Senior Vice President of Engineering

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Virginia.

📋 Description

• Oversee the entire engineering organization at Koalafi, which encompasses Consumer and Merchant Experience, Core Engineering, Application Experience, Data & AI Platform, and Architecture.

• Collaborate with the Chief Product and Technology Officer and the Head of Product to define engineering direction and align company priorities with execution.

• Take ownership of the engineering strategy, investment priorities, execution plans, risk management, and necessary corrective actions.

• Establish partnerships across various functions including Product, Risk, Operations, Finance, Sales, IT, Information Security, and others.

• Link technical decisions to growth, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and risk management.

• Provide guidance on applications, core services, data platforms, architecture, modernization, reliability, and scalability.

• Lead, mentor, and hold engineering leaders and managers accountable.

• Drive initiatives for succession planning, leadership development, recruitment, performance management, and organizational structure.

• Enhance quality, test automation, delivery practices, observability, and operational readiness.

• Manage the engineering budget and capacity planning in collaboration with the CPTO and Finance.

• Develop and maintain secure, resilient systems in conjunction with IT and Information Security.

• Create, prototype, and test AI tools to enhance software development and operational processes.

• Spearhead the adoption of generative AI and automation throughout the organization.

• Transform AI pilot projects into repeatable practices that yield measurable improvements in speed, quality, capacity, and overall business outcomes.

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of 15 years of progressive engineering experience.

• Significant experience in leading managers and senior engineering leaders across multiple teams.

• Proven track record in owning organization-wide strategy, delivery, talent management, and investment decisions.

• Strong architectural insight across complex applications, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and data platforms.

• Capacity to evaluate technical trade-offs and navigate challenging technical decisions.

• Understanding of how engineering decisions impact revenue, costs, customer experience, and risk.

• History of building inclusive, high-performing teams and nurturing managers into effective leaders.

• Experience in personally developing, redesigning workflows, or conducting experiments using AI tools.

• Ability to balance modernization with timely delivery, speed with reliability, and ambition with available resources.

• Preferred: experience in fintech, payments, lending, or other heavily regulated, transaction-oriented environments.

• Preferred: familiarity with technologies such as Go, Node.js, React, AWS, Kubernetes, and native iOS and Android development.

• Preferred: proficiency in the modern AI stack, including frontier models, coding agents, harnesses, evaluations, and guardrails.

• Preferred: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

🏝️ Benefits

• Eligibility for company bonus plan.

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage.

• 20 PTO days plus 11 paid holidays.

• 401(k) retirement plan with company matching.

• Student loan and tuition reimbursement programs.

• Commuter assistance.

• Parental leave for both maternal and paternal roles.

• Inclusion and Associate Engagement Programs.

• Competitive compensation and benefits packages.