Vice President of Engineering Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Hybrid: 2-3 days per week in-office) Reports To: Senior Leadership (reporting structure finalized with the successful candidate) Team: Distributed engineering team + future direct hires The Opportunity We're looking for a builder-first technical leader who wants to spend 60-70% of their time in the codebase and 30-40% on architecture, process, and people. You'll be the most senior technologist at Honeycomb-the person who owns the engineering vision, sets the standards, and leads by example in the code. Honeycomb operates a multi-platform environment serving both investors and business owners. Your job is to lead a major platform consolidation effort, raise the bar on engineering quality and security, and build the foundation for Honeycomb's next phase of growth. You'll manage a distributed engineering team, establish governance and development standards across all contributors, and own the long-term technical strategy. This is a rare opportunity to shape the entire technical direction of a fintech company at an inflection point-with real equity upside and the autonomy to build it right. What You'll Own Technical Delivery (60-70%) - Lead a platform unification effort-consolidating multiple codebases, databases, and hosting environments into a cohesive architecture - Drive authentication consolidation across all products using modern identity frameworks - Architect and execute migration strategies across cloud infrastructure and database environments - Write production code daily-you set the standard for code quality by doing, not just reviewing - Own technical decisions across web, mobile, and supporting services - Manage and evolve a multi-service platform with numerous third-party integrations - ensuring reliability, clear service boundaries, and sustainable complexity as the product grows. - Resolve infrastructure risks and ensure all systems operate under company-controlled environments with proper governance Engineering Standards & Governance (15-20%) - Establish and enforce SDLC gates: PR approvals, code review, test coverage requirements, and static analysis - Own the Definition of Done and ensure consistent engineering standards across all contributors-internal, distributed, and founder-built systems - Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and deployment processes - Define and enforce code repository standards, hosting methodology, and infrastructure governance - Leverage AI-assisted development tools as standard engineering infrastructure-not optional enhancements Team Leadership (15-20%) - Directly manage the distributed engineering team, setting expectations and holding the team accountable for delivery quality and velocity - Define, track, and report engineering metrics to the leadership team - velocity, quality, reliability, and delivery predictability. - Build institutional engineering knowledge in-house, reducing single-point-of-failure risk on any one contributor or partner - Conduct regular 1:1s, code reviews, and performance assessments with all engineers - Develop a strategic hiring plan as the team grows-identifying where to add headcount vs. leverage partners - Partner closely with Product to align technical roadmaps with business goals, ensuring engineers understand the "why" behind every initiative Who You Are Required - 10+ years of software engineering experience with progressive technical leadership responsibilities - Deep, current hands-on proficiency in TypeScript and modern TypeScript frameworks (React, Next.js, Node.js)-you're writing code, not just reviewing it - Active use of AI-assisted development tools (Cursor, Copilot, Claude) as part of your daily workflow-you see these as velocity multipliers, not novelties - Experience managing or closely partnering with distributed or offshore engineering teams - Track record of leading platform migrations, system consolidations, or major re-architecture efforts - Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure (GCP preferred) including serverless, containers, and managed databases - Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL and/or MySQL), including data migration between systems - Experience establishing engineering processes from the ground up: CI/CD, code review, testing standards, deployment methodology - Comfort operating with high autonomy in a resource-constrained environment-you make pragmatic trade-offs, not perfect ones - Must be based in Pittsburgh, PA (or willing to relocate) and available in-office 2-3 days per week Strongly Preferred - Fintech, financial services, or regulated industry experience-you understand compliance requirements, data sensitivity, and the stakes of handling real money - Experience with multi-sided marketplace platforms (balancing investor and borrower/issuer needs) - Experience operating platforms with multiple interconnected services and third-party dependencies - you know how to manage integration complexity without letting it become fragile. - Familiarity with loan servicing, payment processing, or investment platform integrations - Experience with mobile development or managing mobile engineering (React Native) - Experience with serverless-first or edge computing architectures The Right Mindset - You're a builder who happens to lead, not a manager who used to code. Your first instinct is to open the IDE, not schedule a meeting. - You believe in iterative delivery over big-bang releases. Ship value early, ship it often, celebrate it repeatedly. - You see engineering governance as enabling speed, not slowing it down. Standards exist so teams can move faster with confidence. - You're diplomatic but firm. You can establish standards across diverse contributors-including those with deep institutional context-without alienating people. - You're energized by the "zero-to-one" phase of building engineering culture and process, not just maintaining what already works. - You genuinely care about small business success and community wealth-building. The mission is the job. What Honeycomb Offers - Equity in a high-growth fintech startup at a pivotal inflection point - Comprehensive health insurance and 401(k) plan - Unlimited PTO - The technical mandate to build it right-with the autonomy and trust to make real decisions - A collaborative, mission-driven team where your work has tangible impact on local communities across America