Vice President of Platform Engineering

Join Happen Bank as the Vice President of Platform Engineering, where you will lead the strategy, roadmap, and execution of foundational platforms that enable product engineering teams across the company. You will own AI Infrastructure, DevOps, software delivery, Change Management, enterprise Testing, Database Administration, and Incident Management & Observability. This role requires deep technical expertise and executive leadership to build the platforms, guardrails, and services that enable Engineering teams to move quickly, safely, and reliably.

• Define and execute the multi-year AI Infrastructure strategy, including model and platform selection, build-versus-buy decisions, and governance.
• Lead the development of client-facing AI technologies, gateways, and shared tooling that enable product teams to safely and efficiently integrate AI capabilities.
• Establish and continuously evolve Change Management guardrails, release controls, testing expectations, sign-offs, rollback plans, and monitoring standards that enable teams to ship quickly while protecting customer experience.

• Strong executive presence and cross-functional influence with the ability to align platform investments with company, product, and technology strategy
• Demonstrated experience setting AI Infrastructure strategy, including evaluating and selecting AI/LLM models and platforms and building client-facing AI gateways, tooling, or capabilities in production environments
• 10+ years in a senior engineering leadership role leading multiple technical domains and managers of managers, with experience across AI Infrastructure, DevOps, Testing, DBA, Observability, or related platform functions
• Track record of building and maturing observability practices, SLA/SLO frameworks, and incident management processes at scale, with a high bar for operational excellence and root-cause analysis
• Deep technical fluency across DevOps pipelines, testing harnesses and automation, API and contract design, database architecture, and observability, with the ability to go deep with technical teams while operating at an executive and strategic level
• Demonstrated success developing leaders and building leadership bench strength across complex, multi-domain engineering organizations
• Experience building enterprise testing strategies and shared testing capabilities, with a focus on automation and AI-enabled testing efficiency
• You build functions that evolve, embedding AI capabilities into how strategy is developed and executed. You create the systems and conditions for teams to challenge assumptions and deliver breakthroughs while maintaining a high standard for security, model governance, data integrity, responsible production deployment, and long-term maintainability
• Experience leading or partnering closely with Database Administration functions, with a clear perspective on how DBA teams can deliver high-leverage value to Engineering
• Bachelor's degree or higher, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Practical experience building platforms and shared services across modern distributed technology environments, including Java, Scala, and/or Node.js; databases such as Postgres, MySQL, Cassandra, or DynamoDB; and asynchronous messaging technologies such as SQS/SNS or Kafka
• 13+ years of progressive software engineering, DevOps, platform engineering, or related technology experience, including significant experience leading complex engineering organizations
• Experience in fintech or banking, particularly within Loan Originations, Servicing, or Banking Web and Mobile Applications