Director, Platform Engineering

Role Responsibilities

Western Union is seeking a Director of Platform Engineering to lead architecture, requirements facilitation, and end-to-end engineering delivery for our Core Money Transform platform. This role will lead a U.S.-based engineering team that operates as part of a global organization of engineers and architects supporting our core platforms. You will be responsible for coordinating and planning closely with global partners to ensure alignment, productivity, and timely delivery of business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Collaboration

• Drive cross-functional collaboration by partnering closely with Product Management, Data Engineering, and Operations teams to co-shape platform strategy and technical solutions.
• Influence the technology roadmap by aligning platform engineering strategy with business objectives and product priorities.
• Translate strategy into execution by converting long-term platform vision into quarterly OKRs and actionable delivery plans, balancing speed, quality, and technical debt.

Platform Architecture & Delivery

• Architect scalable, high-performance systems by guiding the design and development of low-latency, high-throughput pricing and transaction platforms that enable real-time decision-making at scale.
• Deliver technical and business outcomes by making sound architectural and product trade-off decisions that improve pricing accuracy, latency, profitability, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
• Champion quality, performance, and reliability across the platform, ensuring strong observability, automation, and operational excellence.

Operational Excellence

• Establish robust support and execution models to effectively manage ad-hoc and operational requests without disrupting planned delivery.
• Advocate for developer experience through platform abstractions, tooling, and standards that enhance engineering productivity and consistency.
• Promote continuous improvement through modern engineering practices, CI/CD, and cloud-native design principles.

People & Culture

• Build and lead high-performing teams across regions by attracting, developing, and mentoring engineering talent.
• Foster an engineering excellence culture grounded in strong coding standards, architectural discipline, accountability, and collaboration.
• Develop future leaders by strengthening technical leadership depth and scalability across the organization.

Role Requirement

• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale engineering organizations and platform teams.
• BS in Computer Science or a related field with 12+ years of professional experience, or MS with 10+ years, including 6+ years in an engineering leadership role.
• Proven ability to understand business objectives and translate them into technology strategies that drive measurable outcomes.
• Strong experience working with cross-functional partners, including Product Management and Operations.
• Excellent decision-making, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, object-oriented programming, and design.
• Strong experience in architectural design, with the ability to clearly communicate and evangelize architectural concepts across diverse audiences.
• Hands-on experience building and scaling microservices-based platforms.
• Proficiency in modern programming languages such as Java or C++, with strong knowledge of design patterns.
• Hands-on experience with Java/J2EE, Spring Boot, web technologies, APIs, and web services.
• Experience with Agile development, TDD, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience designing and delivering cloud-based architectures (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or hybrid environments).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the Financial Services industry.
• AWS certification(s) preferred (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Developer, or equivalent).
• Hands-on experience building and operating cloud-native platforms in AWS, Azure, or hybrid environments.
• Experience with containerized microservices, Kubernetes, and modern API platforms.
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code, automated deployment pipelines, and platform observability.
• Experience driving platform reliability, scalability, and operational excellence at scale.

Work Shift

HYBRID - Western Union values in-person collaboration, problem solving, and ideation whenever possible. We believe this fosters common ways of working and supports how we execute initiatives for our customers. The expectation is to work from the office a minimum of three days a week.

Benefits and Other Details

You will also have access to short-term incentives, multiple health insurance options, accident and life insurance, and access to best-in-class development platforms, to name a few. Please see the benefits below specific to your country. If applicable, additional role-specific benefits will be mentioned during your interview process or in an offer of employment.

Your United States specific benefits include:

• Paid Time Off
• Medical, Dental and Life Insurance
• Tuition Assistance Program
• Student Loan Repayment (below manager level only)
• Parental Leave
• One day volunteer time off
• $0 Money Transfer Fee Discount Code 6 Quarterly
• Recognition Program “Game Changers”
• Employee Discount Program
• Global Adoption Assistance
• Global Scholarship Awards Program
• 401K plan

For residents of Colorado, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania: Please do not respond to any questions on this initial application that may seek age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You may also redact this information from any materials you submit during the application process. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Salary

The on-target earnings range is $190,000-$215,000 per year, which includes a base salary and short-term and long-term incentives that align with individual and company performance. Actual salaries will vary based on candidates’ qualifications, skills, and competencies.

Other Details

As part of the application process, all applicants are required to take assessments. Western Union has partnered with a 3rd party provider to administer these tests. Applicants will need to provide their name and email address in order to process the assessments. If you have any questions, you may reach out to [redacted].

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Estimated Job Posting End Date: 04-30-2026 This application window is a good-faith estimate of the time that this posting will remain open. This posting will be promptly updated if the deadline is extended or the role is filled.