Director, Product Engineering

Director, Product Engineering 

Job Summary 

The Director of Product Engineering leads product-aligned engineering teams responsible for the delivery, integration, support, and continuous improvement of member-facing and business-critical platforms across UFCU. This role partners closely with Product Owners, business leaders, architects, and technology teams to deliver scalable, secure, and reliable solutions that enhance member experience, operational excellence, and organizational growth. 
 
Operating within an agile POD delivery model, the Director of Product Engineering is accountable for engineering execution, platform reliability, service delivery, and production support across digital banking, lending, payments, CRM/contact center, and enterprise platforms. This leader fosters a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement while ensuring solutions align with UFCU’s strategic priorities and operational resiliency expectations within a regulated financial services environment. The Director, Product Engineering is an exempt role and reports to the Chief Technology Officer 

About UFCU 

Our Credit Union was founded in 1936 and has grown to serve members throughout Texas and beyond. At UFCU, we are more than just a financial institution, and our people are more than just employees. We are dedicated to our purpose of empowering our Members to achieve financial success and build brighter futures.  
 
In pursuit of our aspiration that UFCU is loved by millions of Members and built to thrive for generations, we are guided by our values: 

Purposefully Member-Obsessed 

We are driven by a profound sense of empathy to deeply understand our Members’ needs and preferences, what brighter futures means to them, and the obstacles in their way. We act in our Members’ best interests, forever seeking to empower their financial success. 

Possibilities Reimagined 

We are inspired to courageously experiment, learn, and iterate in pursuit of positive impact for our Members, UFCU, and coworkers. We challenge assumptions, embrace diverse perspectives, and make use of data and insights. 

Performance Excellence Rooted in Unwavering Integrity 

We do the right thing, always. We champion teamwork, accountability, continuous improvement, and celebrate successful outcomes of others, fostering an inclusive environment of excellence and collaboration.  

Essential Functions 

Product & Engineering Delivery 

• Lead end‑to‑end engineering delivery across member-facing and business-critical domains  

• Translate business strategies and product roadmaps into executable engineering plans. 

• Ensure solutions are scalable, secure, and aligned with UFCU’s enterprise architecture and platform strategy. 

 Agile POD Leadership & Business and Platform Engineering Partnership 

• Operate within a cross-functional agile POD model in partnership with Product Owners, business leaders, and technology teams. 

• Balance business priorities, delivery commitments, operational stability, and measurable outcomes through shared accountability across teams. 

• Act as the technology counterpart to the business, with shared accountability for delivery, stability, and outcomes. 

• Partner with Platform Engineering to leverage shared services, APIs, frameworks, and enterprise capabilities while reducing unnecessary duplication and point solutions. 

• Leverages platforms, built by platform engineering, to engineer domain‑specific business solutions.  

• Champion a platform‑first, product‑led engineering approach across teams. 

Service Delivery, SLAs & Production Accountability 

• Own service delivery outcomes for applications supporting assigned business domains. 

• Be accountable for meeting and continuously improving system SLAs, including: 

• Establish and maintain clear L2/L3 production support models, escalation paths, and on‑call ownership within PODs. 

• Lead incident response and major incident management, perform root Root‑cause analysis and permanent corrective actions, reduce recurring incidents through engineering and design improvements 

• Partner with Platform Engineering, SRE, and Operations to: Improve observability, monitoring, and alerting 

Delivery Excellence & Operating Model 

• Drive predictable, high‑quality delivery using agile and product‑centric practices. 

• Ensure delivery practices align with clear business objectives, product priorities, security expectations, and operational support requirements. 

• Improve speed‑to‑market without compromising security, reliability, or SLAs. 

Team Leadership and Development 

• Strategic and operational leader (player-coach) with the ability to remain closely connected to evolving technologies organizational priorities while developing high-performing teams. 

• Lead, inspire, motivate, and develop team members by providing guidance and training to attain departmental and individual development goals and support organizational needs. 

• Foster a  people-centered culture of accountability, collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement across engineering teams. 

• Build a successful team to operate according to UFCU guiding principles, providing guidance and resources and removing obstacles as needed.  

• Provide team leadership based on servant leadership principles, caring for the whole person.  

• Plan, monitor, and appraise job results with an emphasis on coaching and developing employees to achieve desired performance results. 

• Help teams achieve their career goals. Ensure team members understand how to have an impact and are aware of that impact when they've made it. 

Strategic Business Partner 

• Cultivate a positive, strong, lasting, and meaningful relationship and connection with others, working collaboratively with peers across the organization. 

• Facilitate joint brainstorming and team collaboration, working closely with peers to aid in creating organizational goals and strategies. 

• Collaborate with departments across the business, supporting their needs to achieve desired operational results. 

• Collaborate with business partners to determine future needs and support necessary to achieve business unit strategy. 

Strategy Development/Strategic Planning 

• Collaborate with senior leaders and actively participate in the organizational strategic planning process. 

• Develop Product Engineering strategies in partnership with executive leadership to support organizational priorities, member experience, and operational goals. 

• Monitor and evaluate department progress toward stated goals and make adjustments as needed based on business and department needs. 

• Facilitate procurement of tools and resources necessary to achieve organizational and department strategic priorities. 

Budgetary Oversight/Expense Management 

• Establish Product Engineering annual budget with identification of planned expenses for new or enhanced programs and services.  

• Ensure effective control of results. Take action to guarantee achievement of departmental objectives that fall within designated budgets. 

• Monitor and manage departmental expenses against budget priorities and adjust resources as needed to support organizational objectives. 

• Collaborate with senior leaders on development of organizational annual budget in alignment with strategic objectives. 

Other 

• Perform other duties as assigned.                                                                                                 

• Adhere to all organizational policies, procedures, and business ethics codes. 

• Complete required regulatory training as assigned. 

• Maintain strict adherence and compliance to all laws, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and internal controls specific to the role, including but not limited to the Bank Secrecy Act, Anti-Money Laundering, USA Patriot Act, OFAC, and Fair Lending regulations. 

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities  

Team Building and Leadership 

• Proven ability to create a high-performance climate through talent identification, recruitment, and retention. 

• Strong and demonstrable leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate others. 

• Proven ability to build a team of diverse talents that complement one another. 

• Proven ability to hold themselves to the highest standard of integrity and personal behavior. 

Building Relationships and Using Influence 

• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the proven ability to influence senior level management and key stakeholders. 

• Strong ability to recognize nuances in others and leverage this understanding for a more influential impact on the team. 

• Effective communicator, listener, and presenter, with the ability to work with various levels of the organization. Ability to communicate complex delivery, reliability, and integration topics clearly to executives and business leaders. 

• Adept at maintaining effective relationships with internal departments external business and community partners, and others key stakeholders. 

• Represent engineering as a strategic partner in enterprise technology decisions 

Executing for Results 

• Possess a proven delivery track record and exceptional service orientation. 

• Adept at translating the mission of the organization into actionable, quantitative plans. 

• Possess high levels of energy and persistence. 

• Rigorously hold oneself and others accountable for achieving high levels of individual and organizational performance. 

Business Acumen 

• Product‑Aligned Engineering & Business Domains – Knowledge of modern product-aligned engineering models, agile POD delivery, member engagement platforms, CRM/contact center technologies, and business-critical financial services domains. Understanding of product strategy, roadmaps, and how technology delivery supports business and member outcomes. 

• Technology, Integration and Architecture - Strong knowledge of modern application and integration architectures, Knowledge of CRM ecosystems, CCaaS platforms, and channel technologies, understanding of enterprise architecture principles, Knowledge of engineering practices that support scalability, security, performance. Knowledge of service delivery and reliability concepts 

• Product Engineering & Domain Delivery Leadership- Ability to lead end‑to‑end engineering delivery across business‑facing domains, translate business strategies and product roadmaps into clear, executable engineering plans. Ensure solutions are well‑integrated, scalable, secure, and aligned with UFCU’s enterprise architecture and integration strategy 

• Systems Integration & Platform Leverage – Ability to lead and govern system integration efforts, ensure integration designs leverage platform‑provided capabilities and avoid unnecessary point‑to‑point solutions, partner closely with platform engineering.  

Core Competencies (Standard in UFCU leader roles) 

• Delivering Member Obsession 

• Seeks to understand customers 

• Identifies customer service issues 

• Drives member-focused practices 

• Assures member satisfaction 

• Delivering Performance Excellence 

• Maintains focus 

• Measures progress and outcome  

• Ensures accountability 

• Delivering Innovation 

• Inspires curiosity  

• Challenges current thinking 

• Supports experimentation 

• Advances ideas to the next stage 

• Delivering Empowered Leadership 

• Develops direction 

• Builds team trust 

• Identifies opportunities to share responsibility 

• Informs the team 

• Supports the team 

Experience 

Minimum Requirements  

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Info Security or related technical/business field, or equivalent combination of education and experience. 

• 10+ years of software engineering, product engineering, or technology delivery leadership experience, including 5+ years in senior engineering leadership roles. 

• Minimum of seven (7) years of management and supervisory leadership experience developing and leading teams with direct reporting relationships. 

• Proven experience leading product‑aligned engineering teams with service delivery accountability 

• Experience partnering with business leaders, Product Owners, and cross-functional technology teams within agile delivery models. Strong background in modern application architectures, APIs, and cloud‑based systems 

• Experience delivering and operating business‑critical systems in regulated environments 

• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical teams and executive leaders 

• Must be bondable. 

Preferred Requirements  

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business, Info Security or relevant field of study 

• Minimum of five (5) years of demonstrated strategic leadership experience.  

• Experience working in financial services, fintech, or credit‑union experience 

• Background in lending systems, digital banking, payments, or customer‑facing platforms 

• Track record of partnering successfully with platform, architecture, security, SRE, and operations teams  

Physical Demands 

The physical demands described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

Frequent 

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.   

• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, and ability to adjust focus.   

• Employee will make extensive use of the telephone and virtual communications requiring the ability to explain complex information effectively and accurately.   

Work Environment 

The work environment characteristics described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.   

• This position is required to frequently work at UFCU Plaza in Austin, Texas. 

• This position may involve periodic stressful conditions. 

• May occasionally require an adjusted work schedule, overtime, and evening/weekend hours. 

• May occasionally involve public contact, requiring appropriate professional appearance.  

• Frequent computer use at a workstation for multiple hours at a time. 

• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.