Vice President, Engineering

First American•Santa Ana, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Join a team that puts its People First! As a member of First American’s family of companies, Data & Analytics is a national provider of property-centric information, analytics, risk management and valuation solutions. First American maintains and curates the industry’s largest property and ownership dataset with over 7 billion document images. Our major platforms and products include: DataTree®, FraudGuard®, RegsData™, TaxSource™ and ACI®. The First American Data & Analytics division boasts more than 20 patents and remains at the forefront of innovation - leveraging technology and data to deliver best-in-class decisioning solutions. Fueled by our industry-leading data and using our technology and proprietary process, our solutions provide lenders, real estate and title companies with actionable insights - enabling them to make better, increasingly automated, decisions. With offices in all major metropolitan areas, including California and New York, DNA teams work collaboratively from across the country. Since 1889, First American (NYSE: FAF) has held an unwavering belief in its people. They are passionate about what they do, and we are equally passionate about fostering an environment where all feel welcome, supported, and empowered to be innovative and reach their full potential. Our inclusive, people-first culture has earned our company numerous accolades, including being named to the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list for ten consecutive years. We have also earned awards as a best place to work for women, diversity and LGBTQ+ employees, and have been included on more than 50 regional best places to work lists. First American will always strive to be a great place to work, for all. For more information, please visit www.careers.firstam.com. What We Do The Vice President of Engineering for DNA is a senior technology leader responsible for building and scaling data platforms, application ecosystems, and AI-enabled products that power next-generation analytical and transactional capabilities. This role sits at the intersection of data, application engineering, and AI, ensuring tight alignment between data foundations, services, and user-facing applications. You will lead global engineering teams delivering end-to-end products—from data ingestion and processing to APIs, intelligent services, and customer-facing applications. You will define architecture, scale global teams, and deliver high-quality products with predictable execution—while evolving the platform to be AI-ready by design, enabling machine learning and generative AI capabilities to be embedded across core workflows. Role is Hybrid out of Santa Ana, CA

Requirements

12+ years of engineering experience, with 5+ years in senior leadership roles managing global teams
Proven experience leading application and platform engineering organizations, in addition to data platforms
Demonstrated success delivering complex, enterprise-scale systems and products
Technical Expertise Modern data architectures (lakehouse, streaming, warehouse)
Distributed systems and scalable backend architectures
Microservices and API design
Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Strong programming background (e.g., Python, Java, or similar)
AI & Data Systems Experience building or scaling AI/ML-enabled platforms or applications in production
Understanding of: Feature engineering and data modeling for AI Model serving and inference patterns Vector databases or semantic search Retrieval-based or AI-enhanced application architectures
Experience integrating AI capabilities into real-world applications and workflows
Familiarity with MLOps or LLMOps practices

Nice To Haves

Builds platforms where data, applications, and AI operate as a unified system
Delivers end-to-end products, not just infrastructure or pipelines
Translates strategy into clear execution with measurable outcomes
Creates transparency into delivery health and system performance
Balances architectural rigor with pragmatic execution
Builds teams that deliver high-quality, scalable software products
Technically credible across data, applications, and modern AI systems
Product-oriented mindset with focus on business outcomes
Operationally disciplined and metrics-driven
Clear, decisive communicator
Strong bias toward impact and continuous improvement

Responsibilities

Technical Strategy & Architecture Define and drive end-to-end architecture across data platforms, application services, APIs, and user-facing systems
Design scalable systems supporting both analytical and transactional workloads
Establish domain-driven design, service boundaries, and API-first architecture
Architect AI-ready data foundations, including feature availability, metadata, and structures optimized for machine learning and AI use cases
Define patterns for integrating AI/ML and generative AI capabilities into applications
Lead modernization initiatives (cloud-native, microservices, platform consolidation)
Establish standards for data governance, system design, resilience, and observability
Product & Platform Engineering Own delivery of end-to-end products, including: Analytical and data-driven applications Customer-facing and internal applications APIs, domain services, and shared platforms
Partner with product leadership to translate strategy into scalable engineering roadmaps
Lead development of AI-enabled features and intelligent applications
Ensure strong SDLC practices (testing, CI/CD, release engineering)
Drive engineering accountability for product performance, reliability, and user experience
Global Engineering Delivery Lead global engineering teams across multiple regions and time zones
Establish product-aligned team structures with clear ownership of services and domains
Implement delivery governance with clear milestones and measurable outcomes
Optimize global delivery models to balance speed, quality, and cost
Manage capacity planning, workforce strategy, and vendor partnerships
Operational Excellence & Reliability Own performance, uptime, scalability, and cost efficiency across platforms and applications
Implement metrics-driven engineering management (velocity, quality, reliability, cost)
Establish observability across data, services, and AI systems
Drive SRE practices, including incident management and continuous improvement
Implement MLOps/LLMOps practices, including model monitoring, performance evaluation, and lifecycle management
Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and regulatory standards
Talent & Culture Build and scale global teams across: Application engineering (frontend and backend) Data engineering Platform engineering
Develop leaders who own products and platforms end-to-end
Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, and engineering excellence

Benefits

First American offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401k, PTO/paid sick leave and other great benefits like an employee stock purchase plan.

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