Director, Data & Product Engineering

ACCION OPPORTUNITY FUND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT•Los Angeles, CA

2d•$170,000 - $230,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Accion Opportunity Fund (AOF) is seeking a Director of Data and Product Engineering to build and manage the systems underpinning their data and analytics, AI deployment, and essential small business owner products. This is a hands-on, highly technical role within a small engineering team, initially focusing on individual contribution through coding, pipeline design, and system development. While prior management experience is expected, the first year emphasizes building the platform before staffing a team. The role addresses the need for a dedicated data engineering leader, with the individual owning the data platform (infrastructure, ingestion, orchestration, tooling) and developing internal and external data/AI products. The position requires a blend of technical execution, business acumen, and strong communication skills, with daily tasks potentially ranging from coding with AI assistance to architectural reviews and executive presentations. The Director will report to the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer (CTSO). This role is crucial for supporting various data-focused teams across AOF, including Credit, Finance and Accounting, Analytics Engineering and BI, Marketing, and Operations, by providing a reliable and efficient platform. The success of this role hinges on effective partnerships with teams outside of direct reporting lines, aiming to enhance their speed, reliability, and predictability.

Requirements

Seven or more years building and running data platforms and product systems in production, with depth in both areas.
Deep data platform experience: lake and warehouse architecture, orchestration, and ingestion pipelines.
Fluency with dbt and dimensional modeling.
Experience integrating and operating pipelines against enterprise SaaS systems, particularly Salesforce (ideally across multiple orgs and including Salesforce Data Cloud).
Strong software engineering and platform skills, including API design, AWS architecture, CI/CD, and infrastructure as code.
Experience leading a small engineering team (roughly two to five people) with a track record of coaching and mentoring.
Fluency with AI-assisted development, including shipping production code with coding agents and writing evaluations.
Business fluency and excellent communication skills.
Experience in financial services or another regulated, data-sensitive industry.
Comfort building systems where security, privacy, and auditability are requirements.

Nice To Haves

Experience with small business or consumer lending products.
Experience in a credit union, bank, or de novo charter environment (NCUA, BSA/AML, SOC 2).
Deep hands-on Salesforce platform experience or Salesforce certifications.
Experience putting data or AI products in front of external customers.
Hands-on experience building mobile or web user interfaces.
AWS certifications.
Experience migrating services off on-premise infrastructure.

Responsibilities

Own the data platform infrastructure, including lake and warehouse, orchestration, dbt execution environments, CI, and developer experience.
Build and operate the ingestion layer for reliable data landing from source systems like Salesforce, lending systems, the credit union core, and third-party partners, focusing on reliability, performance, cost, lineage, and observability.
Design for governance and privacy from the start, including access control, PII handling under GLBA, and auditability across two legal entities.
Build platform capabilities for regulatory and funder reporting (e.g., CDFI Fund, CFPB Section 1071, NCUA requirements).
Design and build internal and external data and AI products on top of the data platform.
Deploy AI capabilities responsibly in a regulated lending context, including evaluation, monitoring, and defining decision boundaries.
Design and ship customer-facing and internal products alongside a core engineering team using Python, Go, TypeScript, and Terraform.
Analyze product requirements, contribute to go-to-market plans, and make build-versus-buy decisions.
Develop, communicate, and maintain production timelines.
Drive architectural design of key platforms, APIs, and AWS infrastructure.
Complete the migration of remaining on-premise services to AWS.
Demonstrate and enforce robust security and sound data design.
Lead code reviews and strengthen CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code practices.
Build relationships across AOF to understand team strategies and translate them into systems.
Coach and mentor engineers and analysts, fostering a culture of open debate.
Communicate credibly with engineers, data analysts, senior management, partners, and regulators.

Benefits

Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
Environment that values work-life balance.
Monthly remote work reimbursements.
100% company-funded medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverage for employees.
90% company-funded dependent coverage.
Flexible Spending Accounts.
Voluntary benefits: supplemental life and AD&D insurance, legal plans.
Tax-deferred and Roth 403(b) retirement plan with employer match.
Unlimited paid vacation days.
12 paid holidays.
1 floating paid holiday.
10 sick days.
Paid parental leave.