Machines that Move Us.
People who Inspire Us.
Stories that Drive Us.

Check us out: http://bit.ly/MotorTrendG

About Us

We are MotorTrend.
With a monthly reach of more than 131 million, MTG is the largest automotive media company in the world. With franchises including MotorTrend, Hot Rod, Automobile, Wheeler Dealers, Roadkill, Best Driver’s Car, and dozens of other world-class brands, we are reimagining storytelling around mobility. Our portfolio brings together Discovery’s #1 TV network for automotive super fans, with our vast automotive digital platform that includes direct-to-consumer products, websites, apps, connected TVs, social, and live events.

Our People  

The people who work at MotorTrend embody the passion of our content, and wake up every day intent on embracing, entertaining, and empowering the motoring world.

The Role

Job Summary & Responsibilities:
We are looking for a Director, Web Platforms (full time, Salaried, regular) to join our engineering leadership team and help drive the development of our next generation of content-rich web applications. You will recruit and mentor talented engineers. You will provide oversight and direction for the development of high-traffic web applications. You will own the overall web-platform architecture and strategy for dynamic, ad-driven websites. You will enforce standards, best practices, and modern development conventions. You will work closely with stakeholders in identifying growth and performance goals while coaching and retaining talented contributors to help your team meet those goals.

Essential duties and responsibilities include but not limited to:

• Hire, coach, and retain talented software engineers and foster a positive team culture.
• Collaborate across the organization and within your teams to drive execution against goals and KPIs.
• Communicate effectively across teams and individuals to motivate towards results in a fast-paced environment.
• Establish and champion a high-quality, consumer-focused approach to software architecture and code, and enforce developer best practices.
• Monitor and analyze application behavior and performance, and take ownership to improve application performance, speed, scale, and efficiency.
• Own and manage relationships with vendors, partners, and internal stakeholders across the organization.
• Run code reviews and empower team to consistently watch metrics for improvement.
• Be a master of data pertaining to performance and how to consistently be at the top percentile of performance metrics.
• Manage external contractor relationships.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• This position may include supervising one or more employees where applicable. Supervisory responsibilities include but are not limited to:
  • Provide consistent training, support, and mentorship to team.
  • Review and approve individual timecards (as needed) and time-off requests to ensure optimal staffing levels.
  • Effective, fair, and consistent performance management.
  • Fairly and consistently ensure compliance with company policies and procedures.

Education/Experience:

• BA/BS in a Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 8+ years’ experience architecting and building software for high-traffic, web-based applications.
• 5+ years’ experience hiring, mentoring, and managing software engineering teams, including other managers.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:

• Extensive experience in a leadership role, including career guidance, smart goals, one-on-ones, and timely-feedback.
• Hands-on experience architecting and building complex consumer-facing software applications.
• Expert knowledge of distributed systems, content management systems, and caching optimization.
• Extensive knowledge and experience with multiple ad serving technologies and ad networks.
• Hands-on experience integrating and optimizing multiple caching solutions like Akamai, Cloudflare, and CloudFront.
• Hands-on experience with multiple development languages and databases like React/Redux, Javascript, NodeJS, PHP, MySQL, Postgres, and various flavors of NoSQL.
• Extensive knowledge of API and web-service integration and related technologies, like GraphQL and Rest.
• Extensive experience with end-to-end development workflows and pipelines, including Git and CI/CD with tools like Bamboo, Jenkins, and CircleCI.
• Hands-on experience with TDD/BDD and related technologies like Gherkin and Cucumber.
• Extensive experience with various AWS cloud services.
• Knowledge and experience with third-party analytics and QoE libraries like Adobe Analytics and Heartbeat.
• Extensive experience managing onsite, remote, and contract developers.
• Experience working in an Agile delivery environment (Scrum) is a must.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Physical Requirements:

• The ability to sit for prolonged period of time and view computer screen.

Work Environment:

• Work is performed in an office environment that is well lit and ventilated.

NOTE: This position description reflects management’s assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict any other tasks that may be assigned.