Forward Logo

Forward

Director of Engineering

Reposted 18 Days Ago
Remote
Hiring Remotely in Texas, USA
Senior level
Remote
Hiring Remotely in Texas, USA
Senior level
As VP of Engineering, lead the engineering team, establish technical direction, and drive product delivery while ensuring high reliability and quality standards.
The summary above was generated by AI
About The Role

As Director of Engineering, you own the technical direction, delivery, and culture of the engineering organization.

You’ll partner closely with the founders on company strategy, with product on what we build, and with customers on what we ship. Your job is to scale the team, sharpen execution, and ensure we continue to ship quickly without compromising on the things that matter (especially when money is involved).

This is a hands-on leadership role. You’ll be in architecture discussions, involved in critical code reviews, and present for the hardest technical and product decisions. We are not looking for a pure people manager who has stepped away from the work.

What You’ll Do

Lead the organization
Build, manage, and develop a high-performing team of senior engineers and engineering managers. Set a high bar for hiring, performance, and engineering quality.

Own delivery
Establish the systems, rituals, and accountability needed to ship predictably and at high quality.

Set technical direction
Partner with founders and senior engineers on architecture, platform investments, and key build vs. buy decisions.

Drive our agentic AI strategy
Identify where AI agents meaningfully improve our product and operations—and turn those ideas into production systems.

Build and scale a high-talent team
Own talent density. Attract, close, and retain exceptional engineers, and ensure every hire raises the bar. Be directly involved in senior hiring and act as a final decision-maker when needed. Design the org, leveling, and onboarding systems that let us scale quickly without compromising quality—and address underperformance decisively.

Partner across the business
Work closely with product, design, and go-to-market to decide what to build, when to ship, and how to position it.

Raise the operational bar
Own reliability, security, observability, on-call, and incident response. We move money—our standards are high by default.

Run the organization on metrics
Define and own the metrics that matter across product, platform, and team. Build the dashboards and feedback loops that make performance visible—and use them to drive prioritization, accountability, and decision-making at every level.

What We’re Looking For
  • 12+ years of software engineering experience, including 4+ years leading engineers and engineering managers
  • Track record of scaling engineering teams at high-growth startups (ideally ~10 → 50+ engineers)
  • Strong technical depth—you’ve built and operated distributed systems and can actively contribute in design reviews
  • Experience in fintech, payments, or other regulated, money-moving domains; strong instincts around reliability, idempotency, and correctness
  • Familiarity with our ecosystem: TypeScript, Next.js, modern Node runtimes (Bun/Hono), Kafka, and AWS-based infrastructure
  • Clear thinking and hands-on experience with AI-native systems, or a well-developed perspective on how to apply agentic AI effectively
  • Excellent communication—you can align engineers, executives, and customers around complex tradeoffs
  • Strong bias toward shipping—measured by real systems in production, not plans
  • Strong data fluency—you don’t rely on intuition alone. You instrument systems and teams effectively, use metrics to drive decisions, and know the difference between signal and noise
Our Stack
  • Application: TypeScript, Next.js, Bun, Hono, Drizzle ORM
  • Data: PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, RisingWave, Apache Iceberg
  • Streaming: Kafka
  • Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes (EKS)
  • AI: Agentic systems built on frontier models
Why Forward
  • Work on foundational financial infrastructure that other companies will build on
  • Founding team with multiple successful exits and deep operational experience
  • Strong funding, real revenue, and a credible path to a category-defining outcome
  • Competitive salary, meaningful equity, and full benefits
Location

Austin, Tx

Similar Jobs

13 Minutes Ago
Remote
US
171K-198K Annually
Senior level
171K-198K Annually
Senior level
Food
Leads capital engineering projects across manufacturing and supply chain facilities, from concept through commissioning and startup. Directs industrial automation, PLC/HMI/SCADA modernization, manufacturing systems integration, digital manufacturing, reliability improvements, and OT cybersecurity implementation. Partners with plant, IT, cybersecurity, maintenance, suppliers, and integrators to deliver secure, scalable solutions, improve operational performance, and maintain engineering standards across multiple locations.
Top Skills: Data HistoriansDrivesEthernet/IpFirewallsHmiIndustrial Control SystemsIndustrial InstrumentationIndustrial NetworkingIsa/Iec 62443MesModbus TcpMotion ControlNist Cybersecurity FrameworkOpc UaPlcProcess ControlProfinetScada
7 Days Ago
Remote
United States
250K-300K Annually
Expert/Leader
250K-300K Annually
Expert/Leader
Artificial Intelligence • Blockchain • Professional Services • Security • Consulting • Cybersecurity • Defense
Leads a 12-person application security practice conducting code audits, vulnerability research, and secure design reviews. Oversees technical delivery, client relationships, project staffing, utilization, profitability, recruiting, and team development. Provides hands-on technical direction across source-code security work, determines investments in tooling and methodologies, and integrates AI-assisted auditing and research into team workflows. The role also owns practice P&L and supports engineers’ conference, publication, and open-source contributions.
Top Skills: Ai Analysis ToolsAi Coding ToolsC/C++FuzzingGoJavascript/TypescriptPythonRustSolidityStatic Analysis
2 Days Ago
Remote
United States
Expert/Leader
Expert/Leader
Edtech
Lead the 0-to-1 architecture, development, testing, and launch of Riverside Insights’ Reach platform and next-generation CogAT assessment. Build and manage a 6–10 engineer team, make build-versus-buy decisions, oversee AWS infrastructure and regulated-data compliance, lead customer migration, and translate product roadmaps into technical execution. The role is hands-on, requiring active coding, full-stack fluency, AI-native development, cross-functional partnership, and senior leadership communication.
Top Skills: Ai/MlAWSDevOpsInfrastructure As CodeTerraform

What you need to know about the Austin Tech Scene

Austin has a diverse and thriving tech ecosystem thanks to home-grown companies like Dell and major campuses for IBM, AMD and Apple. The state’s flagship university, the University of Texas at Austin, is known for its engineering school, and the city is known for its annual South by Southwest tech and media conference. Austin’s tech scene spans many verticals, but it’s particularly known for hardware, including semiconductors, as well as AI, biotechnology and cloud computing. And its food and music scene, low taxes and favorable climate has made the city a destination for tech workers from across the country.

Key Facts About Austin Tech

  • Number of Tech Workers: 180,500; 13.7% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
  • Major Tech Employers: Dell, IBM, AMD, Apple, Alphabet
  • Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, hardware, cloud computing, software, healthtech
  • Funding Landscape: $4.5 billion in VC funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
  • Notable Investors: Live Oak Ventures, Austin Ventures, Hinge Capital, Gigafund, KdT Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Silverton Partners
  • Research Centers and Universities: University of Texas, Southwestern University, Texas State University, Center for Complex Quantum Systems, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, Texas Advanced Computing Center

Sign up now Access later

Create Free Account

Please log in or sign up to report this job.

Create Free Account