Director of Engineering, Product Infrastructure and Release Engineering

Mechanical Orchard is reinventing how the world s most critical software gets modernized. We re an applied AI company focused on one of the hardest problems in enterprise technology: rewriting complex legacy systems in a way that is provably correct, low risk, and fast enough to matter. By focusing on system behavior rather than code alone, we turn modernization from a high-stakes, failure-prone effort into a repeatable, confidence-building process that unlocks ongoing innovation. Joining Mechanical Orchard means working on problems that truly matter-to our customers, their businesses, and the people who rely on these systems every day. We re building technology and methodology that challenge long-standing industry assumptions, prioritizing proof over promises and progress over theatrics. If you care deeply about quality, rigor, and doing the right thing-even when it s hard-you ll find your people here. Position Overview The Director of Product Infrastructure and Release Engineering is a senior leadership role responsible for the strategy, coherence, and execution of Mechanical Orchard s infrastructure and release capabilities-spanning infrastructure products, installation and deployment workflows, and operational enablement for customers and forward-deployed engineering teams. In this role you will: • Report to the VP of Engineering, providing strategic direction, product thinking, and cross-functional alignment across Platform, Forward-deployed Engineering, Sales, Security, and Product Management. • Manage the Product Infrastructure and Release Engineering teams. • Ensure that the Imogen Platform is not merely delivered, but designed as a scalable, repeatable, and evolving product surface that accelerates customer adoption and long-term platform success. • Ensure all of Imogen's components are released and deployable into a diverse set of customer environments, meeting the needs of enterprise customers (quality, software supply chain audits, and more). • Turn infrastructure into a first-class product capability: opinionated where possible, flexible where necessary, and aligned with Mechanical Orchard s modernization strategy and GTM motion. Key Responsibilities Infrastructure Product Strategy & Ownership • Own the end-to-end infrastructure product vision, including installers, deployment tooling, reference architectures, and operational patterns. • Define and evolve a cohesive infrastructure roadmap aligned with Platform architecture, customer needs, and GTM strategy. • Partner closely with Product Leadership to balance near-term customer needs with long-term platform scalability and repeatability. • Establish infrastructure as a product with clear value propositions, constraints, supported configurations, and lifecycle expectations. • Drive standardization where possible while enabling extensibility for complex enterprise environments Platform & Architecture Alignment • Define platform architecture and roadmap decisions to ensure deployability, operability, and customer-environment compatibility are first-class concerns. • Ensure infrastructure requirements are surfaced early in platform design discussions. • Champion architectural patterns that reduce installation complexity, operational burden, and long-term support cost. • Partner with Security and Compliance to ensure infrastructure designs meet enterprise and regulatory expectations. Execution & Operational Excellence • Partner with Infra Delivery Leadership to define installation and deployment strategy across customer and Mechanical Orchard environments. • Ensure installation processes are repeatable, measurable, and continuously improving, leveraging the latest advancements in AI to support execution • Build Mechanical Orchard s system for reliable software releases, by defining standards, providing tools, and establishing clear boundaries between the release engineering team and platform product teams. • Define and refine success metrics for infrastructure delivery into customer environments (e.g., time-to-install, failure rates, support load). • Ensure feedback from real-world deployments is systematically incorporated into infrastructure product evolution. GTM, Sales & Customer Enablement • Partner with Sales, Infra Delivery Leadership, and Product to ensure infrastructure capabilities are accurately represented in pre-sales and GTM motions. • Partner with Infra Delivery Leadership to define and maintain sales-enablement assets (reference architectures, deployment options, constraints, and expectations). • Serve as a senior technical partner during complex or high-risk sales pursuits. • Ensure infrastructure offerings align with pricing, packaging, and customer expectations. • Help shape GTM strategy around standard vs. custom infrastructure deployments. Ideal Candidate Profile • 10+ years of experience in infrastructure engineering, platform engineering, or developer tooling. • Proven track record building ...