Director of Software Engineering
NYC Criminal Justice Agency · Manhattan, NY
$155,000–$185,000from the description
Jul 27, 2026
Manhattan, NY
Jul 28, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A people-management role leading CJA's Software Engineering team in New York City, responsible for the full enterprise application portfolio from architecture through delivery and operations. The Director owns hiring, coaching, and performance management for internal engineers and external development partners, while staying technically engaged in system design, production troubleshooting, and platform modernization toward a cloud-native, Microsoft Azure-centered environment. Suits an experienced engineering leader who can balance strategic direction with hands-on technical credibility.
Senior level · 10+ years · New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 11,100 people in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (computer and information systems managers). range 6,700–16,700
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
What the occupation pays Median $220,035 (middle half $175,731–$291,850). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (6)
The posting requires 5+ years leading software engineering teams (hiring, coaching, performance management) — this is a genuine people-management role, making 11-3021 the primary classification. However, the JD strongly emphasizes retained technical depth (architecture, design reviews, code review, production troubleshooting), so 15-1252 is a meaningful runner-up.
Azure is listed under Minimum Qualifications as 'preferably Microsoft Azure' — the 'preferably' qualifier softens the specific platform but the broader cloud-platform requirement is a hard gate; Azure is marked required with AWS and GCP as alternatives.
Docker and Kubernetes appear in the Minimum Qualifications block ('such as Docker and Kubernetes'), making them hard gates despite the 'such as' qualifier.
C#/.NET, RESTful APIs, relational databases, and AI-assisted tools appear only under the 'Preferred Technical Experience' section and are therefore preferred.
The degree requirement states 'Bachelor's or Master's degree … or equivalent professional experience' — equivalent experience is explicitly accepted, so no minimum degree is hard-required.
The advertised title is 'Director,' which maps to Principal on the advertised seniority scale; however, the actual scope (leading one engineering team, reporting to an Executive Director) is consistent with a Senior-level management role rather than org-wide Principal authority.
Read the full posting
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