Director of Engineering
Director of Engineering
Benzinga | Detroit, MI
About Benzinga
Benzinga is transforming from a financial media publisher into an innovative fintech platform, backed by Beringer Capital. We're building AI-integrated solutions that deliver real value to financial professionals and retail investors. This role is central to executing our fintech vision while maintaining our leadership in financial content and data.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Director of Engineering to lead our engineering team through a critical growth phase. Reporting to the CTO, you will oversee the technical strategy, team development, and execution of systems that power real-time financial data processing for millions of traders. This is a hands-on leadership position requiring both strategic vision and the technical depth to earn respect from senior engineers.
Key Responsibilities
- Define technical vision and roadmap aligned with Benzinga's transformation into a data platform company; architect scalable systems handling thousands of operations per second with low latency.
- Lead, hire, and develop engineering managers and teams; foster a culture of ownership, quality, and innovation.
- Deliver mission-critical products including Benzinga Pro platform enhancements, API reliability improvements, and new AI trading features while maintaining 99.9%+ uptime.
- Partner across functions with Product, Sales, and Executive leadership to align engineering priorities with business objectives and communicate technical trade-offs.
- Manage engineering budget and resources, optimize developer productivity, track KPIs (cycle time, deployment frequency, quality metrics), and demonstrate ROI on technology investments.
- Ensure security, compliance, and data accuracy in systems handling sensitive financial information; maintain code quality and technical standards across the organization.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of engineering leadership.
- Deep expertise in distributed systems, real-time data processing, APIs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or equivalent).
- Fintech or high-frequency data experience: background building financial data platforms, trading systems, or comparable real-time infrastructure.
- Track record scaling teams and systems from startup to enterprise; experience with rapid headcount and revenue growth.
- Strong communication skills: ability to present to executives/boards, translate technical decisions for business audiences, and align cross-functional teams.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field.
- Startup or venture-backed company experience navigating rapid scaling and growth.
- Platform ecosystem understanding: experience building API-first businesses with partner integrations.
What We Value
- Technical credibility: Deep enough expertise to make informed architectural decisions and mentor senior engineers.
- Strategic thinking: Ability to balance technical excellence with business reality and connect engineering work to revenue impact.
- Team builder: Talent for recruiting, developing, and retaining top engineers; culture setter who fosters collaboration and ownership.
- Pragmatic problem-solver: Willing to make optimizations based on business constraints, not in pursuit of perfect technical solutions.
- Long-term mindset: Preference for candidates committed to multi-year impact vs. quick exits.
Success Metrics (First 12 Months)
- On-time delivery of engineering roadmap; 20%+ improvement in deployment frequency and cycle time.
- Hire senior engineers; maintain 90%+ retention of existing team members.
- Launch 2+ major platform features or infrastructure improvements directly supporting revenue growth.
- Achieve industry-leading API reliability SLAs and sub-100ms latency for real-time data.
- Establish clear engineering processes, career progression frameworks, and technical standards.
Compensation & Benefits
- Salary: TBD
- Performance bonus: Annual bonus tied to company and team performance.
- Comprehensive benefits: Medical, dental, vision, 401(k).
- Professional development: Conference attendance, training budget, speaking/thought leadership opportunities.
- Work flexibility: Hybrid arrangement available.
Apply
Interested candidates should be prepared to discuss:
- Specific examples of scaling engineering teams and systems.
- Your technical leadership philosophy and key architectural decisions you have championed.
- How you have navigated competing priorities between product, sales, finance, and engineering.
- Your approach to hiring, mentoring, and retaining top engineering talent.
- How you balance technical debt, feature delivery, and innovation.
Benzinga is an Equal Opportunity Employer.