Vice President, Software Engineering and Development - Ascensus

Ascensus is the leading independent technology and service platform powering savings plans across America, providing products and expertise that help nearly 16 million people save for a better today and tomorrow.

Section 1: Position Summary

The Vice President of Software Engineering and Development leads high-performing teams across engineering, QA, DevOps, Application Support, and data architecture for the assigned line of business. This role partners closely with product, technology, and business leaders to deliver scalable, secure, and high-quality software solutions. The VP drives operational efficiency through lean practices, automation, and data-driven metrics, and operationalizes AI by establishing governance, delivery patterns, and platform capabilities that move pilots into production with measurable business outcomes. This role influences enterprise technology strategy and fosters alignment across IT to deliver scalable, secure, and innovative solutions. This position reports to the SVP of Software Engineering and Development for the assigned line of business.

Section 2: Job Functions, Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership and Talent Development

• Attract, develop, and retain diverse, high-performing engineering, QA, DevOps, data, and architecture teams.
• Set clear goals and succession plans, and foster accountability, learning, and psychological safety.
• Model leadership behaviors that elevate engagement, inclusion, and performance.
• Promote a culture of continuous learning and inclusive leadership across all levels.

Operational Excellence and Efficiency

• Improve time to value using lean value-stream practices and a standard metric set: throughput, cycle time, predictability, change failure rate, lead time for changes, and mean time to restore.
• Apply SRE practices for reliability, observability, incident response, and post-incident learning.
• Standardize tools and automation to reduce toil and raise developer productivity, with FinOps to optimize run costs and unit economics.
• Champion quality assurance practices to ensure software products meet rigorous standards and deliver excellent client experiences.
• Strengthen onboarding processes for new associates and consultants, ensuring rapid ramp-up through structured training, documentation, and mentorship.
• Promote continuous learning and upskilling through targeted enablement programs aligned with evolving technology and business needs.

Software Delivery and Agile Execution

• Ensure consistent agile execution with clear sprint and release commitments across multiple teams.
• Institutionalize feedback loops and retrospectives that inform capacity planning and roadmaps.