer growth, engagement, experimentation (A/B testing), personalization, or retention.
  • SEO/AEO: Deep practical experience with the technical requirements and strategic execution of large-scale SEO (Search Engine Optimization), particularly for high-traffic consumer homepages and core flows. Strategic awareness and focus on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and the technical implementation required for AI-driven search visibility is essential.
  • MarTech/CRM Acumen: Deep understanding and experience with the engineering challenges and technical requirements of CRM platforms and Marketing Technology stacks (e.g., CDPs, ESPs, Mobile Messaging SDKs).
  • Technical Proficiency: Proficiency in modern development technologies and architectures for consumer-facing web or mobile products (e.g., TypeScript, Node.js, React, modern data pipelines).
  • Scaling Systems: Demonstrated experience scaling complex software systems and engineering organizations in a high-traffic consumer environment.
  • Data & Analytics: Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities; adept at leveraging data to inform decisions, define metrics, and guide feature optimization.
  • Leadership & Collaboration: Excels in a collaborative, distributed work environment; highly skilled at navigating complexity and influencing technical and business leaders.
  • Results-Oriented: Driven, results-oriented, and motivated by delivering measurable business impact and exceptional user value.
  • Nice to Have: Direct experience integrating and leveraging modern Customer Engagement platforms such as Braze, Iterable, or similar systems.

WORK MODEL:

This role is Together@TKWW-eligible. If you’re based in NYC, we follow a hybrid schedule, balancing in-office collaboration of days a week  and work-from-home flexibility. If you’re in Austin, this position is remote for now, with the potential to shift to a hybrid model as our local team grows.

At The Knot Worldwide, we believe you are more than a resume and invite you to go for it, take the leap of faith, and apply for this job if it sparks your passion to join TKWW and make a difference!   

WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT US:

We believe in a wide range of holistic offerings to support our employees so that they can live our values day in and day out. From mental wellbeing, physical health and financial planning, to engaging perks and discounts, we are in the business of celebrating and supporting the Moments that Matter both in and out of the “office”. We offer flexible vacation, generous parental leave and prioritize initiatives that support the growth, development, and happiness of our people.

Together@TKWW is our approach to hybrid work. It’s designed to support how we work best: combining the flexibility we value with meaningful opportunities to connect in person. Whether a role is Together@TKWW-eligible or not, we believe in purposeful moments to come together, build strong relationships, and drive bold ideas forward.
  • For Together@TKWW-eligible roles, this includes regular in-office time to foster collaboration and connection.
  • For roles not eligible for in-office expectations, we support connection through virtual collaboration and intentional gatherings.

To facilitate in-person collaboration, we have office spaces in Barcelona, Spain; Delhi, India; Galway, Ireland; London, England; New York, NY; and Washington, D.C.

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US Notice: The Knot Worldwide provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability. In addition to federal law requirements, The Knot Worldwide complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. The Knot Worldwide expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.

Privacy Notice:  The Knot Worldwide (TKWW) processes your personal data to evaluate your application, based on the legal ground of taking steps prior to entering into a potential employment contract. Only the data strictly necessary for this purpose is collected. In some cases, your data may also be processed based on TKWW’s legitimate interests (e.g., to improve recruitment practices or manage candidate pools), to which you can object at any time. You have the right to access, rectify, or delete your data, and to object to certain uses. To learn more about your rights, please consult our The Knot Worldwide (TKWW) processes your personal data to evaluate your application, based on the legal ground of taking steps prior to entering into a potential employment contract. Only the data strictly necessary for this purpose is collected. In some cases, your data may also be processed based on TKWW’s legitimate interests (e.g., to improve recruitment practices or manage candidate pools), to which you can object at any time. You have the right to access, rectify, or delete your data, and to object to certain uses. To learn more about your rights, please consult our Privacy Policy. If you wish to file a complaint, you may contact the competent data protection authority. If you wish to file a complaint, you may contact the competent data protection authority. 

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