Director of Engineering, Infrastructure

Zapier Zapier · Enterprise · NAMER · Engineering

Zapier is seeking a Director of Engineering, Infrastructure to lead teams building and evolving core services, platforms, and infrastructure. This role is focused on shaping the vision, scalability, and operational aspects of platform engineering as a strategic priority. The ideal candidate will have experience building internal infrastructure platforms, orchestrating AI systems to improve engineering workflows, and driving developer velocity and quality through platform investment. This is a build role in a 0-to-1 environment, requiring strong leadership, customer orientation, and mentorship skills.

What you'd actually do

  1. lead several multidisciplinary teams building, supporting, and evolving Zapier's core services, platforms, and infrastructure
  2. shape what that looks like: vision, scalability, accountability mechanisms, and how the organization operates
  3. build them, partnering closely with our VP of Engineering and dedicated Platform PMs
  4. orchestrate AI systems and redesign how engineering work gets done
  5. drive developer velocity and quality through platform investment

Skills

Required

  • leading multidisciplinary teams
  • building and evolving core services, platforms, and infrastructure
  • shaping vision, scalability, and operational aspects of platform engineering
  • building internal infrastructure platforms
  • orchestrating AI systems to improve engineering workflows
  • driving developer velocity and quality through platform investment
  • experience in 0-to-1 environments
  • leading through organizational change and ambiguity
  • customer-oriented approach
  • scaling platform engineering and infrastructure organizations
  • managing teams of managers and technical leaders
  • data-driven approaches to measuring engineering velocity and quality
  • mentoring and coaching engineers and leaders
  • clear communication (written and verbal)

Nice to have

  • experience with AI coding agents and orchestration tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or similar)
  • experience with AI-powered systems and evaluating AI outputs

What the JD emphasized

  • AI coding agents and orchestration tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or similar) hands-on
  • quantify that impact
  • concrete vision for how AI will reshape infrastructure and developer tooling
  • already started implementing it by rethinking roles, eliminating legacy workflows, and reallocating capacity based on where AI is headed
  • embed accountability and quality standards into AI-powered systems
  • iterate, refine, and critically evaluate AI outputs
  • expect your team to do the same
  • built teams and systems from the ground up
  • track record of leading through organizational change and ambiguity
  • actively seek out those challenges
  • deeply understanding your customers—internal developers, external partners, and cross-functional stakeholders
  • built mechanisms to stay close to their needs
  • prioritize ruthlessly
  • built teams responsible for internal developer platforms and the infrastructure that underpins them
  • shaped how product engineering teams build and ship software by investing in the foundational infrastructure and platforms
  • managed teams of managers and technical leaders
  • established data-driven approaches to measuring engineering velocity and quality
  • made the complex tradeoffs between velocity, cost, and functionality
  • track and improve on Keep-The-Lights-On (KTLO) and reactive work in favour of increased investment in proactive and platform improvements
  • passion and track record of developing engineers and leaders
  • help them grow themselves
  • provide clear frameworks for growth
  • developed the next generation of engineering leaders
  • communicate proactively
  • write clearly
  • know when async works and when to jump on a call