Director, Software Engineering

NerdWallet has a mission to provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions. We are looking for a Director, Engineering to join us in achieving that goal. You will help lead engineering teams across multiple departments, including CRM, our native application as well as our logged-in user experience.

This Director of Engineering role is the connective tissue between verticals such as credit cards, lending, insurance, etc.  Your day-to-day will include a combination of technical people leadership (FTE and nearshore), architecture, and overall process and efficiency improvements. You will mentor and grow your engineering leaders while helping architect an overall data solution for the organization. Flexing your stakeholder management skills, you will explain decisions and approaches to non-technical leaders and challenge technical leaders to make the right decisions for consumers, the team, and the company.

This role will report to the VP of User Engagement.

Where you can make an impact: 

• Build healthy, productive teams. You own the health of your teams, ensuring that they are challenged and growing. You forge goals into a bold, coherent vision for your group. You also maximize the effectiveness of your direct reports through mentorship and coaching. 
• Deliver results. You push your teams to consistently deliver on major commitments that move our business forward. You drive key success metrics, communicate project status to stakeholders, and work to clear blocking issues from the roadmap. 
• Customer focus. Use your deep understanding of how to connect data across multiple organizations and user experiences in order to consolidate the view of a customer and then leverage that consolidated view to enhance the user experience even further.  
• Build cross-functional partnerships. You work with individuals across NerdWallet to ensure your teams align on business strategy and deliver on commitments. You work closely with product managers and program managers to maximize the success of your projects.
• Guide technical direction. You engage in technical discussions with your engineers and managers, working to understand tradeoffs and guide major decisions. You have been an engineer yourself and can dive into architectural details with your teams.
• Ensure operational excellence. You set high standards and drive best engineering practices. You focus your teams on addressing the right operational concerns and enable learning through incident postmortems and sprint retrospectives. You improve efficiency within sprints, estimates, and how projects are approached.
• Grow your teams. You partner with our recruiting group to identify a diverse set of world-class managers and engineers to hire. You take an active role in sourcing and interviewing candidates.
• Empower your teams. You are a role model of cross-functional leadership. You create a culture of creativity, collaboration, inclusion, and innovation across your teams.

You are:

• A hands on leader: You are an effective people manager but enjoy being down in the trenches day to day and writing clean, simple code with your fellow engineers.
• Communication and collaboration: You are able to work effectively with others.  You will be working closely with developers and customer groups to build product features and high quality products.
• High-energy, company first, positive attitude: Must be motivated to work hard in a fast-paced environment.
• Able to work independently, operating without significant input or guidance.
• Skilled at resolving ambiguity. When there is uncertainty, you can work with project partners to define the path forward.
• Effective at building a strong data culture across the entire organization.
• Able to communicate effectively in a diverse set of circumstances. You are a clear communicator in a 1:1, an all-hands presentation, or a written document to executive leadership.
• Forward-thinking, looking around corners to anticipate risks before they occur.
• Technically-skilled, and able to understand technology tradeoffs that your teams will face.
• Effective at working with partners to develop a compelling long-term technical vision for your organization.
• Able to drive process improvements that make your teams more effective over time.
• Skilled at vendor selection and management, making sure the "right" partner is chosen and that results are delivered.

Your experience:

• 8+ years of professional experience managing software teams, with at least three years of experience managing other managers
• 5+ years of of professional experience as a software engineer
• Strong skills in critical thinking, decision making, problem-solving, and attention to detail
• Proven success in an Agile development environment
• Able to build excellent interpersonal relationships through the use of strong written and oral communication
• Deep understanding of data engineering principles, including data ingestion and data warehousing
• Expert skills in Python, Ruby, or PHP

Where:

• This role will be based in San Francisco, CA or remote (based in the U.S.).
• We believe great work can be done anywhere. No matter where you are based, NerdWallet offers benefits and perks to support the physical, financial, and emotional well being of you and your family.

• The salary range for this role is $200,000 - $366,000.
• Base pay offered may vary within the posted range based on several factors, including but not limited to education, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

Work Hard, Stay Balanced (Life’s a series of balancing acts, eh?)

• Industry-leading medical, dental, and vision health care plans for employees and their dependents
• Rejuvenation Policy – Flexible Time Off + 13 holidays + 4 Mental Health Days Off
• New Parent Leave for employees with a newborn child or a child placed with them for adoption or foster care
• Mental health support through Ginger.io 
• Financial wellness, guidance, and unlimited access to a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) through Northstar 
• Paid sabbatical for Nerds to recharge, gain knowledge and pursue their interests
• Health and Dependent Care FSA and HSA Plan with monthly NerdWallet contribution
• Weekly Virtual Bootcamp, Yoga, and Mindfulness Meditation sessions
• Monthly Wellness Stipend, Cell Phone Stipend, and Wifi Stipend

Have Some Fun! (Nerds are fun, too)

• Nerd-led group initiatives – Intramural Sports, Employee Resource Groups for Parents, Diversity, and Inclusion, Women, LGBTQIA, and other communities
• Hackathons, Happy Hours, and team events across all teams and departments
• Company-wide events like Little Nerds Day (aka bring your kids to work day, even if you're remote!) and our annual Charity Auction 

Lifestyle (Be your best self - we’ll take care of the details)

• Our Nerds love to make an impact by paying it forward – Donate to your favorite causes with a company match
• Work from home equipment stipend and co-working space subsidy 
• Anniversary recognition program – choose from different items and experiences
• Commuting stipend 

Plan for your future (And when you retire on your island, remember the little people)

• 401K with company match
• Annual Enrichment Stipend for learning and development
• Be the first to test and benefit from our new financial products and tools
• Access to Rocket Lawyer for online legal support and resources 

If you are based in California, we encourage you to read this important information for California residents linked here.

NerdWallet is committed to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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