Director Engineering – Manufacturing (Hands-on AI Engineering Experience)

Company Description

IFS is a billion-dollar revenue company with 7000+ employees on all continents. Our leading AI technology is the backbone of our award-winning enterprise software solutions, enabling our customers to be their best when it really matters–at the Moment of Service™. Our commitment to internal AI adoption has allowed us to stay at the forefront of technological advancements, ensuring our colleagues can unlock their creativity and productivity, and our solutions are always cutting-edge.

At IFS, we’re flexible, we’re innovative, and we’re focused not only on how we can engage with our customers but on how we can make a real change and have a worldwide impact. We help solve some of society’s greatest challenges, fostering a better future through our agility, collaboration, and trust.

We celebrate diversity and understand our responsibility to reflect the diverse world we work in. We are committed to promoting an inclusive workforce that fully represents the many different cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints of our customers, our partners, and our communities. As a truly international company serving people from around the globe, we realize that our success is tantamount to the respect we have for those different points of view.

By joining our team, you will have the opportunity to be part of a global, diverse environment; you will be joining a winning team with a commitment to sustainability; and a company where we get things done so that you can make a positive impact on the world.

We’re looking for innovative and original thinkers to work in an environment where you can #MakeYourMoment so that we can help others make theirs. With the power of our AI-driven solutions, we empower our team to change the status quo and make a real difference.

If you want to change the status quo, we’ll help you make your moment. Join Team Purple. Join IFS.

Job Description

We are looking for an Engineering Leader to drive the operation of Manufacturing Product Development organization at IFS. This role combines strong people leadership, solid technical judgment, and deep collaboration with Product and Manufacturing domain stakeholders to deliver enterprise-grade solutions at scale.

This is a leadership role with hands-on technical expectations, appropriate to experience. You will lead one or more engineering teams, with scope aligned to your experience, demonstrated impact, and business needs. Regardless of scope, this is not a people-only management role — technical credibility and product understanding are essential.

AI is a core enabler in this role. You are expected to treat AI as a practical part of modern software delivery and product capability, helping teams use AI to improve engineering productivity and to deliver Manufacturing features that create real customer value.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and develop software engineers delivering Manufacturing product capabilities, remaining hands-on where this adds the most value.
• Own delivery outcomes across the full software lifecycle, balancing scope, quality, risk, and operational responsibility (“you build it, you run it”).
• Provide technical leadership through design reviews, architectural discussions, and hands-on guidance when needed
• Ensure high standards of engineering quality using modern practices:
  • CI/CD, automated testing, observability, secure coding
• Lead and continuously improve engineering execution across teams by applying Agile and iterative delivery principles, strengthening flow, predictability, and quality through data‑driven improvement and removal of systemic impediments
• Lead and drive practical adoption of AI-assisted engineering workflows across teams
• Contribute to or guide in the development of AI-enabled Manufacturing capabilities
• Work closely with Product Management, Architecture, and Manufacturing domain experts to turn business needs into scalable solutions

Manufacturing Domain Focus

Strong domain leadership across Manufacturing areas including (depth expected in at least one, with working knowledge across others):

• End-to-end Manufacturing lifecycle (Plan, Build, Quality, Maintain)
• Regulatory and industry-specific requirements
• Large-scale, multi-tenant, configurable Manufacturing solutions

Ability to align Manufacturing domain strategy with platform, data, and integration capabilities

AI Expectations

AI is expected to be embedded, responsible, and outcome driven.

You are expected to:

• Use AI-assisted development tools in your own work
• Enable teams to use AI to improve delivery speed, quality, and confidence
• Support the development and validation of AI-powered Manufacturing features where applicable
• Understand relevant AI integration patterns (e.g., RAG-based features, agent-assisted workflows, evaluation practices) at a level appropriate to your scope

This role requires AI fluency and sound engineering judgment.

Qualifications

Required Background

• Strong foundation in software engineering and enterprise application development
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing engineers
• Hands‑on familiarity with modern architectures, including cloud‑native services, APIs, CI/CD, and automated testing
• Ability to read, review, and reason about production code, operating comfortably at both code‑level and system‑level design
• Experience working closely with Product Management and business stakeholders
• Strong communication, coaching, and decision-making skills

Preferred Experience

• Manufacturing, ERP, or industrial enterprise software
• Large-scale, configurable, multi-tenant products
• AI-enabled features in enterprise software
• Customer-facing technical discussions in enterprise environments

What We’re Looking For

• You balance technical depth with people leadership
• You lead with context and trust, not control
• You care deeply about quality, maintainability, and customer impact
• You see AI as a practical accelerator, not a buzzword
• You optimize for long-term sustainable delivery
• You grow impact by enabling others

Additional Information

We embrace flexibility and hybrid work opportunities to support diverse needs and lifestyles, while also valuing inclusive workplace experiences. By fostering a sense of community, we drive innovation, strengthen connections, and nurture belonging. Our commitment ensures you can work in a way that suits you best, while also engaging with colleagues to share ideas and build meaningful relationships.