ABOUT THIS ROLE
As a Director, Software Development, you'll lead a high-performing team building innovative personalization systems that power content discovery and recommendation experiences across Audible's platforms. This position requires a leader with strong technical acumen in machine learning systems, recommendation systems proven people management experience, and the ability to drive technical strategy while delivering customer-focused personalization solutions.
ABOUT THE TEAM
The Personalization team's mission is to help customers discover their next great listen by personalizing every interaction they have with Audible content. We develop scalable frameworks and systems that transform customer signals into meaningful insights, enabling personalized, contextual recommendations across our platforms. Our teams work with cutting-edge ML technologies and large-scale distributed systems to process billions of content interactions and deliver real-time personalized experiences.
ABOUT YOU
You're a strategic technical leader who thrives on solving complex personalization problems at scale. You have deep experience building and leading engineering teams, with a strong foundation in recommendation systems and distributed computing. You're passionate about developing talent and creating an inclusive team culture that drives innovation. You demonstrate excellent judgment in balancing technical tradeoffs while maintaining unwavering focus on customer experience and business impact.
As a Director, Software Development, you will...
- Lead and grow a team of ML/software engineers building personalization and recommendation systems, providing technical mentorship and career development while fostering an inclusive environment
- Own the technical strategy and roadmap for personalization systems that power discovery experiences across Audible platforms
- Drive architectural decisions and technical excellence in building scalable recommendation pipelines and frameworks
- Partner with product, science, and platform teams to define and execute on personalization initiatives
- Establish and optimize development processes that enable rapid experimentation while maintaining high quality standards
- Build mechanisms to measure and improve the customer impact of our recommendation systems
- Lead hiring and development of diverse technical talent
- Drive operational excellence in deploying and maintaining large-scale personalization systems
- Influence cross-team technical decisions and contribute to broader organizational strategy
- Champion best practices in ML engineering, including experimentation, testing, and monitoring
ABOUT AUDIBLE
Audible is the leading producer and provider of audio storytelling. We spark listeners’ imaginations, offering immersive, cinematic experiences full of inspiration and insight to enrich our customers daily lives. We are a global company with an entrepreneurial spirit. We are dreamers and inventors who are passionate about the positive impact Audible can make for our customers and our neighbors. This spirit courses throughout Audible, supporting a culture of creativity and inclusion built on our People Principles and our mission to build more equitable communities in the cities we call home.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- 7+ years of software engineering experience with 3+ years of people management experience
- Experience building and operating large-scale ML/recommendation systems in production
- Technical background in distributed systems, data processing, and ML infrastructure
- Track record of delivering complex technical projects through effective team leadership
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience with recommendation systems, personalization technologies, or related ML applications
- Track record of building and growing high-performing engineering teams
- Strong understanding of ML development lifecycle and operational excellence
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS) and modern ML frameworks
- Excellent communication skills with ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders
- History of mentoring and developing technical talent
- Experience with A/B testing and metrics-driven development
- This role helps fulfill our mission of personalizing every customer interaction by building systems that surface contextuallyrelevant, time-sensitive, individualized, diverse and fresh recommendations throughout their journey on Audible
Amazon is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/disability/us.