Director of Engineering, Control Planes & Ecosystem
This is a high-stakes leadership role at the intersection of open-source innovation and enterprise infrastructure. You will lead the evolution of Crossplane and Upbound’s commercial offerings, ensuring they meet the demands of an AI-driven future. It is a rare opportunity to manage both a community-driven project and a scaling commercial marketplace.
Upbound
Seattle, Washington, United States · Posted 25 April 2026
The role
Overview
The hiring side
About Upbound
Upbound is a mid-sized employer working in cloud infrastructure & software development, based in Seattle, Washington, United States.
Cloud Infrastructure & Software Development
Medium
Seattle, Washington, United States
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Requirements & Skills
Key Responsibilities
- Define the long-term vision for hosted control planes and ecosystem extensibility
- Lead and mentor multiple engineering managers and their respective teams
- Oversee the Upbound Marketplace and the distribution of providers and extensions
- Strengthen relationships with ISVs, cloud providers, and platform partners
- Ensure the reliability and production-grade quality of all control plane services
- Drive cohesion across product APIs and user experiences
Essential
- Extensive experience leading and scaling multi-team engineering organizations
- Proven track record in managing engineering managers and senior individual contributors
- Deep understanding of control plane architecture and Kubernetes ecosystems
- Experience driving strategy for open-source projects and community engagement
- Ability to oversee the development of enterprise-grade software distributions
- Strong background in building and maintaining cloud provider integrations and extensions
Preferred
- Active involvement in CNCF projects or similar open-source governance
- Experience scaling a Series B startup through rapid growth phases
- Background in developing marketplace or distribution platforms for technical content
- Prior experience with Agentic AI or AI-native infrastructure
Key Skills
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People to Know
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Perks
Benefits & perks
- Opportunity to lead a category-defining CNCF project
- Backing from premier venture capital firms (GV, Intel Capital)
- Remote-friendly work environment
- Collaborative culture with industry-leading experts
- High-impact role with significant strategic autonomy
Next step
Apply now
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