Private Equity Engineering Lead

KKR; New York (NY); On-site; USD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

KKR’s Investment Technology group seeks an engineering leader to build a new private equity back/middle‑office platform. You will own the architecture, guide a team of senior engineers, and stay hands‑on on critical components.

The role emphasizes data quality, CI/CD discipline, and cross‑team collaboration. You will drive data migrations, design scalable data models, and coordinate with fund accounting, finance, and treasury partners to cut cycle times and improve controls.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 3+ years leading an engineering team.
• Proven ability to design and ship multi‑component, high‑auditability systems.
• Hands‑on in Python and SQL; building production data pipelines on AWS.
• Strong architectural judgement for API and event‑driven integration.
• Experience migrating off legacy systems through parallel run, cutover and decommissioning.
• Proven collaboration with non‑engineering partners (operations, finance) and external vendors.
• Bachelor's degree in CS/engineering or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of senior software and data engineers.
• Own the architecture and the build: data model, calculation engine, and integration layer.
• Write production code on critical components and review all calculation logic.
• Lead the migration off legacy end to end, including data migration and cutover planning.
• Coordinate with partner teams to align roadmaps and accelerate delivery.
• Partner with fund accounting, treasury, governance, and reporting teams to reduce cycle times.
• Build engineering controls for CI/CD, testing, observability and incident management.
• Explore AI selectively to augment document extraction and reconciliation tasks.
• Report progress to technology and business leadership with a metrics scorecard.

Skills

Python

SQL

AWS

Leadership

Architecture

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or related field

Tools

Snowflake

PySpark

Kestra

Argo

Job description

Company Overview

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world‑class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries.

Company Overview

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world‑class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries.

Team Overview

The Investment Technology group at KKR builds and operates the systems that power the entire investment lifecycle from deal sourcing and portfolio construction to risk management and monetization. We design platforms that connect data, people and insights across Private Equity, Credit, Real Estate, Infrastructure and Capital Markets, enabling investment teams to make faster, smarter decisions at scale. Our mandate is to transform how KKR invests by engineering shared, data‑driven platforms that replace fragmented legacy tools with integrated solutions that drive efficiency, transparency and alpha generation.

Position Overview

We are building a new platform for the Private Equity middle and back office and retiring the legacy systems it replaces. This is a build, not an implementation: the decision to build rather than buy is already made, and we are looking for an engineering leader who is a builder by instinct.

What You’ll Own

Core scope (middle and back office)

• Capital calls and distributions, from calculation through notice production and tie‑out.
• Management fees, fund accounting and partnership allocations.
• Co‑investment tracking at full parity with flagship funds.
• Funding‑instruction generation, handed to Treasury Technology for execution.
• Reconciliation and data‑quality automation, with break workflows, reason codes and ageing.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of senior software and data engineers. Set clear goals and an operating rhythm, give direct feedback, and grow depth in both engineering and the domain.
• Own the architecture and the build: the canonical data model, the calculation and capital‑activity engine, and the integration layer around them.
• Stay hands‑on. Write production code on critical‑path components, author and chair design reviews, and personally review all calculation, reconciliation and controls logic.
• Lead the migration off legacy end to end: data migration, parallel run, cutover, rollback planning and decommissioning.
• Orchestrate the partner teams as one delivery program, one shared roadmap, a visible dependency board, a joint operating rhythm, and stakeholders who are aligned before decisions are needed rather than after.
• Partner with fund accounting, fund operations, finance, treasury, valuation, investor reporting, tax and compliance to cut cycle times and manual effort against measured baselines.
• Build controls in by design and set engineering standards for CI/CD, testing, observability and incident management.
• Apply AI selectively: document extraction, reconciliation‑exception triage with evaluation sets and human approval, only where it measurably helps.
• Report progress to technology and business leadership against a clear metrics scorecard.

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 3+ years leading an engineering team, mentoring, planning and managing performance.
• A track record of building complex, multi‑component systems from the ground up. You have designed and shipped transactional or calculation‑heavy systems in a domain where accuracy and auditability matter, and you can explain how you proved correctness.
• Current hands‑on proficiency in Python and SQL, building production systems and data pipelines on AWS. You expect to spend 40–60% of your time coding and reviewing, and you want that.
• Sound architectural judgement: API and event‑driven integration, a clear line between data you own and data you consume, and examples of decisions you made early on versus ones you deferred.
• Experience leading at least one migration off a legacy system through parallel run, cutover and actual decommissioning.
• You have delivered work that depended on several other teams including non‑engineering partners (operations, finance), external vendors and at least one project where a core platform belonged to someone else.
• You can explain a technical trade‑off to a controller or an operations lead in plain terms. Collaborative, low ego, with a strong sense of ownership for outcomes and system health.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering or a related field preferred, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred

• Familiarity with private‑markets fund accounting and operations concepts: capital calls and distributions, waterfalls and carried interest, partnership allocations, NAV, management fees, and ABOR systems.
• Exposure to fund administrator data feeds, investor reporting (ILPA templates), valuation (ASC 820 / IPEV) or treasury and bank connectivity.
• Experience with Snowflake, PySpark and workflow orchestration (Kestra, Argo or similar), and with reference‑data or bitemporal modeling.
• Background in ledgers and payments, securities operations, insurance policy administration, or finance and ERP system builds, comparable domains where correctness is non‑negotiable.
• Practical experience applying LLMs to document extraction or exception handling, with evaluation and controls.

TECH STACK

AWS (EKS, RDS, Aurora), Python (FastAPI), React, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Redis, Kestra (job scheduling), PySpark (ETL / medallion model), with AI‑assisted development tools used across the SDLC. Integration with fund accounting, administrator, treasury and reporting systems through APIs, events and managed file transfer.

Base Salary Range

This is the expected annual base salary range for this New York‑based position. Actual salaries may vary based on factors, such as skill, experience, and qualification for the role. Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus, based on factors such as individual and team performance.

$170,000—$190,000 USD

KKR is an equal opportunity employer. Individuals seeking employment are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by applicable law.

KKR will provide reasonable accommodations as required by applicable federal, state, and/or local laws. Individuals seeking an accommodation for the application or interview process should email [e-mail]. Emails sent for unrelated issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access https://www.kkr.com/careers because of your disability. You can request reasonable accommodations by sending an email to [e-mail]. Only emails left for this purpose will be returned.

Massachusetts Applicants

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. This notice applies only to applicants and employees who work or will work in Massachusetts, in accordance with applicable state law.