Sr. Director, Engineering (Shared Services)

About Backblaze

Backblaze is the object storage leader in the open cloud movement, fueling customer success with cloud storage built purposefully to unlock budgets, unburden administrators, and unleash innovators. Together with our partners, we’re helping customers break free from the restrictive, overpriced legacy solutions that hold them back, and blaze forward with the full power of the open cloud in their hands.

Founded in 2007, we scaled the business with less than $3 million in outside funding until 2021, when we did a traditional IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Today, Backblaze generates over $100m in revenue and is the leading specialized storage cloud - managing over three billion gigabytes of data storage for 500K+ customers in 175+ countries, including businesses, developers, IT professionals, and individuals.

But while there is a lot to celebrate in our past, there is almost as much opportunity ahead of us. We are seeking a Sr. Director, Engineering - Shared Services to join our team!

Role Summary

Reporting directly to the SVP, Engineering, the Sr. Director, Engineering - Shared Services will serve as a pivotal operational leader within the engineering organization. This executive will oversee Quality Engineering, Data Engineering, and the Project Management Office, acting as a catalyst for operational excellence for the broader technical team. This role blends strategic vision with hands-on leadership, responsible for executing the operational rigor and modernization necessary to support the company's long-term technical plans.

A central component of this role involves leading the internal aspects of Backblaze’s AI strategy. This leader will ensure the company is leveraging AI internally to enhance development and optimize day-to-day operations. By fostering a culture of innovation and velocity, this Director will transform traditional testing, data management, and project management methods into modern, automated pipelines. The ideal candidate combines operational rigor and servant leadership, bringing experience scaling teams in growth environments and delivering meaningful value through internal technology and process improvements.

Priorities

• Lead Quality Engineering & Automation: Spearhead the strategy for a modern Quality Engineering organization. Transition the team toward a heavy focus on automated testing and continuous integration to ensure appropriate levels of robustness without sacrificing speed.
• Modernize Data Engineering & Infrastructure: Lead the Data Engineering function to build and maintain scalable data pipelines, warehousing, and governance frameworks. Ensure data is accessible, reliable, and actionable to support business intelligence and cross-functional decision-making.
• Operationalize AI in Quality: Guide the development and application of AI/ML tools directly into quality operations. Transform testing by leveraging AI for generation and anomaly detection, ensuring Backblaze is leading - not following - the AI curve in its internal processes.
• Drive Internal AI Transformation: Spearhead the evolution of internal workflows by integrating AI tools into the Project Management Office and general engineering practices to increase efficiency and reduce toil.
• Elevate the PMO: Oversee the Project Management Office to drive predictability and alignment across complex engineering initiatives. Ensure the PMO acts as an enabler of velocity rather than a bottleneck.
• Scale Organizational Capability: Recruit, develop, and mentor a diverse and high-performing technical leadership team within Shared Services that can drive large, complex new initiatives.
• Collaborate Across the Business: Partner with peers in Product, Cloud Operations, and other functional areas to align quality standards, data availability, and project delivery with customer and commercial outcomes.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate for the Sr. Director, Engineering - Shared Services is a transformative technology leader with deep experience in modernizing engineering workflows. They are a hands-on, servant leader who blends technical depth in automation and data architecture with the business acumen required to run an efficient PMO. This leader is capable of architecting AI-forward systems specifically for internal tooling, data infrastructure, and quality assurance while preserving customer trust. They have a proven track record of leading distributed teams and driving the evolution of legacy processes into modern, automated pipelines. They are energized by the opportunity to build high-performing, inclusive cultures that balance innovation with the reliability required of a mission-critical storage platform.

Leadership Skills

• Engineering & Operations Leadership (10+ years): Significant leadership experience in scale-up or mid-to-large tech environments, with specific focus on Quality Engineering, Data Engineering, Release Management, or Shared Services.
• Data Strategy & Infrastructure: Experience leading data engineering teams, with a strong grasp of modern data stacks, ETL/ELT pipelines, and data governance needed to support AI and analytics.
• Automated Testing Strategy: Proven expertise in shifting quality organizations from manual to automated frameworks. Deep technical understanding of CI/CD pipelines and modern testing infrastructure.
• AI/ML Strategy and Delivery: Experience building and scaling AI/ML initiatives within internal operations to deliver measurable value.
• Program Management Leadership: Experience overseeing a Project Management Office (PMO) or Technical Program Management (TPM) function, ensuring projects are delivered with clarity and predictability.
• Global and Distributed Team Leadership: Successfully built and led high-performing, distributed teams across geographies with emotional intelligence and cultural fluency.
• Stakeholder Communication: Ability to communicate complex data regarding quality and project health clearly to executive peers and partners. Builds alignment through clarity.
• Change Management: Experience leading teams through technical modernization and cultural transformation, specifically regarding the adoption of new AI tools and agile methodologies.

Personal Characteristics and Values

• Mission-Driven, Customer-Focused: Aligned with Backblaze’s purpose. Prioritizes customer trust by ensuring that quality and reliability are never compromised for speed.
• Servant Leadership: Leads with humility and empathy. Invests in talent and builds inclusive, psychologically safe environments for QE, Data, and PMO staff.
• High Integrity, High Accountability: Consistent and transparent regarding project risks and quality metrics. Embraces feedback and leads by example.
• Strategic and Practical: Connects the long-term vision of AI transformation to near-term execution in testing, data availability, and project tracking.
• Curious and Learning-Oriented: Stays current on emerging technologies, particularly in AI, infrastructure, and leadership practices to keep the shared services team on the cutting edge.
• Technically Hands-On: Engaged with the work. Capable of diving into test automation strategies, data architecture discussions, or AI tool selection to support the team.