VP, Engineering

Total Expert•Dallas, TX

11d•$240,000 - $280,000

About The Position

Total Expert is hiring a VP, Engineering to lead its Applications engineering organization, which builds customer-facing products used by financial services customers. Reporting to the SVP, Engineering, the VP will act as the SVP’s partner and #2, help shape technical strategy and roadmaps, lead three engineering managers and roughly half of Engineering across six product areas, and own delivery and quality for those areas. The role spans Journeys and Campaigns, SMS and Communications, CRM and Lead Management, Content, Contact Service, and Mobile. Key programs include replacing seven legacy marketing automation systems with a graph-based, event-driven orchestration engine; migrating Contact Service off the monolith; improving SMS reliability; and preparing products to serve banking, wealth, and insurance customers as first-class platform users. The VP will focus heavily on developing managers and technical leaders, setting clear expectations and team commitments, strengthening hiring and retention, and building a cohesive organization across US and India locations. The role also calls for close engagement with architecture, product delivery, incidents, customers, and AI adoption. The SVP, Engineering retains final authority on technical direction.

Requirements

Typically 15 or more years building and operating enterprise SaaS.
At least 5 years leading engineering organizations through managers.
Track record of building strong engineering teams, including distributed and global teams.
Experience setting a high hiring bar in partnership with recruiting and developing engineers and managers into larger roles.
Record of holding teams to commitments while maintaining trust, including turning around teams after missed deliveries or production incidents.
Strong technical background with hands-on experience in customer-facing applications, event-driven and distributed systems at scale, and legacy modernization.
Technical credibility to contribute effectively in design reviews, incident reviews, and roadmap discussions with Product.
Experience leading large, multi-team programs from design through production delivery.
Examples of leading change through resistance, including winning over respected senior people who initially opposed a change.
History of partnering with a strong technical leader to shape strategy, execute it, and improve that leader’s effectiveness.
Personal use of AI tools in engineering work and a point of view on how AI affects engineering teams, roles, and quality practices.
Must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States; the company cannot sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa.

Nice To Haves

Experience in B2B SaaS, fintech, or another complex, regulated enterprise setting.
Experience with marketing automation, communications such as email and SMS, or CRM platforms in multi-tenant environments.
Experience driving AI adoption across teams.

Responsibilities

Lead the Applications engineering organization across six product areas: Journeys and Campaigns, SMS and Communications, CRM and Lead Management, Content, Contact Service, and Mobile.
Own delivery and quality across the organization, including plans, sequencing, tradeoffs, staffing, and outcomes for major programs.
Help shape architecture, technical strategy, and roadmap decisions with the SVP, Engineering, who makes the final call.
Lead three engineering managers and roughly half of Engineering, developing managers and technical leaders through coaching, stretch assignments, and succession planning.
Set clear team goals, ownership, and commitments; preserve team autonomy while holding teams accountable for results.
Lead the orchestration engine program replacing seven legacy marketing automation systems with a graph-based, event-driven engine.
Lead the Contact Service strangler-fig migration off the monolith.
Improve SMS reliability through structural measures such as CI gates, contract tests, and canary deploys, and reinforce the habits that sustain them.
Prepare campaigns, communications, CRM, and content for expansion into banking, wealth, and insurance as first-class platform capabilities.
Partner with People and Talent Acquisition to define role expectations, improve hiring and onboarding, calibrate interviewers, and make hiring decisions for the organization.
Develop, advance, and retain engineers and managers; build an effective team across US and India locations with consistent standards, context, and growth opportunities.
Run blameless reviews of incidents and people issues, and implement guardrails and changes to working practices that prevent recurrence.
Lead organizational change by understanding constraints, addressing resistance, and bringing senior engineers and teams along.
Strengthen connections among engineers, customers, and Product; ensure delivery realism and technical health inform product decisions.
Lead AI adoption across the organization, use AI tools personally, and establish quality practices including AI code review coverage and standards for accepted AI-authored code.
Partner with the SVP, Engineering on execution and people leadership, raise concerns directly, and support unified implementation after decisions are made.