Director, Platform Engineering & Developer Experience

Guild Mortgage Company, closing loans and opening doors since 1960. As a mortgage banking firm we are dedicated to serving the homeowner/buyer. Our goal is to provide affordable home financing for our customers, utilizing the best terms available while providing a level of professionalism and service unsurpassed in the lending industry.

Position Summary

Guild is establishing a modern, platform-based delivery operating system, an Internal Developer Platform (IDP), through IT Factory.

The Director of Platform Engineering & Developer Experience is accountable for executing and evolving the IT Factory strategy, driving sequencing, adoption, measurable outcomes, and the effectiveness of Guild’s internal platform product. Strategic vision is established in partnership with the VP, Software Delivery & Strategy, with increasing ownership earned through demonstrated execution and repeatability.

This role owns core capabilities of the Internal Developer Platform, including Golden Paths (supported delivery workflows and reference implementations), CI/CD and environment automation, Observability and operability-by-default standards, Reliability and quality enablement patterns, Governance-supporting automation and traceability patterns, Developer experience and adoption enablement, and Institutionalization of reusable delivery capability across initiatives.

This is not a tooling management role. It is a platform product leadership role in a regulated financial enterprise. The Director ensures platform standards are delivered as usable automation and reference implementations, not documentation-only guidance.

Compensation

This role is a exempt position with a targeted salary range of $168,481/year to $220,000/year.

Compensation at Guild is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to local and federal minimum wage requirements, education, level of experience, and applicant’s geographical location.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Platform Foundations & Delivery Standards a. Ensure platform automation supports reliable, observable, and verifiable software delivery practices. b. Embed integrity, quality, and compliance-supporting controls into CI/CD workflows as standard platform capabilities. c. Implement these controls in alignment with enterprise security and governance policy without assuming policy ownership or risk acceptance authority.

• Platform as a Product a. Execute and progressively evolve the platform vision in partnership with the VP, Software Delivery & Strategy. b. Own the platform roadmap, backlog, and platform sequencing discipline. c. Deliver measurable outcomes, not tool completeness. d. Maintain a visible backlog and a consistent release communication rhythm. e. Success is measured by adoption, friction reduction, reliability, and improved marginal delivery efficiency.

• Golden Path Delivery a. Golden Paths maximize safe self-service while minimizing manual coordination and approval overhead. Define clear self-service boundaries, what is automated by default versus what requires explicit review, to reduce friction without compromising regulatory discipline. b. Golden Paths should provide supported, production-ready implementation patterns that reduce delivery variance and improve repeatability across initiatives.

• Governance-Supporting Enablement (Automation & Traceability) a. Ensure platform capabilities support enterprise governance expectations through automation, traceability, and clear exception-handling patterns, in alignment with Enterprise Architecture, InfoSec, IAM, Risk & Governance. b. Partner with enterprise stakeholders to operationalize governance mechanics while respecting enterprise policy authority.

• Operability, Reliability & Recoverability Enablement a. Accountable for platform-level reliability enablement practices b. Clarify platform-level reliability expectations while reinforcing delivery team accountability for application-level performance, tuning, and operational outcomes. c. Operational readiness is required before scaling.

• Developer Experience & Adoption a. Define and continuously improve onboarding for new initiatives. b. Reduce time-to-first-deploy and bespoke setup through reusable patterns and automation. c. Establish an inner-source contribution model and promote reuse. d. Measure satisfaction, adoption, and friction signals. e. Partner with Delivery Leadership to align platform adoption with delivery planning, technical review forums, and initiative kickoff processes. f. Drive adoption through measurable value, friction reduction, and alignment with delivery leadership and enterprise priorities.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelors Degree directly related to the position or equivalent, preferred.
• Minimum 10 years experience in software engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure leadership.
• Minimum three years supervisory or leadership experience in progressive leadership roles leading cross-functional engineering teams
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills required.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented; ability to work in a fast-paced, metrics-driven environment required.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Word, Excel, Wiki, collaborative cloud-based programs, and third-party software applications required.
• Commitment to company values.
• Customer Service - Proactive attention to each person.
• Integrity - Do and say what's right.
• Respect - Treat others with dignity.
• Collaboration - Listen and work together.
• Learning - Seek knowledge and strive for improvement.
• Excellence – Deliver the unexpected.

Additional Qualifications

• Required Experience
• Experience leading internal platform or shared capability teams.
• Experience operating in regulated or risk-sensitive environments.
• Demonstrated organizational change leadership in platform adoption across federated engineering teams.
• Deep familiarity with:
• CI/CD and infrastructure automation
• Observability and SRE principles
• Policy-as-code and governance automation
• Modern cloud-native architectures
• Demonstrated ability to operate a platform as a product and drive adoption across federated engineering teams.
• Strong cross-functional influence and executive communication skills.
• Preferred Experience
• Financial services or mortgage industry exposure.
• Azure and .NET ecosystem experience.
• Experience implementing ADR and exception/waiver governance workflows.
• Experience aligning platform strategy to enterprise architecture standards.
• Familiarity with DORA, SPACE, or platform engineering maturity models.
• Leadership Characteristics
• The successful candidate:
• Thinks in systems, not tools.
• Optimizes for repeatability over heroics.
• Values evidence over aspiration.
• Understands regulatory risk posture.
• Enforces clarity in ownership boundaries.
• Communicates platform direction with executive fluency.
• Balances engineering depth with strategic platform sequencing discipline.
• Comfortable making explicit trade-offs between standardization and innovation in federated engineering environments.
• Treats shared delivery capability as an economic asset to steward.

Supervision

Job Scope: Oversees a discrete department or functional area; Executes the operational plan and leads operations of a single large function/program or multiple smaller functions/programs

Complexity: Problems encountered often cross areas of the organization and are often complex, broad in scope, and unprecedented with no clear solution; often works cross-functionally to solve problems and implemented changes

Impact: Decisions and actions have a major impact on the outcomes of the department, projects, and programs; Has a direct and significant impact on the business and/or operations of major segments of the organization

Interaction/Supervision: Generally manages staff with direct reports; responsible for complete oversight of people management of the area, including staffing, hiring, termination, and discipline, sets performance standards, evaluates staff, and makes pay decisions; accountable for staff development and training, etc.

Direct Reports: Up to 6 Engineers and/or Leads

Requirements

• Work is primarily sedentary; mobility in an office setting.
• Ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards.
• Ability to accurately interpret sounds and associated meanings at a volume consistent with interpersonal conversation.
• Office environment – moderate noise, no substantial exposure to adverse environmental conditions.
• Travel 5-10%
• This role requires effective adaptation to workplace stressors, including customer service complaints, security responsibilities, and competing priorities.
• Work is primarily performed during the business week, Monday - Friday; occasional night or weekend may be necessary.

Guild Mortgage Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

REQ#: DIREC017985