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Versant Media · 1 day ago

Director, Engineering, Mobile & Connected TV

Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Full-time

Hybrid

Director/Executive

$225K/yr - $250K/yr

10+ years exp

VERSANT is a leading force in news, sports and entertainment, and they are seeking an experienced Director of Engineering to lead the development of their mobile and connected TV platforms. The role involves overseeing multiple engineering teams, driving platform innovation, and ensuring high-quality user experiences across various applications.

BroadcastingInformation TechnologyMedia and Entertainment

Responsibilities

Lead, inspire, and scale a team of engineers and engineering managers across mobile (iOS, Android) and CTV (tvOS, Roku, Lightning) platforms

Define and drive the technical strategy, roadmap, and execution plans aligned with product vision and business priorities

Act as the voice of engineering in product and executive conversations—advocating for scalability, performance, maintainability, and customer impact

Collaborate closely with stakeholders across Product, Design, Editorial, QA, Video Engineering, and UX Research to shape platform direction and user experience

Ensure high availability, reliability, and performance across mobile and CTV apps

Champion best practices in software development, security, architecture, testing, and CI/CD

Drive consistency in architecture and shared services across mobile and CTV platforms, identifying opportunities for modularization and cross-platform efficiency

Oversee architectural decisions to support long-term maintainability and extensibility

Establish and uphold technical governance practices to ensure code quality, platform security, and development consistency

Advocate relentlessly for the end user—driving features and optimizations that enhance speed, video quality, usability, and engagement

Balance rapid feature delivery with technical sustainability and platform quality

Oversee incident response and operational health of apps across all supported devices

Define and track key engineering KPIs including crash rate, app performance, playback reliability, code quality, application security posture improvements and delivery velocity

Coordinate with internal platform teams, third-party service providers, and device partners for feature rollouts and platform enhancements

Mentor, develop, and retain top engineering talent; grow technical leadership within the teams

Foster an inclusive and collaborative culture of excellence, ownership, and innovation

Lead by example in promoting accountability, clear communication, and high-impact execution

Qualification

Mobile DevelopmentCTV DevelopmentVideo Streaming TechnologiesSoftware Development LifecycleAgile PracticesStakeholder ManagementCommunication SkillsTeam Leadership

Required

10+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles

Proven experience delivering large-scale mobile and/or CTV applications at high user scale

Strong technical background in native mobile (iOS, Android) and CTV (tvOS, Roku, Lightning framework) development

Experience managing multiple teams or platforms with varying tech stacks and device-specific needs

Strong knowledge of video streaming, playback optimization, and performance tuning

Experience with video streaming technologies (HLS, DASH, DRM, CDNs)

Experience with video players (e.g., JWPlayer, VideoJS, Shaka, ExoPlayer, AVPlayer), analytics tools (Adobe, Comscore) and QoS (Conviva)

Deep understanding of software development lifecycle, agile practices, observability, and mobile CI/CD pipelines

Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

Ability to work in a fast-paced, matrixed environment and drive outcomes across teams

Preferred

Background in the media, streaming, or publishing industry

Experience with hybrid or cross-platform frameworks

Familiarity with analytics tools, crash reporting platforms, and feature experimentation frameworks

Understanding of privacy, compliance, and security concerns in mobile/CTV development

Track record of building customer-first, data-informed engineering organizations

Familiarity with ad-tech integration CSAI (Client-side Ad Insertion) and SSAI (Server-Side Ad Insertion)

Benefits

Free onsite fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment, plus daily group classes

Gourmet cafeteria with daily specials plus soup and salad bars

Free shuttle transportation to and from multiple locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Hoboken, and Jersey City

This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks.