Director of Engineering, Pantheon
Collaborative Web Platform
$216-270k
+ Equity plan
More information about location
Website operations platform
Be an early applicant
Website operations platform
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
$216-270k
+ Equity plan
More information about location
201-500 employees
Company mission
To make the web a first-class platform that delivers results, one that empowers marketing and development teams to take control of their websites.
Role
Who you are
- It is a role for a builder — someone energized by ambiguity, passionate about product craft, and capable of leading a high-performing team through the nonlinear work of inventing something new
- 12+ years of engineering experience, with 5+ years in senior engineering leadership roles managing teams of engineers and engineering managers
- Proven track record of building and shipping products from early-stage through scale — ideally including at least one zero-to-one or platform-founding experience
- Strong organizational builder: you have hired, developed, and retained excellent engineers, and you know what a high-performing team culture actually feels like
- Experience leading full-stack product engineering teams, with genuine fluency in both frontend and backend concerns
- Demonstrated ability to operate in a high-ambiguity environment — setting direction and maintaining team momentum without a complete map
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field; Master's preferred
- Deep understanding of modern web platform architecture: APIs, real-time data synchronization, cloud-native services, and component-based frontend systems
- Fluency in cloud infrastructure and deployment (GCP, AWS, or Azure), container orchestration, and CI/CD pipelines
- Enough frontend architecture depth to credibly engage with engineers building visual editing experiences, component systems, and browser-side state management
- Experience with distributed systems design — especially in contexts involving collaborative state, branching models, or event-driven data flows
- Familiarity with CMS, developer tooling, or web publishing platforms is a meaningful plus
- Executive-level communication: you can make the technical accessible to non-technical stakeholders, and the strategic accessible to engineers
- Strong written communicator — you write clear design docs, decision memos, and team updates without requiring editing
- Effective cross-functional partner who builds trust and alignment with product, design, sales, and customer success peers
What the job involves
- Pantheon is seeking a visionary and hands-on Director of Engineering to lead the team building the next generation of web content infrastructure
- This is a rare opportunity to define the technical and organizational foundation of a zero-to-one product — a real-time, collaborative editing platform that is redefining how content teams create, manage, and publish on the modern web
- Content management has remained largely unchanged for two decades. Pantheon is uniquely positioned — with deep roots in the web platform, a global CDN, and a sophisticated branching model trusted by thousands of organizations — to build the collaborative content experience that the modern web actually deserves
- This Director of Engineering will lead the team doing exactly that
- This role sits at the intersection of product leadership and technical execution. You will own the engineering organization for this product area: recruiting and developing engineers and engineering managers, setting the technical direction, and driving delivery from early-stage architecture through to a scaled, production platform
- You will partner closely with product, design, and go-to-market to turn a compelling vision into a platform that developers and content teams love
- Strategic & Organizational Leadership:
- Define and execute the engineering strategy for the collaborative web platform, aligning technical investments with product milestones and long-term platform vision
- Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of engineers and engineering managers, establishing a culture of ownership, technical rigor, and continuous improvement
- Partner with product and design leadership to translate vision into concrete engineering plans — breaking ambiguity into phased, deliverable roadmaps
- Collaborate with executive leadership on resourcing strategy, headcount planning, and cross-functional dependencies
- Represent engineering in go-to-market discussions, customer conversations, and partnership evaluations where technical credibility matters
- Technical Direction & Architecture:
- Drive architectural decisions for the platform's core systems: real-time collaboration, branch-aware content state, API and integration layers, and visual editing infrastructure
- Establish and champion engineering standards across the full stack — backend services, frontend systems, APIs, testing, observability, and deployment
- Guide build-vs-buy decisions and technology selection with a clear framework for long-term scalability and developer experience
- Maintain a strong technical point of view while remaining open to input — you will be a trusted thought partner for staff and principal engineers on the team
- Delivery & Operational Excellence:
- Own end-to-end delivery accountability: planning, execution, quality, and iteration velocity across the team
- Manage technical debt and modernization tradeoffs in a zero-to-one context where the right call is often to move fast — and occasionally to refactor deliberately
- Establish the operational practices that will scale with the product: incident response, SLOs, deployment cadence, and on-call health
- Drive recruiting and hiring for the team, in partnership with talent acquisition, ensuring a high bar for technical and cultural fit
Our take
In today's digital landscape, website hosting is a critical component for businesses, and the demand for fast, reliable, and scalable hosting platforms is higher than ever. The competition is fierce, with major players like GoDaddy, Ionos, AWS, and WP Engine dominating the space.
One standout in this crowded market is Pantheon, a leading WebOps platform designed to deliver high-performance hosting for content-driven websites. Pantheon's unique value lies in its ability to provide seamless collaboration between developers and marketers while ensuring fast, reliable website performance. It's a platform that goes beyond traditional hosting by offering powerful tools for managing websites and scaling them as needed - making it a go-to choice for many organisations.
Pantheon has continuously innovated to stay ahead of the competition, with significant investments driving its growth. Initially focused on hosting solutions for WordPress and Drupal websites, it now offers content management as a service. This expansion was bolstered by significant funding, fueling further product development and the introduction of new features like personalisation and analytics. These efforts have reinforced Pantheon's position as a leader in the WebOps and hosting space.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-19% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Jul 2021
$100m
SERIES E
Mar 2019
$40m
SERIES D
Total funding: $196.8m
Company benefits
- Health & Wellness: Taking care of you and your family is important to us. Our healthcare benefits program delivers choice and value so you can prioritize your health
- Remote & In-Office: We believe in a flexible employee experience, our San Francisco office is a center for collaboration and connection, but it's not the only place this happens
- Flexible Time-Off: We encourage work/life balance. Take time off when you need it, and return ready to make magic on the internet when you're ready and refreshed
- Monthly Book & Gym Allowance: One of the many ways we enable our team to take control of their development and wellness is to take advantage of our books and gym membership allowance
- Promoting Inclusivity: We strive to have a culture where Pantheors across the globe feel a high sense of belonging and engagement. We have several programs in place to help cultivate inclusion at Pantheon, including educational events, open forums, and training opportunities
- Giving Back: We believe in cultivating passion and giving back to the community we live and work in. Pantheon offers a Donation Matching program of $500 per employee and holds multiple team volunteer opportunities throughout the year
- Employee Resource Groups: Our Pantheon Resource Groups (PRGs) allow employees to connect, support each other, and spread awareness
- Professional Development: We support employee learning and development through company led-training, leadership forums, and full access to LinkedIn Learning's catalogue of courses
Company HQ
Chinatown, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Sameer Kazi
(CEO)Joined Pantheon in 2024 as CEO. They have also served as the Managing Director of Operating Capital since 2015. Previously they were the President of ActiveCampaign and CEO of Cheetah Digital.
Josh Koenig
(Co-Founder & SVP of Marketing)They were part of the team that drove the first high-profile public Drupal use-case with the Howard and Dean campaign in 2003. They then went on to found the Drupal Dojo, an online learning community for developers, and to co-found the premiere Drupal agency in San Francisco, Chapter Three.
David Strauss
(Co-Founder & Advisor)After co-founding Four Kitchens, a successful Web Development shop, they found themselves gravitating away from the customer client work and towards infrastructure solutions. Large clients like NBCUniversal, The Economics, and Wikimedia had already benefited from their scalability and database optimization work.
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