Engineering Manager, Platform

About Valon

Valon is building the AI-native operating system for regulated finance, starting with mortgage servicing. As a Series C company backed by a16z, Valon is transforming industries previously deemed too complex for innovation. Instead of building on top of outdated legacy systems, Valon developed and operates its own mortgage servicing business, managing over $110 billion in loans. This hands-on approach provided deep insights into the complexities required to build effective software for regulated industries.

The results are clear: Valon has transformed mortgage servicing from a 0% margin business into one with over 60% margins, while significantly enhancing customer experience. Major enterprise contracts are now being deployed across the industry. ValonOS, the unified platform, makes every process structured and programmable, positioning it perfectly for the AI era. With all operations flowing through one system with rich data, AI agents not only automate tasks but continuously improve entire operations. Mortgage servicing is just the beginning of Valon's vision to revolutionize regulated industries and beyond.

Engineering at Valon

Valon's engineering team powers a modern software ecosystem designed to disrupt one of the most outdated and heavily regulated sectors in finance. They've established a scalable platform capable of managing billions in assets with precision and reliability. The current focus is on scaling infrastructure, enhancing developer experience, and building high-leverage systems to support rapid product iteration and long-term business growth. The team is a tight-knit, high-agency group of engineers from top tech companies, united in their goal to deliver their best work together.

Headquartered in New York City, Valon is opening a new San Francisco office this year and fully supports remote work.

About The Engineering Manager, Platform Role

Valon is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the Cloud Infrastructure efforts within the Platform team. This role involves managing and growing a high-impact team responsible for the foundational infrastructure that powers all of Valon’s products. You will work across all production systems—including compute, databases, storage, and networking—to ensure the platform is scalable, secure, and reliable. Valon currently handles over 100 million background jobs daily and anticipates scaling more than 10x in the next two years. Key projects on the roadmap include:

• Adopting new data stores to support growth: Vitess, Clickhouse, Redis.
• Scaling the batch processing control plane for faster component creation and fulfillment.
• Creating a production-equivalent sandbox environment for customer testing and demos.

Operating with a product management mindset, you will balance immediate priorities with the long-term platform vision. Close collaboration with engineering, product, and operations stakeholders will be essential to define and deliver cross-cutting infrastructure initiatives. This is a hands-on leadership role, where you will guide architecture decisions, contribute code when necessary, and maintain a deep understanding of system mechanics. As a people-first leader, you will focus on recruiting, coaching, providing feedback, and supporting engineers through 360° feedback and continuous development.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of 5+ engineers focused on infrastructure and platform tooling.
• Own technical strategy, planning, and execution for core platform initiatives, emphasizing scalability, reliability, and security.
• Act as a strong technical mentor and hands-on contributor when needed, guiding architecture, writing code, and debugging systems.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across engineering, product, and operations to build infrastructure that enables product innovation and operational excellence.
• Establish and evolve engineering processes to drive continuous improvement, velocity, and quality.
• Invest in recruiting and developing engineering talent through coaching, mentorship, and ongoing 360 feedback.
• Promote a high-agency, high-accountability team culture with a bias for action and clear communication.
• Advocate for technical excellence and pragmatic decision-making, grounded in deep system knowledge.

Ideal Background

• 4+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 1+ years in a tech lead or engineering management role.
• Experience working on infrastructure, platform engineering, DevOps, or cloud systems.
• Strong systems thinking and a comprehensive understanding of backend and infrastructure layer interactions.
• Demonstrated track record of leading teams in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
• Proven ability to mentor and grow engineers while fostering a high-performance, feedback-driven team culture.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to align cross-functional partners around platform strategy.
• Hands-on experience with cloud providers (e.g., AWS, GCP), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and distributed systems.
• A strong product mindset and the ability to translate business problems into scalable technical solutions.

Benefits

• Base Salary Range: $225,000 - $275,000. This range applies to New York City staff and may vary by location.
• Equity & Compensation: Competitive salary with meaningful equity and a 401(k) plan.
• Health & Well-being: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Commuter Benefits: Pre-tax deductions for transportation, rideshare, and parking.
• Growth & Development: Onboarding, career development, and 360° feedback cycles.
• Team Culture: Quarterly budgets for team activities, swag, dinners, and more.
• Time Off: Flexible PTO, sick days, and 11 company holidays.
• Parental Leave: 12 weeks fully paid leave for all new parents.

Key skills/competency

• Cloud Infrastructure
• Platform Engineering
• Distributed Systems
• Scalability
• Reliability
• Kubernetes
• AWS/GCP
• Technical Leadership
• System Architecture
• Mentorship