About the role
SonicWall is a cybersecurity forerunner with more than 30 years of expertise and is recognized as a leading partner-first company, ensuring our partners and their customers are never alone in the fight against cybercrime. With the ability to build, scale and manage security across the cloud, hybrid and traditional environments in real-time, SonicWall provides relentless security against the most evasive cyberattacks across endless exposure points for increasingly remote, mobile and cloud-enabled users. With its own threat research center, SonicWall can quickly and economically provide purpose-built security solutions to enable any organization—enterprise, government agencies and SMBs—around the world. For more information, visit www.sonicwall.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Role Overview
We are seeking a Senior Director of Engineering to lead the strategy, development, and delivery of next-generation network management platforms, including firewalls, switches, and wireless access points. This leader will drive innovation through AI-assisted development practices, build high-performing teams, and ensure consistent delivery of high-quality, metrics-driven outcomes at scale.
The ideal candidate brings deep domain expertise in networking infrastructure combined with modern software development leadership and a strong track record of adopting AI/ML tools to accelerate engineering productivity and product quality.
Key Responsibilities
Leadership & Strategy
- Define and execute engineering strategy for network management platforms (firewall, switching, and wireless solutions)
- Lead and mentor globally distributed engineering teams, fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and operational excellence
- Partner with Product, Architecture, and Customer Success teams to align roadmaps with business goals and customer needs
- Drive organizational transformation toward AI-assisted engineering practices
Engineering Excellence
- Establish and enforce quality, reliability, and performance standards
- Champion modern, data-driven engineering practices, leveraging delivery performance, developer experience, and AI-assisted productivity metrics (e.g., SPACE, flow, and AI impact measures) to drive continuous improvement and high-quality outcomes
- Foster a fail-fast, learn-fast culture by encouraging rapid experimentation, iterative development, and quick feedback loops to accelerate innovation while minimizing risk
- Promote blameless postmortems and continuous learning to improve systems, processes, and team effectiveness
AI-Driven Development
- Lead adoption of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., code generation, automated testing, observability, and incident response automation)
- Integrate AI/ML into engineering workflows to:
- Accelerate development velocity
- Improve code quality and defect detection
- Enhance operational insights and automation
- Promote best practices for responsible and secure use of AI in engineering
Delivery & Execution
- Drive predictable and high-quality software releases across multiple product lines
- Ensure programs are delivered on time, within scope, and aligned with strategic objectives
- Establish robust CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps practices
- Continuously improve engineering processes based on data and feedback
Stakeholder Management
- Communicate effectively with executive leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
- Provide regular updates on roadmap execution, risks, and performance metrics
- Represent engineering in customer and partner engagements when needed
Qualifications Required
- 12+ years of engineering experience, with 5+ years in senior leadership roles
- Proven expertise in networking technologies, including at least one of:
- Firewall management systems
- Switching platforms
- Wireless access point solutions
- Demonstrated success leading large-scale, distributed engineering teams
- Strong track record of delivering high-quality, scalable products using metric-driven approaches
- Hands-on experience driving adoption of AI-assisted software development tools and practices
- Deep understanding of cloud-native architectures, microservices, and distributed systems
- Experience with DevOps/DevSecOps frameworks and CI/CD pipelines
Preferred
- Experience in enterprise or SaaS-based network management platforms
- Familiarity with observability, telemetry, and data-driven operations
- Knowledge of security principles related to networking and infrastructure
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
Key Success Metrics
- Improvement in engineering velocity and predictability (e.g., SPACE metrics)
- Reduction in production defects and MTTR
- Adoption rate and impact of AI-assisted development tools
- Platform reliability, scalability, and customer satisfaction (SLAs, NPS)
- Employee engagement and retention within engineering teams
Leadership Profile
- Strategic thinker with strong execution focus
- Data-driven decision-maker
- Passion for innovation and continuous improvement
- Collaborative and influential across organizational boundaries
- Strong advocate for engineering excellence and customer value
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SonicWall is an equal opportunity employer.
We are committed to creating a diverse environment and are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.
At SonicWall, we pride ourselves on recruiting a diverse mix of talented people and providing active security solutions in 100+ countries.
