Associate Director Staff Engineer - Software

• This role has transitioned into a technical leadership track.
• This role has developed the skills to partner and influence other teams toward business targets and goals.
• This individual is building deep, specialized expertise and is able to engage within technical and business teams.
• This role might serve as a SME on a team or lead a small team of technical experts supporting a larger effort, and may consult to business teams.

• When successful, this individual may be recognized for leading a particular technical implementation or leveraging sophisticated knowledge to benefit a larger team.
• Takes full responsibility of complex, cross-functional projects and ensures successful execution and delivery.
• Demonstrates a proactive approach to resolving challenges and holds themselves accountable for the successes and challenges of broader team efforts.
• Communicates within team and with team's business stakeholders to influence architectural decisions and trade- offs in the lane.
• Effectively communicates complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders and clearly explains moderately complex team-level concepts.
• Recognizes viable opportunities for innovation and actively drives the adoption of innovative techniques and tools within the team.
• Leads innovation efforts in line with organizational goals.
• Participates in developing creative solutions to complex problems.
• Demonstrates an exceptional ability to break down intricate
  problems into manageable components, conducting thorough analysis to identify root causes and interdependencies.
• Encourages collaborative thinking and cohesiveness within the team; acts as a bridge between teams, ensuring synchronization of efforts.
• Generally, builds rapport and collaborates effectively with a broad spectrum of people and offers help to other team based on a specific area of expertise.
• Guides and mentors team members by providing feedback and coaching, especially during challenging situations. Encourages people to challenge themselves and helps others stretch their capabilities

General Skills:

• 6 – 8 Years of software engineering experience
• Experience managing/maintaining distributed systems.
• Conversant in many technologies and languages, able to learn new technologies quickly
• Proactively applies industry leading technology trends, best practices, design principles and patterns, and methods including Agile software development, iterative delivery, and cloud computing.
• Experience and proficiency with cloud platforms and patterns, preferably AWS.
• Uses critical thinking to reach conclusions and analytical thinking for problem solving in support of achieving desired outcomes.
• Applies enthusiasm for continuous learning to improve results and shares with others.
• BS degree in a computer related field
• Excellent communications

Technology Required:

• Core Tech: Java, J2EE, Spring Boot, REST APIs
• Rule Engines: IBM ODM, Drools, Kogito, BPMN, JBPM
• Cloud Platforms: AWS , Azure (preferred), Kubernetes, Docker, Openshift
• Data & Format Handling: XML, JSON
• Monitoring & Testing: OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Jenkins, GitHub Actions
• Automation Tools: Customized rule development & testing platforms, synthetic data generators, regression suites
• Agile Tools: Jira, Confluence, Miro     

Day to Day Responsibilities:

• Architect reusable decisioning components for rule authoring, versioning, simulation, testing, and observability, delivered through intuitive UIs, APIs, and automation pipelines.
• Lead the design and implementation of a cloud-native, modular decisioning platform using Drools, Java, and Spring Boot, replacing legacy mainframe systems and establishing a future-ready centralized hub.
• Partner with Product, Credit, Pricing, and Risk leaders to transform strategies into transparent, traceable, and standardized rules and workflows across business lines.
• Build frameworks with telemetry, monitoring, and automated feedback loops to measure, optimize, and improve rule effectiveness and system performance.
• Provide technical leadership and architectural guidance, mentoring engineers and rule developers, and establishing governance, delivery models, and best practices.
• Own the full lifecycle of decisioning solutions — from ideation to deployment, observability, and continuous improvement — in an Agile, DevOps-enabled environment.
• Present architectural roadmaps, strategy, and progress to senior leadership and influence cross-functional alignment.
• Drive innovation through GenAI-powered rule authoring and automation, leveraging LLMs to accelerat