Director/Vice President of Software Engineering

Stronghold Investment Management ("Stronghold," "SIM," or "the Firm") is a technology-driven, vertically integrated investment manager focused on real-assets and related private markets. Stronghold seeks to deliver best-in-class risk-adjusted returns through an investment framework that features comparatively rapid transaction velocity, deep technical expertise, creative financial structuring, and objective and algorithmic decision making.

Stronghold was founded by Ryan Turner in 2016 and has deployed over $1.6 billion in capital across 10+ investment vehicles. 

Ultimately, Stronghold intends to apply its technology-intensive investment approach to a variety of specialist real assets verticals, including:

• Oil & Gas
• Renewables
• Specialty Real Estate (commercial, datacenters, marinas)
• Telecommunications and Technology Infrastructure
• Billboards and Fixtures
• Mining & other commodities
• Utilities
• Secondaries

Overview
We're seeking an experienced Director (or Vice President) of Software Engineering to lead our growing engineering organization. The ideal candidate will bring deep technical knowledge across multiple programming languages (Python, Java, Ruby on Rails, React) and a proven track record of managing high-performing, cross-functional software teams. This leader will be responsible for driving technical strategy, scaling the engineering team, and ensuring delivery of robust, scalable, and secure software products.

Core Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of software engineers across backend, frontend, and data disciplines with engineers located in both the United States and India.
• Oversee design, development, and deployment of large-scale, distributed systems using Python, Java, Ruby on Rails, and React.
• Partner with product and design leadership to define roadmap priorities and delivery timelines.
• Ensure adherence to engineering best practices, including code quality, testing, DevOps, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Implement scalable architecture and promote technical excellence across all engineering domains.
• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for team success and product reliability.
• Recruit, onboard, and retain top engineering talent.
• Collaborate with executive leadership to align technical direction with business goals.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 10 years in a leadership or management role overseeing multiple technical teams.
• Proven experience managing software engineering teams and delivering complex software systems in production environments.
• Expertise in software architecture, system design, and scaling applications for high availability and performance.
• Experience implementing agile methodologies, code reviews, and automated testing frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to manage budgets, project timelines, and cross-functional communication at the executive level.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and strategic thinking skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.
• Strong technical background in:
  • Backend: Python, Java, Ruby on Rails
  • Frontend: React, JavaScript, TypeScript
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure) and DevOps / deployment platforms (Heroku, Docker, CI/CD).
• Familiarity with data engineering, machine learning pipelines, and API-first architectures.
• Contributions to open-source projects or strong presence in the developer community.
• Experience with graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, Amazon Neptune, or similar).
• Industry experience in oil and gas, energy, or other asset-intensive sectors, with an understanding of domain-specific data and operational workflows.

Ideal Candidate Profile
A strategic engineering leader who combines deep technical expertise with strong people management skills. You're comfortable getting into technical discussions with senior engineers but equally skilled at communicating engineering strategy to executive leadership. You thrive on building high-performing teams, creating sustainable development practices, and delivering exceptional software.