Director, Engineering (AI Patient Engagement Platform)

About Care Access
Care Access is working to make the future of health better for all. With hundreds of research locations, mobile clinics, and clinicians across the globe, we bring world-class research and health services directly to communities that often face barriers to care. We are dedicated to ensuring that every person has the opportunity to understand their health, access the care they need, and contribute to the medical breakthroughs of tomorrow.
With programs like Future of Medicine, which makes advanced health screenings and research opportunities accessible to communities worldwide, and Difference Makers, which supports local leaders to expand their community health and wellbeing efforts, we put people at the heart of medical progress. Through partnerships, technology, and perseverance, we are reimagining how clinical research and health services reach the world. Together, we are building a future of health that is better and more accessible for all.
To learn more about Care Access, visit www.CareAccess.com.
How This Role Makes a Difference
As the Director of Engineering, you are someone who deeply cares about your team and the success of those around you. You are an experienced leader and manager with a strong background in SaaS-based product organizations, and you were once a developer yourself. You can hold your own in technical conversations without needing to write software daily. You take a servant-leadership approach to management, waking up every day to elevate your team and organization. You shine as a collaborator, are an impeccable communicator, and bring an energetic passion for learning and applying new technical paradigms.
In clinical trials, research site staff spend countless hours on manual, repetitive administrative tasks—chasing phone calls, answering basic questions, coordinating schedules, and running routine prescreening surveys.
You will lead the engineering organization building our AI Patient Engagement Agent—one of our newest and most transformative product initiatives. This team is engineering an intelligent, voice- and messaging-capable AI agent designed to handle standardized patient interactions, drive recruitment, manage appointments, and automate prescreening outreach at global scale.
The mission of this team is to eliminate operational friction and give hours back to clinical research staff so they can focus on high-value human care and medical decisions.
Please note that this position is hybrid role from the following location only: Boston, MA
This role requires one day per week in the Boston office.
How You'll Make An Impact
Configurable Conversational Workflows: Building dynamic, script-driven conversation engines that can be customized across diverse clinical trials and tailored to distinct patient needs while guiding users toward interaction goals.
Intelligent Logistics & Orchestration Engine: Engineering a resilient task engine that balances multi-factor variables—patient “safe-call” windows, local time zones, call-center operational hours, outcome tracking, and adaptive retry policies to maximize reach while maintaining strict best practices.
Delivery & Roadmap Execution: Own the execution of the AI Patient Engagement engineering roadmap. Partner with Product and Design to translate complex trial protocols into intuitive AI interaction workflows and deliver reliable, high-impact software.
Hands-on Architectural Guidance: Participate in architectural design reviews for real-time voice, messaging, workflow orchestration, and data pipeline engines. Ensure the team builds a resilient, highly available platform that scales without taking on technical debt.
Sprint & Capacity Management: Balance feature delivery with platform stability, managing team capacity, resource allocation, and technical debt to keep patient outreach timelines on track.
Agile Process Optimization: Refine agile ceremonies and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices for your team. Eliminate operational roadblocks to foster a high-velocity shipping cadence.
Line Management & Mentorship: Directly manage, mentor, and grow Engineering Managers and Tech Leads. Conduct regular 1-on-1s, build career growth trajectories, and recruit top engineering talent to expand the team.
Team Health & Culture: Foster an inclusive, high-accountability environment where engineers are empowered, aligned, and motivated by the real-world healthcare impact of their work.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Serve as the technical point of contact across departments. Translate complex AI, telemetry, and platform concepts into clear operational updates for executive leadership and non-technical partners.
The Expertise Required
People Leadership: Proven experience as a “manager of managers,” directly leading, coaching, and developing Engineering Managers and Technical Leads.
Technical Breadth: Strong background in scalable cloud architecture, event-driven systems, API-first SaaS platforms, or workflow automation engines.
Execution Track Record: Demonstrated ability to own and ship complex, data-intensive, or automation-heavy products on time.
Operational Expertise: Deep proficiency in Agile/Scrum methodologies, sprint planning, and modern CI/CD practices.
Architectural Oversight: Active engagement in technical design reviews to guarantee platform durability, security, and scalability.
Communication Skills: Exceptional ability to articulate technical strategies, risks, and trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders and leadership.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience or strong interest in conversational systems, telephony infrastructure (voice/SMS integrations), or AI/automation workflows.
Prior experience working within HealthTech, Biotech, Clinical Trials, or Life Sciences (or another highly regulated domain with strict data privacy requirements).
Certifications/Licenses, Education, and Experience
Minimum Education
BA or BS degree from college or university.
Minimum Experience
7+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 3+ years successfully managing engineering teams.
How We Work Together
Location: Hybrid within the United States. This role requires work to be performed in a remote office environment.
Travel: Occasional planned travel