Director / Senior Director, Platform Software Engineering

Nex · San Francisco

Software Engineeringposted 4mo ago

Nex is on a mission to help families rediscover the joy of movement. Created by parents for parents, Nex combines technology and play to deliver fun, social, and interactive experiences powered by natural body motion, encouraging kids and adults to move more, play more, and have fun together. Nex Playground, the company’s award-winning active play system, is purpose-built to get families moving year-round, with safety and privacy as core considerations in its intentional design. It is certified kidSAFE+ COPPA compliant and built to support healthy, active play for all ages and abilities.

Nex Playground features a growing library of 50+ experiences, including motion and dance games, fitness and educational experiences, and Nex Originals. Content includes collaborations with partners like Hasbro, Sesame Workshop, and NBCUniversal. Nex has been recognized by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, TIME’s Best Inventions, and Parents’ Best Entertainment System for Families, and has earned Red Dot, IDEA, and Core77 international design awards. We encourage you to explore Have Fun and Is Motion Gaming Back?, as they offer a deeper look into our culture, values, and explain how our approach to motion gaming differs from previous generations.

To protect yourself from recruitment scams, please note that Nex communicates through official company emails ending in @nex.inc. If you receive a suspicious email or message, please do not respond and report it immediately to us.

Location: Hong Kong
Report to: CTO

The Role

As Director / Senior Director of Platform Software Engineering, you will own the software platform that powers every Nex Playground in the world — from the moment a family unboxes the device through years of daily play. You will lead end‑to‑end across PlayOS (our Android‑based device OS) and cloud services: OS that gives hardware life, OTA updates that reach a growing global fleet, the Play Pass subscription engine, and the compliance infrastructure that lets us launch in new countries with confidence. You will drive architectural direction, set engineering standards, and grow a high‑performing team. You'll stay hands‑on when it counts most and know when to let your leaders lead.

The Mindset

First‑principles, customer‑obsessed, decisive. Perseveres to the highest standards and challenges assumptions. Resilient through production incidents, coachable at every level. Grows engineers into owners and leaders. Empathetic, leads with trust, gives tough feedback, builds a culture of accountability. Executes with discipline — insists on engineering excellence to deliver reliable, secure outcomes at scale.

Success Looks Like

Millions of Playgrounds worldwide, reliably updated over the air. PlayOS that delights families from first unbox through years of daily play — across every market Nex enters. Standards that let the team ship fast with confidence. Strong leaders in your team across device and cloud who own outcomes independently. The platform behind every game, every feature, every market launch.

Key Responsibilities

Platform & Team Leadership

Set platform software strategy in partnership with Product Design and company leadership
Build a high‑performing engineering team — raise the engineering bar, grow engineers into owners and develop strong leaders
Build Nex's in‑house platform engineering capability and DevOps practices, evolving from external partnerships to Nex‑led development

PlayOS Delivery

Implement OS platform roadmap — balancing new capabilities with system health, performance, security, and compliance
Guide the hardest trade‑offs across architecture, compatibility, and hardware integration
Drive international compliance — children's privacy (GDPR, COPPA) and localization for every new territory

Cloud & Services

Establish standards across cloud services, OTA pipelines, and the Play Pass subscription platform
Ensure reliability, security, privacy, and operational excellence as the fleet scales globally
Set high standards for observability, incident response, and continuous improvement

Must Have

Experience leading teams delivering operating systems and cloud services in production at scale
Proven people leadership: hires and builds high-performing teams, develops managers, and coaches individuals through clear feedback, growth plans, and high standards
Strong technical judgment across device software and cloud systems — hands‑on when it matters
Track record raising the bar on quality, reliability, security, privacy, and compliance
Significant flexibility working across global timezones

Nice to Have

Experience with subscription or commerce platforms
Familiarity with reliability practices (SLOs, observability, incident response)
Experience with consumer privacy regulations (GDPR, COPPA, or equivalent) in a shipped product
Experience with connected devices and fleets
Experience building products for kids or families
Experience with hardware‑software integration and lifecycle support

#LI-Onsite

We Offer

Competitive compensation package.
Flexible working hours and vacation policy.
Product-driven culture that treasures talents and individual growth.
Front-row seat and hands-on experience with cutting edge technologies in the evolving gaming field

Nex is located in San Jose, California, USA and Hong Kong. Learn more about us at nex.inc/who-we-are.

We encourage applications even if you don’t meet more than 50% of the requirements — we believe that experience comes in many forms!

Nex is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. This policy applies to all individuals at every stage of the employment relationship, including all current and prospective employees, and covers all employment decisions including recruitment, hiring, job assignment, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, discipline and termination.

We are committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and to fostering an inclusive environment for all employees.