Thalamus is the market leader in graduate medical education recruitment technology, empowering over 8,000 residency and fellowship programs at 800+ health systems and all new physicians throughout the US annually. As we expand beyond GME into broader physician recruitment, our unique dataset—spanning the full profiles of residency/fellowship applicants and programs—positions us to revolutionize hiring in healthcare through AI/ML and data-driven insights. This furthers our mission to ensure the right doctor ends up at the right hospital to treat the right patients.
Our Core team makes this possible by building and maintaining the foundational systems that power Thalamus’s flagship application - from authentication and permissions to scheduling engines, video interviewing, service orchestration, and application workflows - ensuring every feature is built on a secure, reliable, and scalable foundation that supports our rapid growth and innovation across healthcare.
We are looking for a hands-on Director of Engineering who can lead by combining strategic direction with hands-on technical leadership. This is a player–coach role, ideal for a seasoned engineering leader who remains deeply involved in code, architecture, and delivery while scaling multiple teams. You'll evolve the core services that underpin our main product, mentor engineers, and drive team growth. You will oversee a multi-team organization, including two offshore engineering teams, to drive platform evolution and reliability that supports our rapid company growth.
What You Will Achieve- Lead and scale a team of engineers, including two offshore teams, supporting their development and career growth
- Set and maintain high standards for code quality, system design, and architectural decisions
- Serve as both strategic leader and hands-on technical contributor: architect key systems, contributing directly to planning, coding, reviews, and production support
- Define and execute the technical roadmap for Core Engineering, ensuring scalability, reliability, and alignment with company goals.
- Collaborate closely with other engineering team leads, product managers, and platform teams to deliver secure, scalable, and performant services
- Develop and mentor senior engineers to drive high performance and technical depth across the team.
- Ensure platform reliability, observability, and availability across core systems
- Own the operational health of core systems, driving improvements in uptime, performance, and cost efficiency. Help the team prioritize technical debt and evolve engineering practices
- Participate in hiring, onboarding, and cultivating a strong engineering culture
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 6+ years in a technical leadership or engineering management role, ideally in a high-growth or cross-functional environment
- Strong hands-on experience building frontend applications using Angular and TypeScript, and backend development with Node.js and .NET (strongly preferred)
- Track record of balancing strategic leadership with individual technical contribution in a startup or high-growth environment.
- Demonstrated success mentoring engineers, leading performance reviews, and supporting career development
- Familiarity with infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring tooling
- Demonstrated ability to lead Agile teams and implement effective SDLC practices
- Experience designing and building distributed systems, APIs, and core platform components
- Strong understanding of system design, performance optimization, and architectural trade-offs
- Familiarity with modern DevOps principles and managing applications in a cloud environment
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills; comfortable operating cross-functionally and influencing at all levels.
- Experience with service-oriented or event-driven architecture
- Prior experience in a startup or growth-stage environment
- Exposure to health tech, HR tech, or regulated domains
The salary range for this position is $220,000 - $250,000 and a grant of stock options. Final compensation will be determined based on experience, skills, and geographic location.
Thalamus is a mission-driven organization centered on the belief that our company should model what we want of the US healthcare system, that the diversity of providers aligns with patient populations. We believe this is best achieved by building a team with a diversity of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences, including “distance traveled.” Thalamus is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status (including registered domestic partnership status), sex and gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, and related medical conditions), gender identity and gender expression (including transgender individuals who are transitioning, have transitioned, or are perceived to be transitioning to the gender with which they identify), age, sexual orientation, Civil Air Patrol status, military and veteran status, and any other consideration protected by federal, state, or local law. We encourage those who really want to make an impact and who exemplify our core values to apply for our open positions.
Actual base salary offered will be determined by: experience, skills, and work location. This range is for base salary, our total compensation includes equity and benefits. We welcome you to apply even if your expectations are outside our listed range.
Thalamus is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures and throughout employment. If you need assistance or any accommodation, please let us know.
Thalamus does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies without a fully executed recruitment agreement in place. In the absence of such agreement, Thalamus reserves the right to pursue and hire any candidates without an obligation to pay fees. Agencies are requested not to contact Thalamus hiring managers or employees regarding recruiting services.
*This position is based in the United States, and you must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
Top Skills
What We Do
Founded in December of 2013 and based in Santa Clara, California, Thalamus is the premiere, web-based, digital interviewing software specifically designed for application to graduate medical education (GME) training programs. Created by an anesthesiology residency applicant (now resident) and anesthesiology residency program director, Thalamus provides a comprehensive online interview reservation and travel experience via a real-time scheduling system – online and mobile.
Whether on rounds in the hospital, studying for exams or traveling the country for interviews, residency and fellowship applicants may now instantaneously confirm their interview dates, take full control of their schedules and decrease their costs of travel.
For program administrators, Thalamus streamlines communication by allowing applicants to self-schedule interviews, thereby eliminating unnecessary phone calls and emails. Thalamus handles all of the confirmations, cancellations, and rescheduling, so administrators can focus on the “personal touch” and optimize resident recruitment.
