Vice President of Engineering

Ascendum Solutions; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 200,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Ascendum Solutions seeks a Vice President of Engineering to lead the engineering organization, accountable for building scalable, reliable platforms and end-to-end software delivery in a Build / Operate / Govern model. The VP will define engineering strategy and own architecture governance, partnering with IT Operations and Security to ensure production readiness across teams.

The role requires driving modern practices such as CI/CD, IaC, observability, and developer experience, while scaling

Qualifications

• Deep experience leading large engineering orgs with shared accountability across engineering, operations, and security.
• Proven ability to drive product- and platform-based operating models and modern software practices (CI/CD, IaC, test automation).
• Experience with cloud-based platforms and enterprise governance.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering delivery, architecture execution, and service ownership in a Build / Operate / Govern model.
• Define and enforce architecture standards and technical governance across distributed teams.
• Partner with IT Operations and Security to align incident management, SLAs, and risk/compliance.

Skills

Build It Run It

CI/CD

Observability

DevOps

Platform Engineering

Architecture Governance

Cloud-Native

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Tools

Azure

Job description

The Vice President of Engineering will lead the company's engineering organization, responsible for building scalable, reliable, and high-quality technology platforms that power business growth. This role operates as the "Build" leader within a Build / Operate / Govern model, with full accountability for engineering delivery, architecture execution, and service ownership.

Operating Model

Follow a "You Build It, You Run It" approach, where engineering teams are accountable not only for delivering software, but also for the reliability, performance, and lifecycle of the systems they build. The VP of Engineering is responsible for designing and enforcing this model across the organization.

What Success Looks Like

• Engineering teams deliver predictable, high-quality outcomes aligned to business priorities
• Services are owned end-to-end by engineering teams, with clear accountability for reliability and performance
• Strong partnership across:
• Operate (IT Ops) - service management and operational excellence
• Govern (CISO) - security, risk, and compliance
• Modern engineering practices drive measurable improvements in cycle time, deployment frequency, and defect rates, platform and architecture decisions scale with the business over multiple years
• Define and lead the engineering strategy and operating model, aligned to Build / Operate / Govern principles
• Own the end-to-end software delivery lifecycle, including development, testing, release, and L3/L4 support
• Establish and enforce architecture standards and technical governance, serving as the authority for solution design and technology direction
• Build and lead a product- and platform-aligned engineering organization, including application, platform, data, and DevOps teams
• Design and scale modern engineering systems, including:
• CI/CD and release pipelines
• Test automation and quality engineering
• Observability and reliability practices
• Developer experience and productivity tooling
• Embed "You Build It, You Run It" accountability, ensuring engineering teams own system reliability, performance, and operability
• Partner with Head of IT Operations to:
• Ensure production readiness and service continuity
• Align on incident management, change management, and SLAs
• Partner with the CISO organization to:
• Align delivery with risk, compliance, and audit requirements
• Translate business and product demand into sequenced, executable roadmaps

Technical Knowledge and Understanding

• Deep experience leading organizations operating under a "You Build It, You Run It" or similar service ownership model, with clear accountability for reliability and performance
• Strong background in modern software engineering practices, including:
• CI/CD and automated release pipelines
• Test automation and quality engineering
• Infrastructure as code and cloud-native architectures
• Observability (monitoring, logging, tracing) and reliability engineering
• Proven ability to design and scale engineering systems, not just teams, including:
• Delivery lifecycle (build -> test -> release -> operate)
• Developer experience and productivity tooling
• Platform engineering and shared services models
• Demonstrated expertise in enterprise architecture and technical governance, including:
• Defining and enforcing architecture standards
• Leading architecture review and decision processes
• Driving consistency across distributed engineering teams
• Experience partnering effectively with IT Operations and Security functions within a shared accountability model, including:
• Aligning on incident management, SLAs, and operational readiness
• Experience building and scaling with cloud-based platforms (Azure preferred)

Experience

• Experience leading large, multi-layered engineering organizations
• Proven success implementing product-based and platform-based operating models
• Deep experience in DevOps, CI/CD, and modern engineering practices
• Strong architecture background with experience owning technical direction at scale
• Experience operating in shared accountability models (e.g., engineering + operations + security)
• Ability to drive both organizational design and execution performance
• Bachelor's degree in related field or demonstrated equivalent experience in a related field required.

Nice to Have

• Experience in insurance, financial services, or regulated environments
• Track record implementing and governing a "You Build It, You Run It" or similar ownership models
• Experience reducing vendor dependency and building internal engineering capability
• Exposure to data, AI/ML, and modern cloud-native architectures