### The Role
Planetary is looking for a Director of Engineering to lead our engineering
practice across a growing portfolio of client work. You'll be the person who
translates client goals into technical strategy, sets the architectural
foundation for each project, and makes sure the engineers executing that work
have the guidance and code review they need to deliver at a high level.
This is a senior, client-facing role with real ownership. You'll work
alongside our design and strategy leads at the start of engagements, drive
technical scoping and estimation, and stay hands-on through implementation.
You'll also be building the engineering culture at Planetary: setting
standards, mentoring the team, and helping us get better at what we do.
* * *
### About Planetary
Planetary builds industrial-strength systems for brands that can't afford to
fail. Our work spans consumer-facing websites, B2B web applications, and
everything in between.
We're a small, senior team. Projects typically involve close collaboration
between strategy, design, and engineering from day one. We move deliberately,
communicate directly, and take craft seriously. We started as a remote team
and have built our culture around that, with flexible hours, autonomy over
your time, and a real emphasis on work/life balance.
* * *
### What You'll Do
**Architecture and technical strategy**
* Translate client business requirements into technical recommendations, including architectural diagrams, stack decisions, and vendor evaluations
* Define and implement the core architectural patterns for new engagements to prepare for team-wide implementation
* Evaluate new tools and technologies and make recommendations that are stable, scalable, and consistent with Planetary's standards
* Estimate levels of effort for engineering work based on proposed solutions
**Client and project collaboration**
* Join discovery and scoping calls with clients and prospects to understand their needs and advise on technical direction
* Communicate technical decisions clearly to non-technical stakeholders
* Collaborate with project managers, designers, and strategists to ensure technical constraints and opportunities are factored into project planning early
**Engineering leadership**
* Review code across client projects, providing specific and actionable feedback
* Mentor engineers on the team, identifying growth areas and helping them work through implementation challenges
* Define and maintain engineering best practices, documentation standards, and quality benchmarks for the team
* * *
### What You'll Bring
**Required**
* 10 or more years of professional engineering experience, with significant time in an agency or similarly fast-paced, multi-client environment
* Deep expertise with Vercel, Next.js, and Sanity CMS
* Experience managing and mentoring a team of five or more engineers
* A track record of architecting and shipping complex web projects from scratch
* Strong communication skills, including experience presenting to clients or stakeholders
**Strong fit if you also**
* Have experience with full-stack development and are comfortable working across the entire project surface when needed
* Have a sharp eye for UI detail even though design is not your primary discipline
* Are actively curious about emerging tools and willing to evaluate them rigorously before recommending them
* Have a working relationship with AI coding tools and a clear point of view on where they raise the quality bar and where they need to be kept on a short leash
**Location:** Must be based within the continental United States.
* * *
### What Success Looks Like
In the first few months, you've gotten oriented across our active client work,
established a clear point of view on what we're doing well and where there are
gaps, and started building trust with the team and with clients.
Over time, success looks like clients who feel confident in our technical
direction, engineers who are growing and producing higher-quality work, and a
Planetary engineering practice with documented standards that don't depend on
any single person to enforce them.
* * *
### Benefits
* Medical, dental, and vision coverage for full-time employees
* 4 weeks of paid time off per year, plus holidays including 2 weeks at the end of the year
* One-time remote work stipend to set up a comfortable working environment
* Flexible hours and full remote autonomy
* Annual performance bonus eligible, targeting 10–15% of base salary, tied to company revenue performance and role-specific goals set at the start of each year.
* * *
### To Apply
Send a concise email to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
Include links to your LinkedIn, GitHub, and any portfolio or examples of past
work. In your email, briefly cover your past development and management
experience, a library or tool that has shaped how you think about engineering,
and one project that pushed you technically.