Director of Software Engineering (Irvine)

Origence; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 213,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading fintech company in Irvine, CA is looking for a Director of Software Engineering. This role involves managing a division with multiple products and up to 30 employees. The ideal candidate will oversee daily operations, manage budgets, and cultivate a positive culture while ensuring technical initiatives align with business goals. A strong background in software engineering and leadership is required, emphasizing innovation and efficiency in SaaS lending solutions.

Benefits

Flexible Working Environment

Paid Time Off

401k (8% match)

College Tuition Benefits

Company Culture Events

Qualifications

• Minimum of 15 years of professional software engineering experience.
• At least 5 years in a senior leadership position.
• Experience in SaaS lending domain preferred.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the day-to-day division operations.
• Manage budget, staffing, and performance.
• Ensure alignment of technical initiatives with organizational goals.

Skills

Leadership

Problem solving

Agile Methodologies

Technical expertise

Effective delegation

Communication skills

Education

Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related industry experience

Tools

.Net

C#

Azure

AWS

Job description

About Origence

With 30 years at the forefront of fintech innovation, we specialize in SaaS lending solutions that lead the industry. Our core mission is customer‑centric, focusing on empowering Credit Unions across the United States with the tools to offer accessible, competitive lending services. We’re deeply committed to enhancing the financial ecosystem for a broad network of credit unions, members and auto dealers. We invest in our greatest assets, our employees, and foster a culture of innovation and ownership through freedom and responsibility. We celebrate fiscal accountability, operational rigor and efficiency to create a sustainably healthy and robust business for the long term.

About you

You are a natural leader, care deeply about people and their career development, self‑driven, conscientious, fiscally responsible, self‑aware, passionate and compassionate engineering leader. You are comfortable with ambiguity, eternally curious, and love problem solving. You operate as an owner and work with a growth mindset. You can define a vision for your area of ownership, building a culture that fosters freedom and responsibility and inspires innovation. You are technically deep in all areas of the product development life cycle, capable of designing architecture and rolling up your sleeps when needed. You act as a multiplier collaborating with others. You are tireless in questioning the status quo and pursue the best answers to the hardest problems to the benefit of the business. Your focus is strong and capable of context switching and pivoting with the business. In the vacuum of leadership, you assume it. You aren’t just an engineering leader; you are a game changer.

The Director, Software Engineering is responsible for managing a division with multiple products, multiple levels of management, and up to 30 employees, orchestrating design / implementation of new / existing applications and services of Origence. Act as a change agent to promote skill acquisition and development maturity evolving towards a combined engineering development model. Critical to this role is managing the budget, staffing, retention, performance management, as well as cultivating a positive and rewarding culture where employees can learn, grow and thrive.

What you will do :

• Spend 90% of your time actively overseeing the day-to-day operations of your division. 10% of your time will be spent researching new technology, coaching, mentoring, and holding 1 : 1 with staff and peers.
• Provide feedback and training to staff and ensure that technical initiatives align with organizational goals and remain within budget, while working closely with peers, Principal Engineers / Development Managers , Product leaders, and stakeholders to deliver commitments.
• Ensure needed capacity is achieved to meet business goals by hiring to plan and managing attrition.
• Coordinate with learning and development to define training programs for your teams in support of combined engineering.
• Managed SLAs for products under ownership and ensure a DevOps culture is enforced through live site rotation, incident management triage, RCA development, and a focus on quality through the use of modern development best practices.
• Manage business commitments and communicate often to create transparency and trust, while building a high-performance culture that fosters freedom and responsibility, an owner's mindset and learning with a growth mindset.

Education

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related industry experience

Experience

• A minimum of 15 years of professional software engineering experience, and 5 years as a Sr leader managing multiple levels of management and up to 50 employees. 2 years of consecutive leadership experience demonstrating knowledge of the employee lifecycle is a must.
• Relevant SaaS experience in the lending domain.
• A minimum of 5 years experience in .Net, C#, Windows tools and languages as well as modern technical stacks.
• Experience developing scalable and resilient applications with SQL and NoSQL.
• Experience in Agile Methodologies.
• Experience with Domain Driven Design, Test Driven Design, Event Driven Architecture, Microservice Architecture.
• Experience delivering solutions on Azure Cloud or AWS. Azure preferred.
• Experience leading or transforming a development organization into a combined engineering model of development.
• Strong knowledge of modern development patterns and techniques.
• Ability to leverage AI tools to automate tasks for greater efficiency.
• Demonstrated experience building / managing nearshore / offshore engineering teams.
• Demonstrated knowledge leveraging AI tools, A2A, Agentic AI and MCP oriented development supporting tool chain automation, and product design automation.

Specialized Skills

• Capable of building a high-performance culture.
• Excellent judgment demonstrating a bias for action operating as an owner.
• Skilled leader in organizational development, building teams and developing people, and organization resilience.
• Effective delegation skills that empower employees and create opportunities for growth.
• Builds trust to gain credibility and influence through demonstrated skill and experience.
• Build strong teams and relationships in support of a resilient business.
• Excellent presentation, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Effectively leads / participates in technical initiatives, collaborates on design / requirements.
• Seamlessly works cross‑functionally collaborating with different teams and divisions.
• Technically deep, having Technical / Domain expertise providing foundational knowledge in support of the business.
• Brings experience and understanding of the application domain, enabling insightful decisions and innovative problem‑solving.
• Ability to work in a fast paced / flexible environment that practices SAFe / Agile based SDLC.
• Leads by example and practices high standards for behavior and performance, models the values and principles of the organization, and inspires others.
• Experience with event driven design and microservice architecture best practices.

Why you should apply

• Flexible Working Environment
• Paid Time Off
• 401k (8% match)
• College Tuition Benefits / Tuition Reimbursement
• Good Benefits options
• Company Culture! Cultural and Holiday celebrations, Theme days like Star Wars Day & Bring your Kids to Work Day, Monthly Townhalls and Quarterly Company Meetings that ensure awareness, inclusion, and transparency.

The starting salary range for this full‑time position in Irvine, CA is $170100 - $212600 per year. This base pay will take into consideration internal equity, candidates geographic region, job‑related knowledge and experience among other factors. Origence maintains a highly competitive compensation program. Under company guidelines, this position is eligible for an annual bonus to provide an incentive to achieve targeted goals. Bonuses are awarded at companys discretion on an individual basis.

Origence is an equal opportunity employer. All recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, benefits, discipline, and other terms and conditions of employment will be based upon an individuals qualifications regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, military service, marital status, pregnancy, age, protected medical condition, genetic information, disability or any other category protected by federal, state or local law.