Hands-on experience with large, high-transaction data systems, including RDBMS-centric architectures (Oracle strongly preferred)
Proven exposure to
Production change control
Incident response
Data integrity and operational risk
Experience operating in regulated or audit-bound environments (SOC 2-like rigor is a strong positive)
Nice To Have
Insurance, fintech, or government-adjacent systems
Cloud + legacy hybrid environments
Transitioning teams through role ambiguity and operating-model change
Prior responsibility spanning engineering + DevOps + platform operations
Technical Skills
Experience designing systems that fully exploit the benefits of AI, leveraging agentic workflows, AI orchestration, prompt and context engineering, RAG, and MCP
Evaluate architectural tradeoffs objectively
Ask the right technical questions of tech leads
Understand database-centric performance and scalability drivers
Participate meaningfully in risk, incident, and readiness discussions
Leadership Skills
Actively hires and upskills talent to thrive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, normalizing AI-assisted development as a baseline expectation
Creates autonomy through clarity, not control
Exercises strong judgment in delegation, intentionally deciding when to lead, when to empower, and when to step in
Is comfortable with tech leads owning design and implementation while providing constraints, risk signals, and organizational context
Can operate calmly when
Expectations are misaligned
Authority boundaries are shifting
Organizational memory is inconsistent
Actively coach and develop senior engineers
Recognize burnout and sustainability risks early
Be able to "manage up" without becoming adversarial
Communicate candidly but with emotional intelligence
Operational Excellence
The candidate must excel at
Turning ambiguity into minimal, visible operating guideposts
Maintaining forward motion when priorities compete
Balancing long-term platform health against short-term delivery pressure
Coordinating across product, DevOps, security, and compliance without creating friction