EM 6 - Director

I collaborate with leaders to drive strategic initiatives across teams, ensuring company-level impact. I structure and staff my team for success while proactively developing capabilities across my organization

As a Director of Software, you partner with leaders across the company to shape and drive strategic product and engineering initiatives across multiple teams, ensuring positive company-level results. You ensure your team is structured and staffed for success in delivering on product and project priorities. Additionally, you proactively grow the capabilities and capacity of your team and others at all levels.

Scope

Craft

You collaborate across departments to drive broad initiatives, translating strategic business goals into actionable product and technical strategies. You create roadmaps, set targets, and guide your teams to smooth delivery, all while fostering a culture aligned with company values. You align your team’s mission and priorities with company objectives for maximum ROI, initiate and plan key business initiatives, and proactively develop leaders and elevate team performance across the organization.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Direction	I contribute to and translate strategic business direction into product and technical strategy, plans and action. I take in business context as input to create roadmaps for your team. I set targets on initiatives for your groups to deliver against and help them avoid pitfalls along the way ensuring smooth delivery. I proactively iterate and improve my teams’ culture in accordance with WHOOPs core values.
Career	I proactively and broadly drive programs and initiatives to level up my team and others. I proactively grow leaders inside and outside of my department.
Alignment	I establish the mission and goals of my team in alignment with company priorities through collaboration with other departments I proactively participate in the initiation and planning of broader business level initiatives. I proactively align my team's priorities and projects for maximum business level ROI.
Execution	I lead the execution and delivery of multiple cross-departments concurrent engineering projects, schedules, budget and resource allocation. I define and implement product development platforms and processes I serve as an expert for Software regarding architecture, development, and product issues. I leverage my technical expertise to help drive technology choices and steward the quality of delivery. I ensure my organization is structured to execute on the demands of the business to maximize impact. I collaborate and drive across departments to plan, coordinate, and execute on broad initiatives.

Communication and Collaboration

You collaborate across departments to drive broad initiatives, acting as a key stakeholder to facilitate your team's delivery and cross-functional collaboration. You set clear targets, guide smooth execution, and translate strategic goals into actionable plans. You gather business requirements, work with partners to create execution plans, and communicate progress effectively to your team and senior leadership. By sharing key decisions and updates with clarity and accountability, you drive progress and maintain trusted advisor status at the company level, adapting your communication style to suit diverse audiences.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Teamwork	I provide technical design review feedback alongside my group leads and teams. I ensure product, design, and engineering alignment through collaboration. I collaborate across department lines to ensure the success of the business. I look for opportunities in which my groups can help other departments in their initiatives.
Accountability	I identify business initiatives that fall into my domain and work with stakeholders to take them on. I identify, escalate, and ensuring action is taken on departmental needs to senior leadership to enable the delivery of key results. I ensure my senior technical staff are strategically executing and aligned with business need.
Data Driven	I communicate externally the status of key performance indicators for my domain. I set goals for my groups that are measurable and attainable.
Culture	I relentlessly drive towards becoming a world-class engineering team. I ensure the integrity of engineering culture by upholding values of transparency, accountability, and inclusivity, creating a workplace where every team member feels valued, respected, and empowered to succeed.

Coaching & Mentorship

You maintain a high bar for quality across your domain, diving into lower-quality areas and coaching others to improve. You guide your organization in developing best practices and sharing them across the department. By empowering group leads and engineering managers, you coach their teams toward success and longevity. When tackling large initiatives or new challenges, you involve the right people, educational materials, and resources to support your team’s growth and experience.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Coaching	I Force multiply leaders by sharing my knowledge broadly across the department. I build leaders in Software and coach them to make tactical decisions autonomously.
Mentorship	I force multiply leaders by sharing knowledge broadly across the department. I mentor direct reports and skip levels to help uplevel my entire domain.
Company and Department Influence	I influence within and beyond Software with thought leadership in pursuit of becoming a world-class engineering department. I create opportunities for engineers to contribute to the external engineering brand.

Impact

You successfully achieve strategic objectives within Software, delivering impactful business results. You identify opportunities for innovation and productivity improvements, driving the adoption of new technologies and methodologies to enhance development practices. You foster a culture of strategic thinking and alignment, encouraging your team to contribute ideas and insights. By promoting emerging technologies and innovative practices, you drive continuous improvement and keep your software development processes at the forefront of industry trends.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Projects and Initiatives	I successfully land strategic objectives and initiatives within Software; delivering business results.
Productivity	I identify opportunities for innovation within existing processes and systems, driving adoption of new technologies and methodologies to improve software development practices. I identify opportunities to improve productivity within the software development process, such as streamlining workflows and optimizing resource allocation.
Adoption and Innovation	I foster a culture of strategic thinking and alignment within the software development team, encouraging team members to contribute ideas and insights. I promote the adoption of emerging technologies and innovative practices, driving continuous improvement and ensuring your software development processes remain at the forefront of industry trends.

Strategy

You set a broad vision, strategy, and goals for your organization to ensure long-term success in alignment with business direction. As a key contributor to Software’s vision and strategy, you provide input on technical direction and strategic initiatives, guiding execution through coaching. You assess the business landscape to determine the best structure for your teams and prioritize effectively to drive progress. You shape and structure your organization for efficient problem-solving with clear responsibilities, considering the state of the business to guide your teams toward future success.

Responsibility	Behaviors
Vision And Direction	I set broad vision, strategy, and goals for my organization to set up for long-term success in alignment with the business direction I am a key contributor to Software's vision and strategy I provide input on technical direction and strategic initiatives across the department, guiding execution through coaching. I look outward to the business to determine the best structure for your groups and important priorities to move the business forward
Organization	I shape and structure my organization to tackle business problems efficiently with clear areas of responsibilities.
Staying Nimble	I take into account the state of the business to better inform and guide my teams towards future success.

Moving to the EM 7 level

• Successfully operating at EM7 level for 24 months
• Begin to pull in external industry experience to help inform the business direction.
• Expand your scope from your groups to department scope providing input to the executive team.
• Show proficiency in managing multiple work streams and delivering impact on multiple fronts
• Start to propose strategy for the business with results that have a significant impact