Director, Platform Engineering

Director, Platform Engineering & Reliability

The Director, Platform Engineering & Reliability is responsible for leading the engineering, delivery, reliability, and quality functions that support Dave & Buster's enterprise technology platforms.

This role provides strategic and operational leadership for Platform Engineering, Integration Engineering, DevSecOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Quality Engineering. The Director will establish engineering standards, modern software delivery practices, operational reliability frameworks, and platform modernization strategies that improve engineering velocity, system reliability, and business agility.

The Director will serve as a key technology leader within the Enterprise Architecture, Platforms & Engineering organization and will partner closely with Architecture, Infrastructure Operations, Enterprise Applications, Security, and Business stakeholders to deliver scalable, secure, and resilient technology solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise software engineering teams responsible for backend platforms, integrations, APIs, and enterprise applications.
• Establish engineering strategy aligned with business and technology objectives.
• Develop engineering roadmaps that support platform modernization efforts.
• Drive adoption of modern engineering practices and cloud-native design patterns.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Establish scalable platform engineering capabilities supporting enterprise systems.
• Lead modernization of integration and backend technology platforms.
• Define standards for APIs, integration frameworks, microservices, and shared services.
• Promote reuse and platform-based delivery models.
• Drive enterprise CI/CD strategy and implementation.
• Establish Infrastructure as Code standards and automation practices.
• Integrate security controls into delivery pipelines.
• Improve deployment frequency, reliability, and developer productivity.
• Partner with Security and Architecture teams to ensure secure-by-design delivery practices.
• Establish reliability engineering practices across enterprise platforms.
• Define and manage service level objectives (SLOs) and service level indicators (SLIs).
• Lead observability, monitoring, and operational excellence programs.
• Improve incident response, recovery, and operational resiliency.
• Drive platform performance, scalability, and availability improvements.
• Establish a modern quality engineering strategy.
• Drive automated testing, release validation, and quality metrics.
• Implement shift-left testing practices across engineering teams.
• Ensure quality processes scale with increased engineering velocity and AI-assisted development.
• Identify opportunities to utilize AI and automation to improve engineering productivity.
• Establish standards and governance for AI-assisted software development.
• Evaluate emerging developer tools and engineering acceleration technologies.
• Partner with Architecture and AI Enablement to modernize engineering practices.
• Recruit, develop, and retain high-performing engineering talent.
• Provide mentoring and career development for engineering leaders and individual contributors.
• Build succession plans for key technical roles.
• Drive organizational alignment across engineering, architecture, infrastructure, and operations teams.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, platform engineering, or technology leadership.
• 5+ years of experience leading engineering organizations.
• Experience managing engineering managers and technical leads.
• Strong experience with cloud platforms, preferably Azure.
• Strong background in software architecture and enterprise integrations.
• Experience implementing DevSecOps practices and CI/CD automation.
• Experience with reliability engineering, production operations, and observability platforms.
• Experience leading large technology modernization programs.
• Proven ability to influence executive stakeholders and drive organizational change.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a distributed restaurant, retail, or entertainment environment.
• Experience with Azure DevOps, GitHub Enterprise, GitHub Actions, or similar CI/CD platforms.
• Experience with API management and integration platforms.
• Experience leading Platform Engineering organizations.
• Experience implementing SRE practices and reliability frameworks.
• Experience supporting enterprise-scale distributed applications.
• Experience leveraging AI and automation to improve engineering productivity.
• Experience in hospitality, entertainment, retail, or consumer-facing digital organizations.
• Previous experience leading cloud modernization initiatives.

What's in it for me?

Dave & Buster's / Main Event is an imaginative and dynamic company dedicated to creating innovative entertainment experiences that bring joy, laughter, and excitement to people of all ages. Our mission is to foster a culture of fun and creativity, and we take pride in our commitment to delivering memorable and unique entertainment solutions.

• Exclusive discounts on food and games at D&B & Main Event.
• Paid Time Off (PTO) that increases with tenure.
• 11 Company Holidays (Including your Birthday) & 2 Floating Holidays per year.
• Medical, dental, vision and voluntary benefits Part Time/Full Time benefits available
• Sub Benefits: Livongo, SurgeryPlus, and Telehealth benefits
• 401k with company match following 6 months of employment.
• Buster's Legacy Fund (Support Team Members during difficult Times)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Offerings.
• Work out facility on-site.
• Employee Power Card | Free Video Games.

We work hard, play hard and have FUN!

Salary Range: 143100 - 200000

We are an equal opportunity employer and participate in E-Verify in states where required.