EY Parthenon - Strategy and Execution - Growth Platforms - Software Engineering - Director

The opportunity

EY-Parthenon’s unique combination of transformative strategy, transactions and corporate finance delivers real-world value – solutions that work in practice, not just on paper. Benefiting from EY’s full spectrum of services, we’ve reimagined strategic consulting to work in a world of increasing complexity.

With deep functional and sector expertise, paired with innovative AI-powered technology and an investor mindset, we partner with CEOs, Boards, Private Equity and Governments every step of the way – enabling you to shape your future with confidence.

Within EY-Parthenon, the Growth Platforms team focuses on building durable technology and AI capabilities that power long-term enterprise growth. The Software Engineering Director for AI Tooling plays a pivotal role in translating strategy into execution—designing and scaling modern software platforms, AI-enabled tools, and internal products that create measurable value for Fortune 500 and growth-stage clients alike.

This role sits at the intersection of engineering excellence, applied AI, and business impact—partnering closely with executives, product leaders, and multidisciplinary teams to deliver systems that can be adopted, trusted, and scaled.

Your key responsibilities

As a Software Engineering Director, you will lead the design and delivery of production-grade software systems and AI-enabled tooling that underpin high-visibility client engagements and internal platforms. You will own architectural decisions, development standards, and technical direction across multiple workstreams.

Key responsibilities include:

• Architect, build, and scale core software platforms that integrate data, AI services, and user-facing applications.
• Lead the development of AI-powered tools, including decision support systems, copilots, internal developer tools, and domain-specific agents.
• Design and maintain robust service architectures (APIs, event-driven systems, batch and real-time pipelines) optimized for reliability, security, and extensibility.
• Establish engineering best practices across code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, and performance.
• Collaborate with AI/ML engineers to productionize models and agents, ensuring seamless integration into real-world workflows.
• Partner directly with business leaders and C-suite executives to translate strategic objectives into scalable technical solutions.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leads, fostering a culture of ownership, craftsmanship, and continuous improvement.

Skills and attributes for success

Successful candidates will bring strong engineering judgment, fluency in modern AI tooling, and the ability to operate comfortably across strategy and execution.

You will be expected to:

• Lead development of backend and full-stack systems using modern languages and frameworks (e.g., Python, Java, Scala, TypeScript).
• Design and manage cloud-native architectures on platforms such as AWS or GCP, using containerization and infrastructure-as-code.
• Build AI-ready application layers that integrate LLMs, retrieval systems, vector databases, and model orchestration frameworks.
• Develop internal tooling and developer platforms that improve velocity, reliability, and reuse across teams.
• Define and enforce standards for security, privacy, reliability, and compliance (e.g., SOC2, HIPAA, enterprise governance).
• Translate ambiguous business problems into concrete system designs and incremental delivery plans.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders.

To qualify for the role, you must have

• A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field and 5+ years of professional engineering experience; or A graduate degree and approximately 3+ years of relevant experience.
• Demonstrated experience in senior software engineering, platform engineering, or technical leadership roles.
• Strong proficiency in modern software development practices, including APIs, distributed systems, and cloud services.
• Hands-on experience deploying AI-enabled applications or tooling into production environments.
• Comfort operating in fast-paced, client-facing environments with evolving requirements.
• You must either reside in or be in a commutable distance to your office location for this position.
• The ability and willingness to travel and work in excess of standard hours when necessary. In certain circumstances, travel may be required beyond your work location based on client and project needs.

Ideally, you will have

• Experience working in management consulting, product-led organizations, or high-growth startups.
• Familiarity with modern AI ecosystems, including LLM frameworks, agent architectures, and prompt/tool orchestration.
• A strong product mindset—understanding not just how to build systems, but how they will be adopted and sustained.
• Knowledge of how to leverage firm-approved AI tools in a business setting, including Microsoft Copilot.

What we look for

We are looking for candidates who have a strong aptitude for quantitative and qualitative analysis and the ability to link business strategy to performance. Being a strong team player is critical with the ability to adapt to changing requirements or deadlines in support of our clients’ goals.