Director, Data Infrastructure & MLOps/LLMOps

Kiavi is one of the nation’s largest private lenders to residential real estate investors (REIs). We harness the power of data & technology to offer our customers a simpler, more reliable, and faster way to access the capital they need to scale their businesses. 

Formerly known as LendingHome, we’re committed to helping REIs revitalize the approximately $25 trillion worth of aged U.S. housing stock to provide move-in ready homes and rental housing for millions of Americans across the country.

Combining our technology and industry expertise, Kiavi has grown to a team of over 400 and has won many awards over the years including Forbes Fintech 50, Finovate Awards, Best Digital Mortgage Platform, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and many more. 

• Loans Funded: $27 billion in loans funded
• Homes financed: 100,000+ projects funded for our customers across the country
• Geography: 45 states + D.C. where we lend to REIs so they can revitalize neighborhoods
• Employees: Over 450 employees with competitive benefits and perks

This position can be based remotely in any of our approved hiring regions. Our hybrid distributed workforce philosophy allows us to find the best talent in the country and build diverse teams, while allowing our colleagues to work from the location that works best for them. 

The Opportunity

Kiavi holds a distinct advantage over our competitors, built on 10+ years of proprietary loan origination data and a purpose-built loan origination system. This combination enables us to originate loans faster and more efficiently, with fewer errors and superior credit performance.

We are now aggressively doubling down on this strategy, to achieve this, we are seeking a seasoned Director of Engineering to lead Data Infrastructure, MLOps, and data support efforts for teams relying on data.

As the leader of our world-class team of Data Engineers and MLOps engineers, you will be at the center of this transformation. You are responsible for building the platform for powering Kiavi's AI strategy and will directly contribute to the acceleration of using Data/AI/ML towards changing the way we do lending.

Your primary mission is to build the Data and AI/ML Foundation to enable all of Kiavi's Data and AI/ML initiatives through a highly available, modern Data Stack. The ideal candidate will have real-world experience in building Data and AI/ML Platforms with proven expertise in managing both Data Engineering and MLOps architecture. This includes hands-on experience in Data Pipelines, Data Analytics, traditional ML and modern Gen AI capabilities.

You will play a pivotal role in building upon Kiavi’s past achievements, leveling up the team with your best practices, and delivering the next wave of AI-driven success for Kiavi.

Location

• Required location in Pittsburgh or San Francisco / Hybrid (Max 1 day a week in office expectation)

What You'll Do (The Role)

• Lead & Mentor a high-performing, skilled, Data Engineering and MLOps team including engineers, senior technical program manager and other technical staff. You'll be responsible for hiring, coaching, and mentoring, with a strong emphasis on developing the careers of your engineers.
• Foster Team and Career Development: Formalize and champion career growth across the Data Infrastructure and MLOps teams. Ensure every team member has a clear career path and an active development plan.
• Drive Technical Strategy & Vision: You will lead the collaborative development of the technical vision and roadmap for our Data and AI/ML platform. You'll partner closely with senior leaders across Risk, Data Analytics, Data Science, and Product Management to co-define the strategy, ensuring it is context-aware of Kiavi's size, capacity, and product needs to drive organization-wide adoption. You will also serve as an "operational steward" for the data stack, prioritizing core infrastructure and maintainability. Your ultimate goal is to build a scaled, efficient, and well-governed platform founded on reproducibility, explainability, bias elimination, and sustainability for all AI/ML initiatives.
• Platform Architecture & Scalability: Work closely with architecture specialists on the team to ensure Kiavi has a scalable core data platform that meets business needs. Identify and prioritize hidden tech debt in the stack that lowers engineer and stakeholder productivity. See that data is efficiently captured, processed, stored, and made accessi