Assistant Vice President, Application Development

Pennymac•Westlake Village, CA

40d•$110,000 - $170,000•Onsite

About The Position

Pennymac (NYSE: PFSI) is a specialty financial services firm with a comprehensive mortgage platform and integrated business focused on the production and servicing of U.S. mortgage loans and the management of investments related to the U.S. mortgage market. At Pennymac, our people are the foundation of our success and at the heart of our dynamic work culture. Together, we work towards a unified goal of helping millions of Americans achieve aspirations of homeownership through the complete mortgage journey. The AVP, Application Development will: Architectural & Technical Leadership: Lead the design, architecture, and development of mission-critical pricing applications, ensuring solutions are scalable, resilient, and performant. Tech Lead Partnership: Serve as the primary technical partner to the current Tech Lead, acting as their understudy in strategic planning, architectural decisions, and team leadership. Team Guidance & Execution: Guide the development team's day-to-day technical execution. Unblock complex challenges, facilitate technical decision-making, and hold the team accountable for high-quality delivery. Hands-On Development: Remain hands-on, contributing to the development of complex features and setting the standard for code quality using TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, and our AWS serverless stack. Process & AI Tool Evangelism: Champion and drive the adoption of new technologies, particularly AI-assisted coding workflows (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor), integrating them into our workflows to enhance developer efficiency and productivity. Mentorship & Management: Actively mentor senior and mid-level engineers, fostering their growth. You will be expected to handle responsibilities associated with managing a development team, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, and performance. Strategic Planning: Partner strategically with Product Managers, business stakeholders, and architects to translate complex business goals into a concrete technical roadmap. Best Practices Champion: Establish and champion best practices for the full software development lifecycle, including coding standards, design reviews, CI/CD, and robust testing strategies. Operational Excellence: Take ownership of the team's operational health, leading efforts in monitoring (e.g., New Relic), troubleshooting, and participating in an on-call rotation. Leadership Transition: Systematically take on increasing leadership responsibilities in preparation to transition into a formal Tech Lead role for a supporting team.

Requirements

A minimum of 5+ years of prior, direct experience as a Tech Lead, technical team lead, or Engineering Manager, with a proven track record of guiding a team's technical delivery.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of professional experience in full-stack software development.
Expert-level proficiency in TypeScript, Node.js, React, and Next.js.
Deep, hands-on expertise in designing, deploying, and managing serverless architectures on AWS (CDK/SAM, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, EventBridge, SQS, Step Functions).
Demonstrated experience translating complex business requirements into a multi-sprint technical roadmap and leading a team to execute against it.
Proven experience working with AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot) and a passion for driving their adoption to boost team efficiency.
Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with a proven ability to mentor senior engineers and influence technical direction at a leadership level.
Strong understanding of software testing principles and experience setting testing strategy (unit, integration, E2E).
Proven experience designing, managing, and improving CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI, GitHub Actions).
Expertise in Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and leading agile ceremonies.
A strong architectural mindset with a deep understanding of distributed systems, design patterns, and system performance optimization.

Nice To Haves

Experience with end-to-end testing frameworks, particularly Playwright or Cypress.
Experience with cross-browser testing platforms like LambdaTest.
Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools like New Relic.
Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes).
Deep knowledge of event-driven architectures.
Exposure to the financial services or mortgage industry.

Responsibilities

Lead the design, architecture, and development of mission-critical pricing applications, ensuring solutions are scalable, resilient, and performant.
Serve as the primary technical partner to the current Tech Lead, acting as their understudy in strategic planning, architectural decisions, and team leadership.
Guide the development team's day-to-day technical execution. Unblock complex challenges, facilitate technical decision-making, and hold the team accountable for high-quality delivery.
Remain hands-on, contributing to the development of complex features and setting the standard for code quality using TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, and our AWS serverless stack.
Champion and drive the adoption of new technologies, particularly AI-assisted coding workflows (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor), integrating them into our workflows to enhance developer efficiency and productivity.
Actively mentor senior and mid-level engineers, fostering their growth. You will be expected to handle responsibilities associated with managing a development team, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, and performance.
Partner strategically with Product Managers, business stakeholders, and architects to translate complex business goals into a concrete technical roadmap.
Establish and champion best practices for the full software development lifecycle, including coding standards, design reviews, CI/CD, and robust testing strategies.
Take ownership of the team's operational health, leading efforts in monitoring (e.g., New Relic), troubleshooting, and participating in an on-call rotation.
Systematically take on increasing leadership responsibilities in preparation to transition into a formal Tech Lead role for a supporting team.

Benefits

Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision
Paid Time Off Programs including vacation, holidays, illness, and parental leave
Wellness Programs, Employee Recognition Programs, and onsite gyms and cafe style dining (select locations)
Retirement benefits, life insurance, 401k match, and tuition reimbursement
Philanthropy Programs including matching gifts, volunteer grants, charitable grants and corporate sponsorships

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