Director, Engineering

Director, Engineering

We're seeking a Director, Engineering for our Pleasanton, CA or Coppell, TX office to design and implement platform solutions that power seamless recipient experiences across our global network. You'll work from concept through production, partnering closely with Product Managers and other Engineers. You will build robust systems that enable millions of users to engage with our digital ecosystem. Note: This is a hybrid role, with two days a week in our Pleasanton, CA or Coppell, TX office.

Blackhawk Network's Recipient Experience team powers the digital journeys of millions of gift card recipients across our global network — from card activation and wallet integration to personalized offers and commerce. We are looking for a Director of Engineering to lead the backend platform engineering function that underpins all of these experiences at scale.

This is a senior engineering leadership role with management depth: you will lead a Senior Engineering Manager and additional direct reports, shaping both the people and the platform. You will help set the technical direction for our core backend systems while cultivating a high-performing, inclusive engineering culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of engineers through a Senior Engineering Manager and direct reports, setting clear expectations, fostering growth, and building a culture of accountability and collaboration.
• Partner closely with your peer Engineering Leaders (Mobile, Web), Lead Engineers, Product Management, and Technical Program Managers to align roadmaps and deliver cross-functional outcomes.
• Champion talent development — hiring, mentoring, performance management, and succession planning across your organization.
• Serve as a visible technical leader within BHN's broader Product & Technology organization, contributing to architecture forums, cross-team initiatives, and engineering culture.

• Help steer the technical direction for large-scale distributed backend systems
• Drive platform modernization — evolving from monolithic or legacy patterns toward API-first, cloud-native architectures on AWS.
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices: API design standards, code quality, CI/CD pipelines, observability, incident response, and post-mortem culture.
• Accountable for platform reliability, scalability, performance, and security across production systems that process high transaction volumes.

• Ensure all platform solutions meet PCI-DSS, enterprise security, and regulatory requirements including tokenization, sandboxed architectures, and access controls.
• Partner with Payments+, Fraud/Risk, and InfoSec teams to proactively identify and remediate security and compliance risks.

• Define and track meaningful engineering metrics — velocity, quality, uptime, and team health — and use data to drive continuous improvement.
• Build repeatable processes for onboarding, knowledge management, and operational runbooks that scale with team growth.
• Manage competing priorities effectively in a fast-paced environment, balancing near-term delivery with long-term platform investment

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles of increasing scope
• Proven experience managing managers — building and developing teams through other leaders
• Background in payments, fintech, e-commerce, or high-transaction-volume platforms strongly preferred
• Track record of delivering large-scale distributed systems to production with high availability requirements
• 5+ years working in Agile environments with geographically distributed teams

• Deep expertise in Java (11+), Spring Boot, and distributed systems design
• Strong command of API design (REST/GraphQL), microservices, and event-driven architecture
• Cloud-native development and operations on AWS
• RDBMS, SQL, data design, and transactionality (ACID); familiarity with NoSQL
• PCI-DSS compliance, tokenization, and security architecture
• Observability tooling (New Relic, Splunk, or equivalent) and CI/CD pipeline ownership
• Familiarity with service mesh, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and infrastructure-as-code

• Strong communication and cross-team collaboration skills
• Experience mentoring engineers and driving technical decision-making across teams
• Proven ability to balance technical excellence with business requirements and delivery timelines
• Track record of successful cross-functional collaboration in fast-paced environments
• Ability to translate ambiguous business goals into clear technical direction and measurable outcomes

• Systems thinking approach to complex technical challenges
• Customer-focused mindset with understanding of user experience implications
• Data-driven decision making and commitment to measurable results
• Passion for building scalable, secure, and maintainable solutions

We seek candidates who not only demonstrate curiosity and adaptability in emerging technologies but have also successfully implemented and utilized AI tools to enhance their work, improve processes, or deliver measurable results. Our teams embrace continuous learning and the thoughtful integration of AI to create meaningful impact – for our employees and the future of work.

Benefits

Salary Range for California Residents Only: $222,120.00 to $310,980.00

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, Blackhawk Network offers benefits including 401k with employer match, medical, dental, vision, 12 paid holidays in the year 2026, 1 hour of sick pay accrual for every 30 hours worked, parental leave, life insurance, disability insurance, accident and illness insurance, health and dependent care flexible spending accounts, wellness benefits, and flexible time off for all full-time employees.

EEO Statement

Blackhawk Network provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Blackhawk Network believes that diversity leads to strength. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Blackhawk Network encourages applicants with previous criminal records to apply to all positions and, pursuant to the San Francisco and Los Angeles Fair Chance Acts (and other "Fair Chance" laws), Blackhawk Network will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. For Philadelphia applicants or jobs, please see a copy of Philadelphia's ordinance on this topic by clicking this link: