Head of Engineering, ISM

Mood Media is seeking a hands-on Head of Engineering for In-Store Marketplace (ISM) who can inherit an existing engineering team stabilize and improve delivery and mature the platform into Moods broader operating model. The role is execution-first: product direction and platform strategy are set in partnership with Mood product leadership; this leader owns engineering execution operating cadence delivery quality capacity planning and cost-to-output improvement.

• Mood Media:The worlds leading experiential media company serving a global physical-world footprint through music messaging digital signage AV systems scent managed services creative content retail media advertising networks and platform technology.

• In-Store Marketplace (ISM):A Mood Media company and retail-media platform built to standardize and unify digital in-store media across audio and display inventory connecting retailer/RMN supply with demand-side advertisers agencies platforms ad servers and measurement partners.

• Engineering context:ISM is an existing platform and team that now needs clearer execution discipline better delivery predictability stronger production operations reduced key-person dependency and a scalable cost-effective delivery model.

• A practical Head of Engineering

• A team-in-transition leadership role: inherit stabilize document retain and improve the current team rather than rebuilding from scratch.

• An operating-model role: cadence release discipline support boundaries on-call/incident hygiene QA engineering metrics budget discipline and capacity planning.

• A business-unit engineering role: translate product priorities customer commitments ad-ops/support needs and executive tradeoffs into executable engineering plans.

• Own engineering execution for the ISM roadmap including sprint/release cadence sequencing dependencies delivery risks and cross-functional commitments.

• Run and mature the existing ISM engineering team preserving institutional knowledge while introducing clearer accountability role clarity and operating rhythm.

• Improve cost-to-output discipline through budget governance vendor and partner evaluation capacity planning and transparent tradeoff recommendations.

• Strengthen production operations: observability incident response on-call coverage release quality recurring-defect prevention and support escalation boundaries.

• Partner with product leadership sales account teams ad operations analytics support and executive stakeholders to translate commitments into realistic delivery plans and phased alternatives.

• Document domain knowledge platform assumptions integration boundaries release procedures decision history support playbooks and customer/retailer nuances to reduce key-person dependency.

• Assess architecture workflows APIs data/reporting pipelines campaign-management dependencies and technical debt enough to make sound sequencing and resourcing decisions.

• Coordinate with Mood platform and operations teams including relevant Harmony Unity customer operations analytics device/network and in-store media capabilities.

• Protect delivery focus by distinguishing product development from support patterns that should be operationalized automated or routed outside core engineering capacity.

• Communicate concise progress risks decisions cost/capacity tradeoffs and escalation needs to executive stakeholders with candor and context.

• 8 years of engineering platform SaaS ad-tech commerce-media martech digital signage IoT/device-fleet or enterprise-platform leadership experience.

• 35 years running an engineering organization of comparable scale roughly 1540 engineers or equivalent blended employee/contractor capacity.

• Demonstrated experience inheriting an existing team or platform and improving delivery predictability without defaulting to a rebuild.

• Hands-on operating discipline across backlog intake sprint/release planning milestone tracking incident response QA/release quality observability and engineering metrics.

• Experience operating within cost discipline: budgets headcount governance vendor/partner tradeoffs delivery cost per output and executive reporting against operating plans.

• Credible technical depth across cloud/platform architecture APIs data pipelines/reporting integration patterns production operations and technical-debt tradeoffs.

• Strong cross-functional execution with product support operations sales/account teams analytics ad operations and executive stakeholders.

• Low-ego high-ownership leadership style with the emotional intelligence to earn trust from an existing team while introducing accountability.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills especially concise executive updates and clear decision framing.

• Experience in PE-backed cost-disciplined carve-out integration or portfolio-company environments.

• Experience with retail media commerce media ad tech campaign workflow measurement/attribution digital signage in-store media DOOH/audio or distributed device/media platforms.

• Experience building scalable practices.

• Familiarity with DSP/SSP/ad-server integrations partner APIs campaign trafficking reporting pipelines or retailer/advertiser operating requirements.

• Midwest / Indianapolis / Fishers operating cadence capability during the transition period.

For further information about Mood Media please visit.

Mood Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment based on objective work-related criteria without discrimination based on age disability ethnic origin gender marital status race religion responsibility for dependents sexual orientation gender identity or other characteristics protected by applicable governing laws.