AppFolio · 11 hours ago
Director, Software Engineering
Santa Barbara, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Director/Executive
$216K/yr - $270K/yr
8+ years expAppFolio is a technology leader in the real estate industry, focused on delivering innovative solutions. The Director of Engineering will lead a software engineering team to enhance and secure the company's payment systems while driving product strategy and ensuring compliance with financial regulations.
AnalyticsComputerInformation TechnologyProperty ManagementPropTechSaaSSoftwareWeb Hosting
Responsibilities
Set the technical direction for internal ledgering systems, ensuring absolute data consistency, idempotency, and accuracy across distributed microservices
Oversee the engineering of Payables and Receivables flows, ensuring seamless integration between internal services and external banking institutions
Act as the primary technical counterpart for banking partners and payment processors, translating complex external requirements into internal engineering roadmaps
Build automated reconciliation frameworks that detect and self-heal discrepancies between internal ledgers and external networks, ensuring 100% financial accuracy
Partner with InfoSec and Legal to ensure all payment services adhere to PCI-DSS, NACHA operating rules, AML (Anti-Money Laundering) protocols, and KYC/KYB requirements
Advocate for a SMART codebase (Simple, Maintainable, Agile, Refactored, and Tested) to deliver a SAFE product (Secure, Available, Fast, and Easy)
Oversee the delivery of software using Agile best practices, CI/CD, and test-driven development to ensure frequent, high-confidence releases
Drive the strategy for integrating AI/ML models directly into the transaction path to detect fraud anomalies in real-time, optimize payment routing (Smart Routing) for cost/speed, and automate complex reconciliation matches that rule-based systems miss
Recruit, screen, and close high-caliber engineering talent, scaling the team to meet the demands of a hyper-growth payments organization
Lead, coach, and support a team of passionate engineers, creating an environment of creativity, speed, and innovation while maintaining the discipline required for financial engineering
Instill a sense of ownership over the entire software development lifecycle, ensuring the team understands how their work directly impacts AppFolio’s financial success and customer trust
Build trusting relationships with Product Management, Legal, and Risk teams to align engineering resources with company strategy, balancing immediate customer needs with long-term infrastructure investments
Implement processes and metrics to ensure the team is focused, efficient, and that products are market-ready and scalable
Qualification
Required
BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Computer Science or related technical discipline
8+ years of hands-on software development experience building enterprise SaaS, cloud-based solutions, or consumer web platforms supporting millions of users and online transactions per month
5+ years of demonstrated success hiring, directly managing, coaching, and retaining world-class engineers
Proven track record leading engineering teams during the evolution of the function from start-up to mid-lifecycle/hyper-growth
Experience building or managing proprietary payment platforms, not just integrations. Must understand the mechanics of ACH files, credit card processing (ISO 8583), and emerging rails (RTP/FedNow)
Experience integrating directly with banking cores and legacy financial institutions, managing both modern API-based exchanges and file-based exchanges
Working knowledge of financial frameworks including PCI-DSS Level 1, SOC 1/SOC 2, NACHA operating rules, and KYC/KYB/AML protocols
Strong grasp of ACID transactions versus eventual consistency, particularly regarding financial ledgers, idempotency, and double-entry accounting within a multi-service architecture
Demonstrated ability to design systems that maintain 99.999% availability during high-volume transaction windows, ensuring resilience and rapid recovery
Experience partnering with Data Science teams to operationalize machine learning models within critical production paths. Must understand the latency and reliability trade-offs of embedding inference engines into real-time payment processing
Recent experience using Agile methodologies and a deep understanding of release management workflows, from development through staging and production deployment
Exceptional interpersonal skills with a proven ability to build productive cross-departmental relationships (Product, Legal, Risk, Support). Must have a positive, can-do attitude and value collaboration over silos
Preferred
Experience with fraud detection systems and risk modeling
Background in Fintech, Property PropTech, or Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)
Company
AppFolio
AppFolio is a cloud business management solutions provider for the real estate industry.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
AppFolio has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (18)
2024 (24)
2023 (22)
2022 (34)
2021 (51)
2020 (35)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$30MKey Investors
Investment Group of Santa BarbaraHeadline
2015-06-26IPO
2013-11-01Series Unknown
2009-08-18Series C· $8M
Leadership Team
Shane Trigg
President and CEO
Tim Eaton
Chief Financial Officer
Recent News
2025-11-25
Company data provided by crunchbase