Kiavi is seeking a seasoned Director of Engineering to lead Data Infrastructure, MLOps, and data support efforts for teams relying on data, with the goal of building the platform for powering Kiavi's AI strategy and accelerating the use of Data/AI/ML in lending.
Requirements
- You have used industry-leading Data and AI/ML systems such as Databricks, Snowflake, AWS SageMaker, Kubeflow, etc.
- You are proficient in understanding data pipelines, addressing latency, and communicating best practices for tools such as Airflow, Dagster, etc.
- You have experience in building highly available systems using Kubernetes, Kafka, etc.
- You are familiar with modern LLM evaluation, telemetry and observability platforms (e.g., Langfuse, MLflow, LangGraph, or equivalents), and understand how to leverage these tools to manage model performance, cost, and safety in production.
- You have some experience integrating and managing data systems with specialized frameworks such as MCP (Model Context Protocol), or other proprietary/niche model evaluation and telemetry tools.
- You are open to understanding the system’s 'guts' as a 'player-coach' and may occasionally write a query, script, or build a prototype to demonstrate technical direction or unblock a critical path
- Operate with standardized SDLC practices so that models, data and systems are auditable and reproducible by default (rather than by request).
Responsibilities
- Lead & Mentor a high-performing, skilled, Data Engineering and MLOps team including engineers, senior technical program manager and other technical staff.
- Drive Technical Strategy & Vision: You will lead the collaborative development of the technical vision and roadmap for our Data and AI/ML platform.
- Platform Architecture & Scalability: Work closely with architecture specialists on the team to ensure Kiavi has a scalable core data platform that meets business needs.
- Execute with Excellence: Lead your team in delivering complex, large scale projects where availability, accuracy and security are critical.
- Align Business and Infrastructure Needs: Drive adoption of tooling and governance by being the champion for ensuring business stakeholder input is integrated into all major infrastructure choices.
- Operational Monitoring and Governance: Lead the team to build and implement robust monitoring beyond basic uptime, specifically focusing on model drift/decay and performance feedback loops to assess the ongoing health and risk level of production models.
- Optimize for Speed through Stability: Champion an approach where compliance, risk management, and infosec are built into all processes, embedding scalable solutions and guardrails that protect regulatory integrity and security without slowing delivery.
Other
- This position can be based remotely in any of our approved hiring regions.
- Required location in Pittsburgh or San Francisco / Hybrid (Max 1 day a week in office expectation)
- You are an exceptional people manager who knows how to attract, develop, and retain top talent.
- You have a track record of delivering complex, large-scale projects in a dynamic, fast-paced business environment.
- B.S. degree (or higher) in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience).
