Job description

ABOUT THE COMPANY Valon is the leading AI platform for mortgage servicing, building the AI-native operating system for regulated finance. Before providing the system of record that powers the entire industry, we built and ran our own mortgage servicer on it. That gave us a real regulated environment to prove our technology could replace the mainframe systems servicers have used for decades. Carrington acquired that servicer and adopted ValonOS as its core platform, allowing us to focus entirely on scaling our SaaS platform. ValonOS is now on track to power 1 in 6 U.S. mortgages across major mortgage servicers like Newrez, Carrington, and ServiceMac. Every process on the platform is structured and programmable, enabling our AI agents to perform core servicing work, like handling payments, escrow, and homeowner questions, directly within the system's controls. We recently raised a $150 million Series D at a $2.3 billion valuation by new investor Ribbit Capital, with continued support from existing backer a16z, amongst others. ENGINEERING AT VALON Our engineering team powers a modern software ecosystem designed to disrupt one of the most outdated and heavily regulated industries in finance: mortgage servicing. We have built the foundation of a scalable platform capable of managing billions in assets with precision and reliability. Now we are focused on scaling infrastructure, improving developer experience, and building high-leverage systems that support rapid product iteration and long-term business growth. We are a tight-knit, high-agency group of engineers from Stripe, Jane Street, Meta, and Google, and we aim to do the best work of our lives—together. Our headquarters are in New York City, with a satellite San Francisco office that opened last year. We also fully support remote work. ABOUT THE ROLE We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead our Developer Infrastructure team on the Platform organization. You will manage and grow a high-impact team responsible for the systems that shape how every Valon engineer builds, tests, ships, and operates software. You will treat developer infrastructure as a product: understand the needs of engineering teams, define a clear roadmap, and make the common path fast, safe, observable, and pleasant. Your scope will span internal developer tooling such as local development, test infrastructure, CI/CD, release workflows, monitoring and observability, engineering standards, and AI-enabled tools. You will partner closely with application, data, security, and operations teams to make the entire software lifecycle more reliable and productive. This is a hands-on leadership role. You will guide architecture decisions, write code or debug systems when needed, and stay close to the developer experience you are improving. You will also be a people-first leader focused on recruiting, coaching, giving feedback, and helping engineers thrive through 360-degree feedback and continuous development. Examples of work on the roadmap include: - Making integration tests easy to create, discover, and run in CI. - Enabling safe online database schema migrations via Vitess. - Ensuring web clients are compatible with the GraphQL schema before deployment, and vice versa. - Reducing local setup time and improving the reliability of development environments. - Building actionable observability and release feedback loops that help engineers diagnose and fix issues quickly. - Adopting AI tooling that improves engineering throughput while preserving quality, security, and appropriate controls. RESPONSIBILITIES - Lead and grow a team of engineers focused on developer infrastructure, platform tooling, and internal developer experience. - Own technical strategy, planning, and execution for the developer platform, with an emphasis on reliability, security, usability, and measurable productivity gains. - Act as a strong technical mentor and hands-on contributor when needed—guiding architecture, writing code, and debugging systems. - Partner with engineering leaders and teams across the company to understand friction points and deliver high-leverage improvements. - Build effective mechanisms for prioritization, platform adoption, service ownership, and continuous feedback from internal customers. - Establish and evolve engineering processes that improve velocity, quality, and operational readiness. - Invest in recruiting and developing talent through coaching, mentorship, and ongoing feedback. - Promote a high-agency, high-accountability culture with clear communication and pragmatic decision-making. IDEAL BACKGROUND - 6+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years leading and developing engineering teams. - Experience building or operating developer platforms, internal tools, CI/CD systems, test infrastructure, release automation, or observability systems. - Strong systems thinking and an understanding of how developer workflows, application architecture, and production infrastructure fit together. - Hands-on experience with cloud providers such as AWS or GCP, containerization such as Docker or Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and modern observability stacks. - A product mindset and the ability to translate internal customer needs into simple, scalable technical solutions. - Track record of leading teams in fast-paced, high-growth environments and aligning partners around a shared roadmap. - Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineers while fostering a high-performance, feedback-driven team culture. - Excellent communication skills and a bias toward action, learning, and continuous improvement. BENEFITS - Compensation: competitive salary with a meaningful stake in the company via equity, and 401(k) plan. The base salary range reflects multiple levels. We assess level based on a combination of experience and interview performance. - Health & well-being: we’ll invest in your physical and mental well-being with comprehensive medical, dental, & vision benefits. - Free Food: daily lunch, and dinner provided through Forkable for in-office team members. - Commuter benefits: pre-tax deductions for public transit, rideshares, and parking to simplify your daily commute. - Grow together: company wide orientation for you to successfully onboard and other learning & development opportunities including regular review cycles that feature 360-degree feedback. - Play together: quarterly budgets for team and company outings. Use it for team swag, cooking classes, or team dinners. - Generous time off: flexible paid time off with no annual limit, sick days, and 11 company holidays. - Baby bonding time: 12 weeks of fully paid leave for both birthing and non-birthing parents, so you can spend uninterrupted time welcoming and caring for your newest family member. Throughout the interview process, please remember that emails will only be from valon.com valon.com email addresses. We will never ask for any personally identifiable information during the interview process itself. Please reach out to talent@valon.com if you have any requests to verify the authenticity of an outreach. Valon is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws. Valon makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.

Requirements

Must-haves

Our headquarters are in New York City, with a satellite San Francisco office that opened last year. We also fully support remote work.
Making integration tests easy to create, discover, and run in CI.
Enabling safe online database schema migrations via Vitess.
Ensuring web clients are compatible with the GraphQL schema before deployment, and vice versa.
Reducing local setup time and improving the reliability of development environments.
Building actionable observability and release feedback loops that help engineers diagnose and fix issues quickly.
Adopting AI tooling that improves engineering throughput while preserving quality, security, and appropriate controls.
Lead and grow a team of engineers focused on developer infrastructure, platform tooling, and internal developer experience.
Own technical strategy, planning, and execution for the developer platform, with an emphasis on reliability, security, usability, and measurable productivity gains.
Act as a strong technical mentor and hands-on contributor when needed—guiding architecture, writing code, and debugging systems.
Partner with engineering leaders and teams across the company to understand friction points and deliver high-leverage improvements.
Build effective mechanisms for prioritization, platform adoption, service ownership, and continuous feedback from internal customers.
Establish and evolve engineering processes that improve velocity, quality, and operational readiness.
Invest in recruiting and developing talent through coaching, mentorship, and ongoing feedback.
Promote a high-agency, high-accountability culture with clear communication and pragmatic decision-making.
6+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years leading and developing engineering teams.
Experience building or operating developer platforms, internal tools, CI/CD systems, test infrastructure, release automation, or observability systems.
Strong systems thinking and an understanding of how developer workflows, application architecture, and production infrastructure fit together.
Hands-on experience with cloud providers such as AWS or GCP, containerization such as Docker or Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and modern observability stacks.
A product mindset and the ability to translate internal customer needs into simple, scalable technical solutions.
Track record of leading teams in fast-paced, high-growth environments and aligning partners around a shared roadmap.
Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineers while fostering a high-performance, feedback-driven team culture.
Excellent communication skills and a bias toward action, learning, and continuous improvement.

Nice-to-haves

None flagged.

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

aici/cdgraphqlawsgcpdockerkubernetes

Platform: ashby
Effort: quick

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Dental

Vision

401(K)

Paid Time Off