At Insomnia Cookies, we believe warm cookies and tech go hand in hand. As we continue to expand our late-night empire, our digital platforms are key to delivering exceptional guest experiences-from craveable online ordering to smooth in-store systems. We're seeking a Director of Engineering to lead the talented team behind our web and mobile applications and scale our architecture for the next chapter of growth.
The Director of Engineering is a hands-on leader who will shape the future of Insomnia's digital experience. You'll lead the engineering teams behind our ecommerce, loyalty, and store technologies, setting a high bar for both team performance and technical quality. You'll operate as a force multiplier-removing roadblocks, coaching talent, guiding architectural decisions, and pushing the boundaries of modern engineering practices, including AI-augmented development.
Reporting to the VP of Digital Product & Development, the Director will manage a team of three Full Stack Engineering Leads, and indirectly oversee engineers across multiple scrum teams. This is a hands-on leadership role where technical excellence, people development, and executional clarity are key. You'll help set and uphold best practices, modern development standards, and ensure delivery of high-quality, scalable, and secure software.
Sweet Position Perks:
* 4 day work week!! (yupp, we get every Friday off)
* A competitive base salary plus annual bonus compensation package
* A relocation package to assist in moving to the Greater Philadelphia area
* Eligibility for our Long-Term Incentive Program
* Excellent comprehensive benefits coverage that includes medical, dental, vision & pet insurance plans
* 401K with contribution match
* 3 weeks paid vacation plus 2 paid Insomnia personal wellness days
* Relaxed, fun, come as you are office culture
* Free cookies, branded swag and so much more!
Job Responsibilities:
* Leadership & Team Management
* Lead, coach, and grow a team of engineering leads and their direct reports, creating an environment of accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning
* Cultivate an engineering culture focused on innovation, speed, and quality-balancing long-term architecture with near-term delivery
* Own the technical rhythm of the team: rituals, code quality, reviews, standups, and release cadence
* Encourage experimentation and exploration of emerging technologies, including AI tooling, to improve developer velocity and product performance
* Establish and maintain engineering best practices, code quality standards, and architectural consistency across teams
* Partner with the VP of Digital Product & Development to ensure seamless execution of the product roadmap and sprint planning
* Champion agile methodologies, promote cross-functional collaboration, and streamline development operations
Engineering Oversight
* Lead development across the full stack (ReactJS, PHP/Laravel, MySQL) with deep involvement in architecture, performance optimization, and scaling
* Evaluate and implement modern tooling, patterns, and frameworks to keep our platform cutting-edge, including cloud infrastructure improvements, system integrations, and CI/CD enhancements
* Drive adoption of developer productivity tools and testing automation to reduce friction and improve release confidence
* Oversee code reviews, release cycles, testing coverage, and post-release monitoring to uphold high quality and reliability
Strategic Planning & Execution
* Contribute to the technology strategy and participate in long-term planning with product, design, and data teams
* Identify areas for innovation and optimization across frontend, backend, APIs, and infrastructure
* Actively collaborate on platform modernization and refactoring initiatives that improve performance and reduce technical debt
* Stay ahead of trends in software engineering and propose new methods to boost reliability, speed, and team effectiveness
Mentorship & Culture
* Build a healthy engineering culture grounded in transparency, innovation, and ownership
* Provide career development support and mentorship to engineers and leads
* Champion inclusivity and diversity within the engineering team
Tech Stack You'll Be Working With:
* Frontend: ReactJS, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript
* Backend: PHP/Laravel, RESTful APIs, GraphQL (plus!)
* Database: MySQL (bonus if experience with Postgres)
* Tooling: Git, CI/CD pipelines, Agile project management tools (JIRA, Azure Boards, etc.)
* Testing: Unit and integration testing frameworks
* Other: ORM frameworks (Eloquent, Django, Active Record), experience with cloud infrastructure and DevOps pipelines preferred
* Open to exploring new stacks and tools where they provide meaningful business or developer productivity gains
Desired Skills & Qualifications:
* 7+ years in full-stack development with increasing levels of responsibility; 2+ years in people leadership, ideally in fast-paced or high-growth environments
* Comfortable rolling up your sleeves while mentoring others and setting standards for technical excellence
* Strong proficiency in full-stack web development, especially with ReactJS and PHP/Laravel
* Proven experience managing, mentoring, and scaling engineering teams
* Deep understanding of modern engineering principles, including object-oriented programming, testing strategies, and agile development
* Familiarity with tools or approaches that enhance developer efficiency-whether through AI copilots, DevOps automation, or architectural simplification
* Excellent communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders
* Track record of launching and scaling digital products, especially in ecommerce or omnichannel consumer brands
* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent work experience)