Director of Engineering

ClassWallet, a leading financial technology company in the United States, is seeking to hire a Director of Engineering to join our team. ClassWallet is a financial technology company serving agencies delegated responsibility to manage public funds. Agencies use ClassWallet to get public funds to the right people, and ensure the funds are used for the right purpose. ClassWallet’s suite of products and services empowers agency administrators to dramatically increase efficiency of funds distribution and spend compliance, reduce programmatic costs, maximize the full potential impact of the program, and satisfy the needs and expectations of policymakers, constituents and public reporting. ClassWallet has processed over $3.5 Billion to date and serves public agencies across 33 states. The Company has developed an industry-defining digital wallet solution which has gained rapid traction among state and local agencies and school districts across America. ClassWallet ranks as the 61st fastest growing software company on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies and the 21st fastest growing financial technology company on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 in 2023. While the Company delivers immense business value, the social impact of ClassWallet is a fabric that runs through its mission and corporate culture. As a result of ClassWallet’s innovation, public programs run with exponentially more efficiency and the impact and breadth of the programs for the individuals they serve is dramatically higher. This mission compliments the Company mission-based culture with focus on gratitude and work-life balance. About the Role We are looking for a Director of Engineering to lead our engineering team and drive the technical execution of ClassWallet's product roadmap. This is a people-first leadership role for someone who is equally energized by building high-performing teams and staying close enough to the technology to make smart strategic decisions. You will partner closely with our Directors of Engineering Operations, Product, and Architecture to translate business priorities into delivery plans, and you will be a champion for engineering excellence, AI-forward development practices, and a culture where engineers do their best work. What You'll Do Team Leadership & People Development Lead, mentor, and grow a team of 10–15 software engineers across multiple experience levels, with a focus on retention, career development, and high performance. Conduct regular 1:1s, quarterly performance reviews, and individual goal-setting conversations tied to both team goals and personal growth. Build a strong engineering culture — one that values ownership, continuous learning, problem solving, and accountability. Partner with HR and recruiting to attract, hire, and onboard top engineering talent. Address performance issues directly, fairly, and promptly, using structured frameworks and clear documentation. Delivery & Execution Partner with Engineering Operations to champion continuous flow principles, ensuring capacity optimization, throughput, and predictability across the team. Remove blockers, manage dependencies, and ensure engineers have what they need to execute without unnecessary friction. Partner with Engineering Operations to leverage actionable flow metrics — including cycle time, deployment frequency, bug escape rate, and MTTR — to identify bottlenecks, drive continuous improvement, and support team health. Partner with the Director of Architecture on technical direction and ensure your team has the context and resources to execute architectural decisions effectively. AI-Powered Product Development Lead the engineering delivery of AI-powered product features, working closely with Product and Architecture to scope, prioritize, and ship AI capabilities that create real user value. Ensure your team has the skills, tooling, and processes to build and maintain AI/ML-integrated features on the ClassWallet platform — including LLM integrations, intelligent automation, and data-driven workflows. Maintain a working understanding of AI product development patterns (prompt engineering, RAG, API integration, model evaluation) sufficient to make informed scoping and build-vs-buy decisions. AI-Augmented Development Process Champion the adoption of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, AI-powered testing and code review) across the engineering team. Establish best practices and guardrails for responsible AI tool usage — including code quality standards, security review, and IP considerations. Identify and implement AI-driven process improvements across the SDLC: automated testing, intelligent CI/CD, documentation generation, and developer productivity tooling. Track and report on AI tooling ROI in terms of developer velocity, code quality, and team satisfaction. Strategic Planning & Roadmap Represent engineering capacity, constraints, and delivery reality in the roadmap planning process alongside the Directors of Operations, Product, and Architecture. Contribute to the 12-month technical roadmap with a clear view of team capabilities, hiring plans, and execution sequencing. Present roadmap progress and engineering metrics to senior leadership in a business-outcome context — not just technical output. Maintain a living risk register and proactively surface delivery risks before they become problems. 10+ years of professional software development experience, with at least 5 years in an engineering leadership role (engineering manager, senior manager, or director). Demonstrated success leading and growing a team of engineers, including full-cycle ownership of hiring, onboarding, performance management, and career development. Proven track record of delivering complex software projects on time and at scale in an Agile environment, including managing cross-functional dependencies with Product and Design. Experience owning engineering delivery metrics (cycle time, deployment frequency, MTTR) and presenting results to senior leadership in a business-outcome context. Direct experience building or contributing to a multi-year technical roadmap, including capacity planning, prioritization tradeoffs, and risk management. A clear, demonstrated point of view on how AI is changing software development — with a track record of piloting, adopting, or scaling AI tooling or AI-powered features on a team. Experience working in a regulated industry or with compliance-sensitive systems where security, auditability, and data privacy are first-class concerns. Formal or informal experience with payments infrastructure, fund administration systems, or government disbursement platforms. Experience helping companies continually modernize their architecture while remaining innovative and competitive. Required Technical Skills Languages & Frameworks Professional proficiency in JavaScript and/or Python at a level sufficient to review code, evaluate architectural decisions, and meaningfully engage in technical design discussions. Working knowledge of Node.js, React.js, Next.js, and NestJS — understanding how these fit together in a modern full-stack architecture and where their tradeoffs lie. Databases Solid understanding of relational database design and query optimization using MS SQL Server and/or MySQL. Knowledge of NoSQL data modeling with MongoDB, including appropriate use cases vs. relational alternatives. Experience in complex data migrations, specifically involving large-scale MongoDB environments, schema evolution, and ensuring data consistency during architectural shifts. Cloud & Infrastructure Hands-on experience with AWS — including core services (EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda, ECS/EKS) and a working understanding of cloud cost management, security groups, and IAM best practices. Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes) in production environments. Familiarity with CI/CD pipeline design and tooling (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI) and the ability to evaluate and improve pipeline health. Engineering Practices Deep familiarity with agile principles and continuous flow methodologies, with the ability to partner with agile coaches to champion flow-based ways of working across the team. Strong command of version control workflows (Git), branching strategies, and code review standards. Working knowledge of system design principles: scalability patterns, service decomposition, API design, caching strategies, and fault tolerance. Practical understanding of application security fundamentals: OWASP Top 10, secrets management, data encryption, and secure SDLC practices. AI & Emerging Technology Demonstrable familiarity with AI-assisted developer tooling (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or equivalent) and the ability to evaluate, govern, and scale their use across a team. Working knowledge of AI/ML integration patterns — including LLM API integration, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and model evaluation — sufficient to make informed build-vs-buy decisions and scope engineering efforts. Awareness of responsible AI practices including data privacy, bias considerations, and IP/compliance implications of AI-generated code and content. Preferred Experience building or shipping AI-powered product features in a fintech, govtech, or payments context. Experience balancing verification and velocity for AI generated code in a highly regulated environment. Hands-on experience with MS SQL Server at scale, including performance tuning and query optimization in high-transaction environments. Experience partnering with a dedicated Director or VP of Architecture in a multi-director engineering organization. ClassWallet is a positive, family-oriented team environment. Our focus is on encouragement, positive reinforcement, and gratitude. We work hard and are highly motivated to win but with a healthy perspective on life. We offer an excellent salary and benefits commensurate with experience. ClassWallet.com is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants are considered for all positions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status.