Director, Software Engineering

AppFolio•Santa Barbara, CA

11d•$216,000 - $270,000

About The Position

AppFolio is more than a company. We’re a community of dreamers, big thinkers, problem solvers, active listeners, and multipliers. At every opportunity, we set the pace while delivering innovation built to carry real estate into the future. One in which every experience feels effortless, yet meaningful. Where customers are empowered to take on any opportunity. We show up as one team, connected by our values to be a force for good. Because together, we have the power to create extraordinary outcomes for our customers, our communities, and ourselves. The Director of Engineering will manage and continue to grow a world‐class software engineering team for our award-winning products and drive the successful delivery of platforms and products while contributing to the product strategy, platform, and roadmap. This opportunity is ideal for an engineering leader who specializes in high-volume financial systems. You won’t just be integrating third-party APIs; you will lead the team responsible for architecting and scaling our proprietary internal payment system. You will oversee the network of services ensuring that every cent moving through our ecosystem is accounted for, secure, and compliant, and working in an environment that empowers small teams to collaboratively set the technical direction of our financial infrastructure. We are looking for a forward-thinking leader with a blend of engineering and payments experience who can also harness the power of today’s AI advancements to revolutionize payment integrity, automating fraud detection and operational workflows at scale. The location for the position is Santa Barbara, CA.

Requirements

BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Computer Science or related technical discipline.
8+ years of hands-on software development experience building enterprise SaaS, cloud-based solutions, or consumer web platforms supporting millions of users and online transactions per month.
5+ years of demonstrated success hiring, directly managing, coaching, and retaining world-class engineers.
Proven track record leading engineering teams during the evolution of the function from start-up to mid-lifecycle/hyper-growth.
Experience building or managing proprietary payment platforms, not just integrations. Must understand the mechanics of ACH files, credit card processing (ISO 8583), and emerging rails (RTP/FedNow).
Experience integrating directly with banking cores and legacy financial institutions, managing both modern API-based exchanges and file-based exchanges.
Working knowledge of financial frameworks including PCI-DSS Level 1, SOC 1/SOC 2, NACHA operating rules, and KYC/KYB/AML protocols.
Strong grasp of ACID transactions versus eventual consistency, particularly regarding financial ledgers, idempotency, and double-entry accounting within a multi-service architecture.
Demonstrated ability to design systems that maintain 99.999% availability during high-volume transaction windows, ensuring resilience and rapid recovery.
Experience partnering with Data Science teams to operationalize machine learning models within critical production paths. Must understand the latency and reliability trade-offs of embedding inference engines into real-time payment processing.
Recent experience using Agile methodologies and a deep understanding of release management workflows, from development through staging and production deployment.
Exceptional interpersonal skills with a proven ability to build productive cross-departmental relationships (Product, Legal, Risk, Support). Must have a positive, can-do attitude and value collaboration over silos.

Nice To Haves

Experience with fraud detection systems and risk modeling.
Background in Fintech, Property PropTech, or Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS).

Responsibilities

Payments Strategy & Technical Architecture Set the technical direction for internal ledgering systems, ensuring absolute data consistency, idempotency, and accuracy across distributed microservices.
Oversee the engineering of Payables and Receivables flows, ensuring seamless integration between internal services and external banking institutions.
Act as the primary technical counterpart for banking partners and payment processors, translating complex external requirements into internal engineering roadmaps.
Operational Excellence, Security & Compliance Build automated reconciliation frameworks that detect and self-heal discrepancies between internal ledgers and external networks, ensuring 100% financial accuracy.
Partner with InfoSec and Legal to ensure all payment services adhere to PCI-DSS, NACHA operating rules, AML (Anti-Money Laundering) protocols, and KYC/KYB requirements.
Advocate for a SMART codebase (Simple, Maintainable, Agile, Refactored, and Tested) to deliver a SAFE product (Secure, Available, Fast, and Easy).
Oversee the delivery of software using Agile best practices, CI/CD, and test-driven development to ensure frequent, high-confidence releases.
Drive the strategy for integrating AI/ML models directly into the transaction path to detect fraud anomalies in real-time, optimize payment routing (Smart Routing) for cost/speed, and automate complex reconciliation matches that rule-based systems miss.
Team Leadership & Talent Development Recruit, screen, and close high-caliber engineering talent, scaling the team to meet the demands of a hyper-growth payments organization.
Lead, coach, and support a team of passionate engineers, creating an environment of creativity, speed, and innovation while maintaining the discipline required for financial engineering.
Instill a sense of ownership over the entire software development lifecycle, ensuring the team understands how their work directly impacts AppFolio’s financial success and customer trust.
Strategic Collaboration & Resource Management Build trusting relationships with Product Management, Legal, and Risk teams to align engineering resources with company strategy, balancing immediate customer needs with long-term infrastructure investments.
Implement processes and metrics to ensure the team is focused, efficient, and that products are market-ready and scalable.