Director, Integrations & Innovation – Retail Software Engineering

Western Union•Austin, TX

2d•$190,000 - $215,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As Director, Retail Software Engineering, you will lead the evolution of our retail software platform, overseeing middleware, API ecosystems, and the operational backbone that powers our customer experience. You will champion both innovation and rigorous software hygiene, ensuring our systems are secure, resilient, and performant. Key Responsibilities 1. Strategy & Innovation Technical Vision: Define and execute the roadmap for next-generation retail integrations, transitioning from monolithic architectures to event-driven microservices and cloud-native solutions. R&D and Modernization: Lead Proof of Concepts (POCs) for emerging technologies (AI/ML at the edge, contactless payments, real-time inventory syncing) and drive their adoption into production. API Economy: Oversee the design and governance of external and internal APIs, ensuring seamless connectivity between POS, e-commerce, supply chain, and third-party vendors. 2. Operations & Reliability (SRE) Operational Excellence: Own the availability, latency, and overall health of critical retail services. Champion Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices to minimize toil and maximize uptime (99.99%+). Incident Management: Lead high-severity incident resolution and conduct blameless post-mortems to prevent recurrence. Observability: Drive a culture of data-driven debugging. Ensure comprehensive monitoring (logging, metrics, tracing) is implemented across the stack to proactively identify bottlenecks before they impact the customer. 3. Technical Health & Hygiene Code Quality & Security: Establish and enforce strict standards for software quality assurance. Oversee the implementation of static analysis, vulnerability scanning, and automated testing frameworks. Tech Debt Management: Aggressively identify and remediate technical debt. Manage "Health & Hygiene" initiatives including patching, upgrading legacy frameworks, and decommissioning obsolete infrastructure. Compliance: Ensure all software integrations adhere to rigorous security standards (PCI-DSS, SOC2) and data privacy regulations. 4. Leadership & Culture Team Building: Recruit, mentor, and retain a diverse team of Engineering Managers, Architects, and Principal Engineers. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Product Management, Security, and Infrastructure teams to align engineering output with business goals. Qualifications Deep understanding of modern architecture (Microservices, Event-Driven Architecture), Cloud Platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP), and DevOps/CI/CD pipelines. 10+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role (Director level or above), ideally within retail, payments, or financial services. Demonstrated success leading large-scale engineering teams in a global, matrixed organization. Proven track record of modernizing legacy systems and delivering cloud-native, event-driven architectures at scale. Experience implementing Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices and managing 24/7 production environments with high transaction volumes. Experience leading incident management, root cause analysis, and blameless post-mortems. Experience fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement. Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, partnering effectively with Product, Security, Infrastructure, Compliance, and Business stakeholders. Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to influence and align stakeholders at all levels, including C-suite and global teams. We make financial services accessible to humans everywhere. Join us for what’s next. Western Union is positioned to become the world’s most accessible financial services company —transforming lives and communities. We’re a diverse and passionate customer-centric team of over 8,000 employees serving 200 countries and territories, reaching customers and receivers around the globe. More than moving money, we design easy-to-use products and services for our digital and physical financial ecosystem that help our customers move forward. Just as we help our global customers prosper, we support our employees in achieving their professional aspirations. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to learn new skills and build a career, as well as receive a great compensation package. If you’re ready to help drive the future of financial services, it’s time for Western Union. Learn more about our purpose and people at https://careers.westernunion.com/ . Salary The base salary range is $190,000 - $215,000 USD per year, total on target compensation includes a base salary plus long-term and short-term incentives that align with individual and company performance. Benefits You will also have access to short-term incentives, multiple health insurance options, accident and life insurance, and access to best-in-class development platforms, to name a few ( https://careers.westernunion.com/global-benefits/ ). Please see the location-specific benefits below and note that your Recruiter may share additional role-specific benefits during your interview process or in an offer of employment. Your United States – specific benefits include: Family First Program Flexible Time off Medical, Dental and Life Insurance Tuition Assistance Program Parental Leave Western Union values in-person collaboration, learning, and ideation whenever possible. We believe this creates value through common ways of working and supports the execution of enterprise objectives which will ultimately help us achieve our strategic goals. By connecting face-to-face, we are better able to learn from our peers, problem-solve together, and innovate. Our Hybrid Work Model categorizes each role into one of three categories. Western Union has determined the category of this role to be Hybrid. This is defined as a flexible working arrangement that enables employees to divide their time between working from home and working from an office location. The expectation is to work from the office a minimum of three days a week. For residents of Colorado, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania: Please do not respond to any questions on this initial application that may seek age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You may also redact this information from any materials you submit during the application process. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information. We are passionate about belonging. Our commitment is to provide an inclusive culture that celebrates the unique backgrounds and perspectives of our global teams while reflecting the communities we serve. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, political affiliation, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or veteran status. The company will provide accommodation to applicants, including those with disabilities, during the recruitment process, following applicable laws. Estimated Job Posting End Date: 02-27-2026 This application window is a good-faith estimate of the time that this posting will remain open. This posting will be promptly updated if the deadline is extended or the role is filled.

Requirements

Deep understanding of modern architecture (Microservices, Event-Driven Architecture), Cloud Platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP), and DevOps/CI/CD pipelines.
10+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role (Director level or above), ideally within retail, payments, or financial services.
Demonstrated success leading large-scale engineering teams in a global, matrixed organization.
Proven track record of modernizing legacy systems and delivering cloud-native, event-driven architectures at scale.
Experience implementing Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices and managing 24/7 production environments with high transaction volumes.
Experience leading incident management, root cause analysis, and blameless post-mortems.
Experience fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, partnering effectively with Product, Security, Infrastructure, Compliance, and Business stakeholders.
Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to influence and align stakeholders at all levels, including C-suite and global teams.

Responsibilities

Strategy & Innovation Technical Vision: Define and execute the roadmap for next-generation retail integrations, transitioning from monolithic architectures to event-driven microservices and cloud-native solutions.
R&D and Modernization: Lead Proof of Concepts (POCs) for emerging technologies (AI/ML at the edge, contactless payments, real-time inventory syncing) and drive their adoption into production.
API Economy: Oversee the design and governance of external and internal APIs, ensuring seamless connectivity between POS, e-commerce, supply chain, and third-party vendors.
Operational Excellence: Own the availability, latency, and overall health of critical retail services. Champion Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices to minimize toil and maximize uptime (99.99%+).
Incident Management: Lead high-severity incident resolution and conduct blameless post-mortems to prevent recurrence.
Observability: Drive a culture of data-driven debugging. Ensure comprehensive monitoring (logging, metrics, tracing) is implemented across the stack to proactively identify bottlenecks before they impact the customer.
Code Quality & Security: Establish and enforce strict standards for software quality assurance. Oversee the implementation of static analysis, vulnerability scanning, and automated testing frameworks.
Tech Debt Management: Aggressively identify and remediate technical debt. Manage "Health & Hygiene" initiatives including patching, upgrading legacy frameworks, and decommissioning obsolete infrastructure.
Compliance: Ensure all software integrations adhere to rigorous security standards (PCI-DSS, SOC2) and data privacy regulations.
Team Building: Recruit, mentor, and retain a diverse team of Engineering Managers, Architects, and Principal Engineers.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Product Management, Security, and Infrastructure teams to align engineering output with business goals.

Benefits

You will also have access to short-term incentives, multiple health insurance options, accident and life insurance, and access to best-in-class development platforms, to name a few ( https://careers.westernunion.com/global-benefits/ ).
Family First Program
Flexible Time off
Medical, Dental and Life Insurance
Tuition Assistance Program
Parental Leave

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