Director, Engineering

Who we are is what we do.

Deel is the all-in-one payroll and HR platform for global teams. Our vision is to unlock global opportunity for every person, team, and business. Built for the way the world works today, Deel combines HRIS, payroll, compliance, benefits, performance, and equipment management into one seamless platform. With AI-powered tools and a fully owned payroll infrastructure, Deel supports every worker type in 150+ countries—helping businesses scale smarter, faster, and more compliantly.

Among the largest globally distributed companies in the world, our team of 7,000 spans more than 100 countries, speaks 74 languages, and brings a connected and dynamic culture that drives continuous learning and innovation for our customers.

Why should you be part of our success story?

As the fastest-growing Software as a Service (SaaS) company in history, Deel is transforming how global talent connects with world-class companies – breaking down borders that have traditionally limited both hiring and career opportunities. We're not just building software; we're creating the infrastructure for the future of work, enabling a more diverse and inclusive global economy. In 2024 alone, we paid $11.2 billion to workers in nearly 100 currencies and provided healthcare and benefits to workers in 109 countries—ensuring people get paid and protected, no matter where they are.

Our momentum is reflected in our achievements and customer satisfaction: CNBC Disruptor 50,  Forbes Cloud 100, Deloitte Fast 500, and repeated recognition on Y Combinator’s top companies list – all while maintaining a 4.83 average rating from 15,000 reviews across G2, Trustpilot, Captera, Apple and Google.

Your experience at Deel will be a career accelerator. At the forefront of the global work revolution, you'll tackle complex challenges that impact millions of people's working lives. With our momentum—backed by a $17.3 billion valuation and $1 B in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in just over five years—you'll drive meaningful impact while building expertise that makes you a sought-after leader in the transformation of global work.

Summary

The EOR engine is the heart of Deel's mission: enabling compliant, global employment for hundreds of thousands of people. This is not just a leadership role—it’s an opportunity to lead a mission-critical platform that architects global compliance, payroll, and complex financial workflows across dozens of jurisdictions.

Overseeing a global engineering organization of 8 high-performing teams (55+ engineers), you will be the architectural and operational anchor responsible for stability, scale, and delivery across onboarding, contracts, and special projects.

We are looking for a leader who is a Systems Architect with Organizational Mastery—someone who can manage 55+ people while setting the technical bar and actively contributing to the deepest architectural challenges. You will drive high performance through direct feedback, technical mentorship, and the adoption of cutting-edge AI-assisted development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Scale and Lead: Manage 55+ Engineers (split into 8 teams), providing mentorship to Engineering Team Leads and Software Engineers while ensuring the collective output meets Deel’s high standards.

• Technical Command & Standards:Act as the hands-on technical authority for the EOR platform. This means contributing to mission-critical system design, executing deep-dive architectural reviews, and personally intervening in P0 production incidents to lead resolution and set future standards. You are the final technical escalation point.

• High-Performance & Direct Feedback: You will maintain and elevate a world-class engineering bar. This includes cultivating a culture of high accountability, rapid iteration, and Radically Candid feedback where directness is seen as a necessary catalyst for growth and performance.

• Product Ownership: Partner with Product and Design to oversee the full lifecycle of the EOR experience - from initial onboarding and contract generation to the management of active global contracts and high-stakes special projects.

• Modern Delivery & AI Leadership:Champion the adoption of cutting-edge AI-assisted engineering tools(GitHub Copilot, Cursor, etc.) and cloud-native environments to aggressively accelerate team velocity and code quality, ensuring Deel remains at the forefront of engineering practices.

• Operational Excellence: Ensure the reliability and security of complex backend systems that handle sensitive legal and financial data across multiple jurisdictions.

Technical Profile & Requirements

• Expert Distributed Systems & Data Integrity: Expert-level ability designing and scaling highly-available, distributed systems. You must possess elite backend expertise(Node.js/PostgreSQL) and have a proven track record navigating and ensuring integrity for complex, multi-jurisdictional data models and integrations handling sensitive legal and financial workflows at a global scale.

• Technical Firefighting & Infrastructure:You are expected to be hands-on in the terminal. You must be proficient in modern debugging techniques, cloud-native infrastructure (AWS), and rapidly diagnosing/resolving deep system issues in high-pressure production environments.

• AI & Cloud Native: You are an early adopter of AI-augmented engineering and understand how to leverage cloud code environments to streamline the development-to-deployment pipeline.

• Organizational Mastery: Proven experience managing "teams of teams" (50+ headcount), with a track record of optimizing structure, communication, and delivery across multiple workstreams.

You’d Be a Great Fit If:

• You Master Ambiguity: You view ambiguous ‘Special Projects’—often technical greenfields with high business impact—not as roadblocks, but as opportunities to define the market, delivering scalable, well-engineered products from a clean slate.

• You are Radically Candid: You believe that fast, direct feedback is a gift and you don't shy away from difficult performance conversations.

• You have 10+ years of experience:Including significant time spent in a high-growth SaaS environment where you have managed managers and maintained a "boots on the ground" technical approach.

• You are a Backend Specialist:You have a passion for the "engine" of a product—logic, data integrity, and complex workflows are where you do your best work.

• You are the CEO of Stability & EOR Success: Your measure of success is not throughput, but the stability, compliance, and security of the platform, which directly translates to the health and success of Deel's EOR business.

Total Rewards

Our workforce deserves fair and competitive pay that meets them where they are. With scalable benefits, rewards, and perks, our total rewards programs reflect our commitment to inclusivity and access for all. 

Some things you’ll enjoy

• Stock grant opportunities dependent on your role, employment status and location

• Additional perks and benefits based on your employment status and country

• The flexibility of remote work, including optional WeWork access

At Deel, we’re an equal-opportunity employer that values diversity and positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of  race, religion, sex, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, pregnancy or maternity or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

Unless otherwise agreed, we will communicate with job applicants using Deel-specific emails, which include @deel.com and other acquired company emails like @payspace.com and @paygroup.com. You can view the most up-to-date job listings at Deel by visiting our careers page.

Deel is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects different abilities, backgrounds, beliefs, experiences, identities and perspectives.

Deel will provide accommodations on request throughout the recruitment, selection and assessment process for applicants with disabilities. If you require accommodations, please inform our Talent Acquisition Team via this link and a team member will be in touch to ensure your equal participation. If you have difficulty accessing the form, please email at recruiting@deel.com.

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