Engineering Manager, Platform

About the role

You will lead the design and execution of our cloud infrastructure strategy that underpins every product decision at Valon. You will own the roadmap for the Platform team, ensuring that compute, storage, and networking resources meet current demands while preparing for exponential scale. You will partner with product and operations to translate business requirements into robust technical infrastructure that delivers reliable and secure outcomes. You will mentor engineers through hands-on guidance, driving both technical excellence and career growth within the team. You will foster a culture of accountability and high agency, where data-driven decisions and clear communication are the standard. You will write production code when necessary to unblock teams and validate architectural hypotheses. You will ensure that our infrastructure practices align with the stringent requirements of regulated finance while enabling rapid innovation.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead a team of 5+ engineers focused on infrastructure and platform tooling, setting direction and removing obstacles.
• Own technical strategy, planning, and execution for core platform initiatives, with an emphasis on scalability, reliability, and security.
• Act as a strong technical mentor and hands-on contributor, guiding architecture, writing code, and debugging complex production issues.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across engineering, product, and operations to build infrastructure that unlocks product innovation and operational excellence.
• Establish and evolve engineering processes for continuous improvement, velocity, and quality across the platform.
• Invest in recruiting and developing engineering talent through coaching, mentorship, and ongoing feedback, including 360-degree reviews.
• Promote a high-agency, high-accountability team culture with a bias for action, clear communication, and disciplined execution.
• Advocate for technical excellence and pragmatic decision-making, grounded in deep system knowledge and operational realities.
• Evaluate and adopt new data stores such as Vitess, Clickhouse, and Redis to support growth and performance requirements.
• Scale our batch processing control plane to enable faster component creation and fulfillment across services.
• Design and deliver a production-equivalent sandbox environment for customer testing, demos, and validation workflows.
• Ensure platform reliability, security, and performance through rigorous testing, monitoring, and incident response practices.
• Drive alignment on infrastructure standards, enabling teams to move quickly without compromising stability or compliance.
• Contribute to architectural reviews and long-term platform vision, balancing short-term needs with long-term scalability.

Requirements

• 4+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 1+ years in a tech lead or engineering management role.
• Experience working on infrastructure, platform engineering, DevOps, or cloud systems in production environments.
• Strong systems thinking and a clear understanding of how backend and infrastructure layers interact to deliver reliable services.
• Track record of leading teams in fast-paced, high-growth environments while maintaining focus on quality and execution.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineers, fostering a high-performance, feedback-driven team culture.
• Excellent communication skills and experience aligning cross-functional partners around platform strategy and priorities.
• Hands-on experience with cloud providers such as AWS or GCP, including compute, storage, and networking services.
• Proficiency with containerization technologies including Docker and Kubernetes for deploying and managing distributed systems.
• Familiarity with database systems, including SQL and NoSQL, and experience designing data layers for scale and reliability.
• Understanding of secure software practices and compliance considerations relevant to regulated industries.
• Ability to work effectively in a fully remote setting with strong written communication and asynchronous collaboration skills.
• Willingness to engage in hands-on technical work, including debugging complex issues and validating architectural decisions through code.
• Commitment to building processes that enable both speed and safety in a highly regulated domain.

Nice to have

• Experience with Vitess, Clickhouse, or Redis in production environments.
• Background in batch processing systems and control plane design.
• Experience building and managing sandbox or multi-tenant environments for customer-facing testing and demos.
• Familiarity with mortgage servicing or other regulated financial workflows.
• Contributions to open source projects or public technical writing in infrastructure or platform domains.

Practical notes

This role is full-time and remote based. We operate in a fully remote environment and do not require relocation. There are no travel requirements associated with this position. Employment is at-will and compliant with applicable employment laws. The role is expected to support the rapid growth trajectory of the company, with significant scaling of infrastructure and team size anticipated over the next two years.