Director of Engineering

WEX is on a mission to reimagine, simplify, and transform how we deliver event-driven data solutions across our enterprise. As part of this transformation, we are seeking a visionary and execution-oriented Director of Event-Driven Architecture Engineering to lead Kafka as a Service and manage the Aiven Kafka platform. You'll guide the engineering teams responsible for architecture, deployment, and continuous enhancement of our services, ensuring WEX remains a leader in real-time data processing and event-driven solutions.

The adoption of Kafka as a Service is critical to WEX's ability to provide robust, scalable, and secure event-driven solutions. This role ensures the enterprise can leverage real-time data, modernize applications, and accelerate digital transformation with confidence. You will shape the technical vision, drive operational excellence, and enable high-performing engineering teams to deliver industry-leading capabilities across multiple cloud environments.

• Technical Leadership & Strategy: Define and execute a clear technical vision for Kafka as a Service, aligning with business objectives. Lead development of scalable, resilient event-driven architecture solutions.

• Engineering & Operational Excellence: Cultivate innovation, quality, and best practices across Kafka management, CDC, and operational processes.

• Collaboration & Ecosystem Development: Partner with platform adoption directors, internal teams, and external partners to drive adoption and enhancements. Stay current on industry trends.

• Platform Security & Data Integrity: Implement security measures and ensure compliance with PCI, PHI, HIPAA, and data governance standards.

• Innovation & Technology Partnerships: Drive platform innovation and foster strategic relationships with vendors and technology partners.

• Performance Metrics & Continuous Improvement: Establish KPIs for platform and team performance and leverage insights for ongoing improvements.

• Cloud Expertise: Manage high-throughput services across AWS, Azure, and GCP.

• 10+ years of software engineering leadership, preferably in event-driven architecture, Kafka, and CDC.

• Proven experience managing high-availability, scalable event-driven systems.

• Deep understanding of Kafka as a Service, including Aiven Kafka platform management, CDC, data streaming, and processing.

• Strong problem-solving skills to create cohesive, enterprise-level data streaming platforms.

• Exceptional leadership qualities with experience mentoring and developing engineering teams.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field; Master's preferred.

• Experience delivering Kafka-based solutions at scale.

• Hands-on experience with enterprise data streaming platforms or event-driven infrastructure.

• Familiarity with multi-cloud integrations and high-throughput data services.

This role sits at the heart of WEX's event-driven data strategy-shaping the systems that power real-time analytics and intelligent decision-making across the enterprise. You will lead the development of innovative Kafka-based services, manage a talented engineering team, and help drive WEX's digital transformation, delivering measurable business impact while fostering team growth and innovation