AVP, Engineering & Technical Product Owner

Athene; West Des Moines, Northern (IA, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Vitera, part of the Athene ecosystem, seeks an AVP, Engineering & Technical Product Owner to lead Software Engineering and QA, shaping architecture, tech direction, and delivery for the VDX data exchange platform and Pricing Engine. Reporting to the CTO, this hands-on leadership role blends people leadership with hands-on coding.

You will drive end-to-end delivery, manage backlogs, promote AI-assisted development, ensure SOC 2 and SDLC governance, and partner with stakeholders to advance the

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant software development, engineering, or technology experience, including 4+ years of leadership.
• Experience owning technical architecture and design for production platforms and contributing technically when needed.
• Experience with cloud platforms, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, automation, and modern engineering tooling.

Responsibilities

• Lead Software Engineering and QA teams, shaping architecture, technical direction, and delivery across Vitera's applications.
• Own the backlog and SDLC from requirements through development, testing, release, and production deployment.
• Drive AI-enabled engineering and responsible use of AI-assisted development, QA automation, and monitoring.
• Communicate delivery status, risks, and roadmap to leadership and stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership

Architecture

Backlog management

Agile delivery

Cloud platforms

CI/CD

AI coding assistants

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS

Terraform

GitHub

Atlassian

Job description

We are driven to do more. More for our customers and the financial professionals who offer our products. If you are driven to do more and love the challenge of pursuing more, Athene is your kind of company. You will find we offer more than the basics to create an inclusive and dynamic work environment at our various locations. **Purpose & Impact:**Vitera is transforming how retirement savings become reliable lifetime income. We bring together technology, product design, and some of the largest organizations in financial services to make guaranteed lifetime income more accessible within defined contribution plans. As part of the broader Athene and Apollo ecosystem, Vitera combines the speed, ownership, and creativity of a growing technology business with the scale, resources, and market reach of leading financial services organizations. As AVP, Engineering & Technical Product Owner, you will lead Vitera's Software Engineering and QA teams while shaping the architecture, technical direction, and delivery of the applications powering our business, including the VDX data exchange platform and Pricing Engine. Reporting directly to the CTO, this is a highly visible, hands-on leadership opportunity for someone who can move comfortably between people leadership, architecture, product ownership, and software engineering—and who is excited to use AI to rethink how technology teams build and deliver. **Key Deliverables:*** Lead, empower, and develop the engineering organization, including Software Engineering and QA, creating an inclusive, high-accountability environment where people have ownership, experiment thoughtfully, grow their capabilities, and deliver meaningful business outcomes.* Own technical architecture and engineering direction across Vitera's application portfolio, making sound decisions on platform design, technology selection, engineering standards, AWS infrastructure, CI/CD, scalability, security, and technical debt.* Drive end-to-end product and engineering delivery, owning the backlog and SDLC from requirements and architecture through development, testing, release, and production deployment while partnering with the CTO and business stakeholders to shape the technology roadmap.* Remain meaningfully hands-on, contributing code and technical solutions when needed while helping the team solve complex problems, move quickly through ambiguity, and continuously improve engineering practices.* Accelerate AI-enabled engineering, championing responsible use of AI-assisted development, code review, testing and QA automation, bug detection, and operational monitoring while helping the broader Vitera organization identify high-value applications of AI.* Act like an owner for technology performance and risk, communicating delivery status, critical paths, and risks to Vitera leadership while supporting SOC 2 and SDLC governance, release management, vendor coordination, and technology budget planning.**What You Need to Bring:*** 8+ years of relevant software development, engineering, or technology experience; including 4+ years of formal or informal leadership experience, with demonstrated success developing technical talent and leading teams responsible for production technology platforms, preferred.* Deep software engineering expertise with demonstrated experience owning technical architecture and design for production platforms, along with the ability and willingness to contribute technically when the situation calls for it.* Experience leading Agile product and engineering delivery, including backlog management, roadmapping, requirements refinement, release management, and cross-functional prioritization.* Experience with cloud platforms and modern engineering practices—AWS preferred—including CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, development and QA automation, and contemporary engineering tooling; experience with tools such as Atlassian, GitHub, Terraform, and AI coding assistants is valuable.* Strong critical thinking, communication, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to translate between technical and executive audiences, make sound decisions in ambiguity, challenge existing approaches, and turn ideas into action. Financial services, insurance, retirement, or fintech experience is a plus.* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.