Vice President, Engineering

Overview

Who We Are: Join a team that puts its People First! As a member of First American's family of companies, Data & Analytics is a national provider of property-centric information, analytics, risk management and valuation solutions. First American maintains and curates the industry's largest property and ownership dataset with over 7 billion document images. Our major platforms and products include: DataTree, FraudGuard, RegsData, TaxSource and ACI. The Data & Analytics division boasts more than 20 patents and remains at the forefront of innovation, delivering insights to lenders, real estate and title companies to enable better, increasingly automated decisions. With offices in major metropolitan areas, including California and New York, DNA teams work collaboratively across the country. Since 1889, First American has held an unwavering belief in its people and fosters an environment where all feel welcome, supported, and empowered to be innovative and reach their full potential. Our inclusive, people-first culture has earned numerous accolades, including Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For for ten consecutive years. First American is an equal opportunity employer and strives to be a great place to work for all. For more information, please visit www.careers.firstam.com.

What We Do

The Vice President of Engineering for DNA is a senior technology leader responsible for building and scaling data platforms, application ecosystems, and AI-enabled products that power next-generation analytical and transactional capabilities. This role sits at the intersection of data, application engineering, and AI, ensuring tight alignment between data foundations, services, and user-facing applications. You will lead global engineering teams delivering end-to-end products—from data ingestion and processing to APIs, intelligent services, and customer-facing applications. You will define architecture, scale global teams, and deliver high-quality products with predictable execution while evolving the platform to be AI-ready by design, enabling machine learning and generative AI capabilities across core workflows.

Role is Hybrid out of Santa Ana, CA

Key Responsibilities

Technical Strategy & Architecture

• Define and drive end-to-end architecture across data platforms, application services, APIs, and user-facing systems
• Design scalable systems supporting both analytical and transactional workloads
• Establish domain-driven design, service boundaries, and API-first architecture
• Architect AI-ready data foundations, including feature availability, metadata, and structures optimized for machine learning and AI use cases
• Define patterns for integrating AI/ML and generative AI capabilities into applications
• Lead modernization initiatives (cloud-native, microservices, platform consolidation)
• Establish standards for data governance, system design, resilience, and observability

Product & Platform Engineering

• Own delivery of end-to-end products, including analytical and data-driven applications
• Develop customer-facing and internal applications
• Deliver APIs, domain services, and shared platforms
• Partner with product leadership to translate strategy into scalable engineering roadmaps
• Lead development of AI-enabled features and intelligent applications
• Ensure strong SDLC practices (testing, CI/CD, release engineering)
• Drive engineering accountability for product performance, reliability, and user experience

Global Engineering Delivery

• Lead global engineering teams across multiple regions and time zones
• Establish product-aligned team structures with clear ownership of services and domains
• Implement delivery governance with clear milestones and measurable outcomes
• Optimize global delivery models to balance speed, quality, and cost
• Manage capacity planning, workforce strategy, and vendor partnerships

Operational Excellence & Reliability

• Own performance, uptime, scalability, and cost efficiency across platforms and applications
• Implement metrics-driven engineering management (velocity, quality, reliability, cost)
• Establish observability across data, services, and AI systems
• Drive SRE practices, including incident management and continuous improvement
• Implement MLOps/LLMOps practices, including model monitoring, performance evaluation, and lifecycle management
• Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and regulatory standards

Talent & Culture

• Build and scale global teams across application engineering (frontend and backend), data engineering, and platform engineering
• Develop leaders who own products and platforms end-to-end
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, and engineering excellence

Required Experience

• 12+ years of engineering experience, with 5+ years in senior leadership roles managing global teams
• Proven experience leading application and platform engineering organizations, in addition to data platforms
• Demonstrated success delivering complex, enterprise-scale systems and products

Technical Expertise

• Modern data architectures (lakehouse, streaming, warehouse)
• Distributed systems and scalable backend architectures
• Microservices and API design
• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Strong programming background (e.g., Python, Java, or similar)

AI & Data Systems

• Experience building or scaling AI/ML-enabled platforms or applications in production
• Understanding of feature engineering and data modeling for AI
• Model serving and inference patterns
• Vector databases or semantic search
• Retrieval-based or AI-enhanced application architectures
• Experience integrating AI capabilities into real-world applications and workflows
• Familiarity with MLOps or LLMOps practices

What "Great" Looks Like

• Builds platforms where data, applications, and AI operate as a unified system
• Delivers end-to-end products, not just infrastructure or pipelines
• Translates strategy into clear execution with measurable outcomes
• Creates transparency into delivery health and system performance
• Balances architectural rigor with pragmatic execution
• Builds teams that deliver high-quality, scalable software products

Leadership Traits

• Technically credible across data, applications, and modern AI systems
• Product-oriented mindset with focus on business outcomes
• Operationally disciplined and metrics-driven
• Clear, decisive communicator
• Strong bias toward impact and continuous improvement

Impact

You will define both the technical foundation and product delivery engine for the DNA platform—shaping how data, applications, and AI capabilities come together to drive innovation, efficiency, and scalable growth.

Pay Range: $236,700.00 - $315,500.00 Annually

This hiring range is a reasonable estimate of the base pay range for this position at the time of posting. Pay is based on a number of factors including job-related knowledge, skills, experience, business requirements and geographic location.

Note: For candidates working from an unincorporated area within Los Angeles County, see additional statements below.

First American will consider all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with applicable state and local laws (e.g., the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act).

First American intends to conduct a review of an applicant's criminal history in connection with a conditional offer. A criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with material job duties for this position, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer.

What We Offer

By choice, we embrace individuality and foster an authentic and inclusive workplace for all. First American is an equal opportunity employer. Based on eligibility, First American offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401k, PTO/paid sick leave and other benefits like an employee stock purchase plan.

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