Director, Research and Development

Director, Research and Development

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locations

Remote - Georgia

time type

Full time

posted on

Posted Yesterday

job requisition id

R0046904

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute the technology and development strategy for the LocalGov business unit.

• Provide leadership and oversight for all software development activities across eight product lines and approximately 40+ development professionals.

• Advance LocalGov's development teams along the Harris AI-SDLC maturity model - from AI-assisted work, to AI-directed work, to agentic delivery in which AI agents own bounded work end to end while engineers set goals, define guardrails, and review outcomes.

• Lead modernization efforts across IBM i, RPG, and modern technology platforms while preserving customer stability and business continuity.

• Establish engineering standards, development methodologies, and governance processes to improve quality, predictability, and delivery performance.

• Partner with Product Management, Client Services, Professional Services, Sales, and Business Unit leadership to align development priorities with customer and business needs.

• Develop and maintain multi-year product and technology roadmaps across the LocalGov portfolio.

• Build, develop, and mentor engineering leaders and technical teams while fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Oversee development capacity planning, resource allocation, and prioritization across competing initiatives and product lines.

• Use AI development tools personally and daily, and champion their use across the organization - including GitHub Copilot, Project Bob, large language models, and agentic coding tools - holding a current, practical command of what they can and cannot do rather than relying on secondhand reporting.

• Establish and monitor KPIs that measure outcomes rather than activity - cycle time, development throughput, escaped defect and escalation rates, delivery predictability, customer satisfaction, and development cost as a percentage of revenue - and report AI delivery maturity and the business outcomes it produces on a recurring executive cadence.

• Own the LocalGov AI delivery-maturity roadmap across all eight product lines, applied stage by stage across the software lifecycle rather than as a single business-unit rating, and deliver against the maturity targets agreed with executive leadership.

• Stand up the governance that makes delegated agent work safe, including review gates, validation, and security review of AI-generated code, with quality standards applied equally to human-written and AI-generated code.

• Make the LocalGov codebase and delivery pipeline accessible to AI agents through documentation, test coverage, CI/CD, and structured context.

• Apply AI directly to the IBM i and RPG estate - legacy code comprehension, documentation generation, and modernization analysis - as a primary mechanism for preserving knowledge held by an aging and retiring RPG skillset.

• Build the tooling and training program that moves engineers from AI-assisted work, to AI-directed work, to supervised agent execution, and give them the access and time to get there.

• Lead strategic modernization and transformation initiatives including cloud adoption, customer-facing AI solutions, and automation efforts.

• Ensure appropriate architecture, security, compliance, and technical governance practices are maintained across all products.

• Serve as the executive escalation point for critical development issues and strategic customer initiatives.

• Develop succession planning and knowledge preservation strategies for aging legacy technology skillsets.

• Manage OpEx Financial Forecast for R&D department to include monthly forecast updates, reporting on Monthly Business Unit Review Calls, & attendance/participation Annual Businesss Strategy Meeting.

• Attendance to key customer events in markets where large-scale development motions are occurring

• Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive software development leadership experience.

• 5+ years of experience leading managers, technical leaders, and software development teams within a multi-product software organization.

• Demonstrated experience leading software modernization initiatives involving both legacy and modern technology platforms.

• Experience managing geographically distributed development teams and cross-functional technical organizations.

• Strong understanding of software development lifecycles, Agile methodologies, and engineering best practices.

• Experience with enterprise software delivery, product strategy, and technical roadmap development.

• Proven ability to align technology investments and development priorities with business objectives and customer needs.

• Demonstrated experience driving organizational change and technology transformation initiatives.

• Experience implementing or leading AI-assisted development practices, automation initiatives, or engineering productivity improvements.

• Demonstrated hands-on use of AI development tools in daily work, with a clear point of view on where they help, where they fail, and how quickly that is changing.

• Experience raising an engineering organization's way of working from individual AI assistance toward agentic, human-on-the-loop delivery, including the governance and validation that makes it safe.

• Exceptional communication, organizational, stakeholder management, and executive leadership skills.

• Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with IBM i, AS400, RPG, COBOL, or legacy platform modernization initiatives.

• Experience with local government, public sector, ERP, tax, financial, records management, or government technology solutions.

• Experience with AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Project Bob, LLMs, or similar technologies.

• Experience establishing engineering KPIs, delivery metrics, and AI adoption measurement programs.

• Experience leading engineering organizations through large-scale modernization or digital transformation efforts.

• Familiarity with cloud technologies, APIs, automation frameworks, and modern application architectures.

• Experience building and scaling high-performing engineering teams across multiple product lines.

• Experience integrating AI into engineering workflows, customer solutions, or business operations.

• Experience with Jira, DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software delivery methodologies.

• MBA, advanced technical experience, or equivalent executive leadership experience preferred.

• Performance Measurement

Success in this role is measured on the following:

• AI-SDLC maturity: development teams advancing toward Level 3 of the Harris AI maturity model, measured stage by stage across the software lifecycle and by product line, rather than as a single business-unit rating.

• Team capability: a training and upskilling program in place and taken up, moving engineers from AI-assisted work, to AI-directed work, to supervised agent execution.

• Continuity and succession depth: no product line dependent on a single individual, with documented knowledge, cross-coverage between engineers, and succession identified for every critical technical role.

• Retention: key engineering talent retained across all eight product lines.

• Modernization progress: a published modernization plan covering the legacy IBM i, RPG, and COBOL estate, and demonstrated progress against it, with knowledge captured in durable documentation rather than individual memory.

• Financial performance: R&D spend held to plan, with demonstrable optimization of development cost against delivered output.

• Cross-functional standing: Product Management, Client Services, Professional Services, and Sales report a working, transparent relationship with R&D.

• Salary range: $125,000 - $135,000 USD per year.

• Abous Us

• At Harris, we believe great people build great software. We offer an environment where employees are empowered to make a real impact, grow their skills, and shape their careers. Our teams enjoy a supportive, award‑winning culture, a casual and collaborative workplace, and opportunities to learn from a diverse group of businesses and industries.

• We are financially strong and proudly part of Constellation Software Inc. (CSI), the largest software company in Canada, providing long‑term stability alongside entrepreneurial autonomy. In addition to a competitive compensation and benefits package, we offer meaningful perks, flexibility, and—most importantly—a culture that values people, curiosity, and having fun while doing great work.

• Follow us on LinkedIn to learn more about our culture, values, and career opportunities.

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• Equal Opportunity

• Harris is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender