Director, Software Engineering

Kestra • Austin, TX

13d

About The Position

As Director, Software Engineering in Kestra’s Advisor Platform Architecture & Engineering, you’ll lead a manager‑of‑managers organization to deliver the Advisor Platform. You’ll set the technical roadmap and engineering standards, remove obstacles to team performance, and partner across Product, Design, and Operations. Anchored in Kestra’s core values of Make it Happen, Serve, and One Team, you’ll make data‑driven decisions that elevate speed, quality, reliability, and cost of ownership—while fostering innovation, inclusion, and continuous learning.

Requirements

• Engineering leadership at scale: Proven track record leading manager of managers organizations and developing high performing teams (hiring, coaching, succession, inclusion).
• Modern SDLC & delivery excellence: Deep familiarity with Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, testing/automation, observability, incident response/postmortems, and reliability practices.
• Architecture & cloud: Proven experience designing and delivering large‑scale, cloud‑native platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP) with strong governance (security, reliability, observability) and cost‑of‑ownership optimization.
• Security & risk: Strong knowledge of secure coding, compliance, and risk management within technology organizations; able to embed controls throughout the SDLC.
• Stakeholder influence: Demonstrated ability to collaborate across matrixed environments and influence senior stakeholders using clear narratives and data.
• Operational judgment: Strong analytical/problem solving skills with hands on experience in incident management and issue resolution; comfort making data driven trade offs across scope, schedule, and quality.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 12+ years of significant, progressively responsible experience in software engineering including 5+ years leading managers/technologists to anticipate and solve complex technical and operational challenges. (Equivalent experience considered.)
• Demonstrated delivery of large scale, cloud native solutions and ownership of SDLC excellence (Agile/DevOps/CI/CD, reliability).
• Financial services/regulatory literacy—deep understanding of regulatory requirements and client sensitivities (e.g., data privacy, suitability, auditability) in regulated environments.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in CS/Engineering (or related) or an MBA with strong technical depth.
• Direct Wealth Management platform experience.
• Prior track record modernizing legacy platforms and accelerating cloud migrations.
• Experience with multi region architectures, SOCs/SOX audit readiness, or PCI/SOC 2 implementations.

Responsibilities

• Set and execute the engineering strategy for the Advisor Platform; translate business goals into a technical roadmap, operating mechanisms, and measurable outcomes (OKRs/KPIs).
• Lead and develop a manager of managers organization, hire, coach, and retain diverse teams; build succession plans; cultivate an inclusive, high-performance culture.
• Own delivery excellence across the SDLC; standardize Agile/DevOps practices (CI/CD, testing, observability, incident/postmortems) to improve reliability, security, and maintainability.
• Make accountable, data driven decisions on resourcing, budget, portfolio priorities, and sequencing; optimize total cost of ownership for platform components.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards and controls (secure coding, data protection, change management, access governance) and carry governance accountability for quality, security, and maintainability.
• Influence peer leaders and senior stakeholders across Product, Design, Data, Operations, Security, and Compliance; provide clear narratives and metrics to guide tradeoffs and decisions.
• Maintain deep domain awareness of wealth management regulations and client sensitivities (e.g., data privacy, suitability, fiduciary obligations); partner with Compliance to keep standards current.
• Proactively identify and mitigate risk; lead incident response and root cause remediation; ensure all solutions adhere to internal standards and applicable regulatory guidelines.
• Drive architecture and modernization initiatives (cloud/platform evolution, build vs buy, legacy remediation) that increase scalability, resilience, and speed of delivery.

Benefits

• Competitive pay and benefits with a large employer (over 1600 employees nationwide)
• 401(k), health insurance, and a competitive benefits package
• Work in a supportive, collaborative environment committed to professional excellence
• Help clients navigate meaningful financial decisions with confidence
• Opportunities for training, development, and long-term growth within the firm
• Tuition reimbursement for qualified expenses

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees