Director, Software Engineer, AI COE

About Us

At Cast & Crew, we’ve empowered creativity and supported the global entertainment industry for decades. Together with our family of brands - Backstage, CAPS, Checks & Balances, Final Draft, Media Services, Sargent-Disc, and The TEAM Companies – we operate as a combined entertainment technology and services provider offering industry standard screenwriting accounting software, digital payroll products, data & reporting, and a host of creative tools.  The industry continues to move faster than ever, and the need for our expertise, our technology, and our people has never been greater.  We are a production’s best ally every step of the way. #OneCastOneCrew

Position Overview
Cast & Crew is seeking an innovative, hands-on Director of Software Engineering – AI COE to establish and lead our AI Center of Excellence (COE). This strategic role will drive the adoption, governance, and delivery of AI-powered solutions across our unified payroll, accounting, finance, and compliance platforms serving the entertainment industry.
The Director will be responsible for setting the AI vision, building the technical foundation, and delivering impactful AI capabilities that accelerate automation, improve compliance accuracy, and unlock intelligent insights for both internal teams and our customers.
This leader will blend deep technical expertise, modern software engineering leadership, and strategic AI product thinking to operationalize AI across multiple product lines—ensuring scalability, security, compliance, and measurable ROI.

Key Responsibilities

AI COE Leadership & Strategy

• Establish and lead the AI Center of Excellence, defining vision, goals, KPIs, and governance frameworks.
• Develop the enterprise AI adoption roadmap, prioritizing high-value AI use cases aligned with business objectives.
• Advocate for ethical AI, compliance with legal frameworks, and responsible data governance.
• Build cross-functional partnerships with product, engineering, data, and compliance leaders to integrate AI capabilities into business workflows.

AI Solution Architecture & Delivery

• Oversee the design and development of scalable AI platforms and services using Python, Node.js, TypeScript, .net core, and modern cloud-native architectures.
• Leverage LLMs, NLP, generative AI, and intelligent agents for automation, data analysis, and intelligent decision-making.
• Architect AI-driven data pipelines, analytics platforms, and intelligent reporting systems.
• Implement event-driven and microservices architectures to support AI scalability and interoperability.
• Drive AI feature innovation, including context-aware chatbots, guided workflows, predictive analytics, and real-time dashboards.

AI Engineering Excellence

• Define and enforce best practices for ML-Ops, model governance, and prompt engineering.
• Evaluate and integrate AI frameworks, APIs, and platforms such as OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Anthropic Claude, Cohere, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Oversee the creation of reusable AI components, APIs, and SDKs for enterprise-wide adoption.
• Ensure AI models are optimized for performance, cost, and maintainability.

Talent Development & Technical Leadership

• Build and mentor a high-performing AI engineering team, including AI architects, ML engineers, and AI product engineers.
• Foster a culture of innovation, experimentation, and continuous learning in AI and software engineering.
• Provide technical guidance, code reviews, and architectural direction for AI solutions.

Business Impact & Measurement

• Define metrics to measure AI solution performance, adoption, and business value.
• Deliver measurable improvements in operational efficiency, compliance accuracy, and user experience through AI.
• Report AI program outcomes to senior leadership and stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years in AI/ML solution leadership.
•  Proven success in establishing or leading an AI COE, AI platform team, or enterprise AI initiative.
• Strong expertise in Python, Node.js, TypeScript, .net core, and modern software architectture patterns.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs, NLP, generative AI, and intelligent agents in production systems.
• Proven experience in AI-driven analytics, reporting, and predictive modeling.
• Solid understanding of AWS AI/ML services (SageMaker, Bedrock, Lambda, Step Functions, Textract, Azure AI Foundry, DynamoDB, etc.).
• Deep knowledge of MLOps, data governance, and responsible AI frameworks.
• Exceptional ability to translate business problems into AI-powered solutions.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in payroll, HR, compliance, or financial systems domains.
• Familiarity with micro-frontend and event-driven application architectures.
• Experience building AI capabilities for regulated industries.
• Contributions to AI/ML open-source projects or industry thought leadership.

Special Work Conditions    

• Sedentary – Involves sitting most of the time but may involve walking or standing for brief periods of time. Some positions may entail exerting up to 15 lbs. of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force to lift, carry, push, or pull.

Why Join Cast & Crew?

• Lead AI innovation in a high-impact entertainment industry platform.
• Shape the future of payroll, compliance, and workforce management with AI.
• Collaborate with industry experts and top-tier engineering talent.

Benefits 

Cast & Crew provides a comprehensive package of employee benefits including: Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO, health and wellness programs, employee discounts, and more! Note: Cast & Crew benefits are subject to eligibility requirements.

Cast & Crew is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture. It is our policy to provide equal employment opportunities to all individuals based on job-related qualifications and ability to perform a job, without regard to age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, disability, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship or marital status, and to maintain a non-discriminatory environment free from intimidation, harassment or bias based upon these grounds.

CA residents
Your personal information may be collected in connection with certain services provided by Cast & Crew or its affiliated companies.  A summary of your California privacy rights can be found at: https://www.castandcrew.com/privacy-policy/

Compensation is commensurate with various factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, qualifications, skills, training, licensure, certifications, geographic cost of labor, and other business and organizational needs. Compensation range for candidates in other locations may differ based on the cost of labor in that location. The compensation range for this position is: $230,000.00 - $240,000.00 per year.