Director, Immigration Engineer

**The Opportunity**

The Immigration Hemispheric Migration team seeks to advance humane, practical migration solutions that respect the dignity of migrants and acknowledge the variety of forces - including climate change - influencing decisions to migrate. We recognize that irregular migration poses challenges to sending, transit, and receiving countries, and we seek to promote and help implement regional and sub-regional frameworks for managing migration that expand safe, legal migration pathways and help stabilize and integrate migrant populations in major Latin American host countries.

This role will jointly work with the Immigration Hemispheric Migration team and the Technology team. The Technology team consists of software engineers, data scientists, and product managers spanning new product development, engineering, data science, and information technology. The team’s mission is to use technology and data to amplify the impact of the Collective and our partners to accelerate change - to do that, we often build products, in collaboration with partners in the field. We look for opportunities to make change using technology. And we act as advisors for the Collective and our partners.

The Director, Immigration Engineer is a technology leader, advisor, and partner who will leverage their expertise to enhance the US and regional migration management systems’ effectiveness and efficiency. In this role, you will work closely with our immigration team and build trusted relationships with governments, international organizations, the private sector, academia and non-governmental organizations, and other actors to provide strategic guidance on how to use data and technology to improve coordination and scale migration-related responses. Additionally, you will collaborate with our immigration product manager, data scientist, and software developers to build and deploy migration-related products and services. This position requires a hands-on contributor with a deep understanding of how to build and implement technologies impacting migration systems in the Americas.

**Role and Responsibilities**:

- _ Tech Leader and Advisor:_ Partner with our Immigration’s Hemispheric team to leverage our understanding of migration systems and technologies to (1) advise governments, international organizations and agencies, the private sector, and other actors on utilizing tech and data effectively, (2) act as a liaison between EC and external partners, and (3) help implement technological solutions that improve accessibility and responsiveness as well as facilitate the development of migration-related responses at scale. This includes analyzing existing products and code, identifying key opportunities for improvement, recommending optimal technological solutions, and helping implement them to ensure that the development of technology improves migration management and treats people fairly and humanely.
- _ Product and Engineering Leader:_ Work with product managers, engineers, data scientists, and UX/UI designers to identify, design, develop, and launch migration products that deliver maximum value while measuring key success metrics. Collaborate with the immigration team to support the delivery of objective and key results (OKRs) associated with EC’s migration goals.
- _ Drive talent acquisition:_ Support our Head of Engineering and help manage engineers and consultants to deliver quality technology services.
- _ Evangelize human-centered technology:_ Stay informed about the latest trends and uses of technology in the migration sector in the US and the Americas. Present and report on technology best practices to inspire innovative approaches to support overhauling the US immigration system.

**Qualifications, Skills, and Requirements**:

- 10+ years of experience as a technical leader, working within scalable infrastructure.
- Familiarity with the Americas’ dynamics, migration context, and government service delivery.
- Passionate, knowledgeable, and eager to continue to learn about building technology and leveraging data to advance migration management strategies.
- Insatiable desire and belief that tech and data can contribute to positive change with the perseverance to guide innovation in the field.
- Extensive technical experience across the entire product lifecycle from prototyping to post-launch maintenance and re-architecting.
- Strong English and Spanish verbal and written ability to communicate and present concisely and persuasively to technical and non-technical audiences at every level; within EC, at the executive level, and with external partners.
- Detail-oriented with outstanding organizational skills with the ability to balance multiple projects and deadlines.
- Familiarity and flexibility with working across multiple time zones.
- Travel required up to 25%.

**Location**

Emerson Collective is a Bay Area-based organization with offices in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles,