Technical Platform Director

Technical Platform Director (Builders Welcome)

Role

Most engineering leadership roles drift into meetings, org charts, and distance from the work. This one is different. At pmtbox (“Payment Box”), we’re building a fintech platform that improves business outcomes for enterprises across their customers’ commerce journey. We’re a VC-backed company with over 1,000 active clients, a small team, and real momentum. We’re looking for a Technical Platform Director who still thinks like a builder. This is a role for someone who can lead engineers, shape the platform, and stay close enough to the product and code to matter. If you’ve become too far removed from building, or never want to be, this won’t be the right fit. In this role you will own execution for the platform that powers our products. You’ll lead a small team of engineers while working directly with them to:

• Solve complex, real-world problems in payments and data
• Build systems that are scalable, reliable, and simple
• Turn copious data into seamless business outcomes for clients, who are typically senior leaders of omnichannel retail enterprises

What You’ll Do

Platform Ownership

• Own the construction and maintenance of our core platform
• Manage a team of engineers to ensure the delivery of solutions on ambitious timelines
• Ensure platform development avoids dead ends that would hinder our growth

Hands-On Technical Leadership and Team Leadership

• Stay close to the code: design, review, and contribute when needed
• Set a high bar for engineering quality, speed, and pragmatism
• Unblock engineers quickly and effectively
• Lead, mentor, and develop a small, high-performing engineering team
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and builders (not ticket-takers)

Product & Business Alignment

• Partner closely with the CTO to prioritize what matters most
• Think in terms of customer impact, not just technical convenience

How Our Engineering Team Works

We are not a “ticket factory.” We are a small, high-performing team building within:

• A Rails/Postgres codebase
• A TDD-first environment with CI/CD pipelines
• Strong architectural patterns and documentation
• AI-assisted development workflows embedded into daily work

We’re a “move fast because the guardrails are strong” environment. You’ll have real autonomy, clear context, and the ability to ship without waiting.

What We’re Looking For

We care far more about how you think and what you’ve built than titles or years. You’re likely a great fit if you:

Are a Builder-Leader and are Product-Oriented

• You’ve led engineers and stayed close enough to the work to contribute meaningfully
• You’ve built real systems, not just managed them
• You think about customer problems first, not just code
• You naturally connect engineering decisions to business outcomes

Are Framework-Agnostic and Think in Systems

• Experience with Ruby / Rails is ideal, but not required
• Backgrounds in Python/Django, PHP/Laravel, Go/React, or similar are great. We care far more about how you solve problems than what tools you’ve used.
• You choose tools based on the problem and not preference or convenience
• You understand data, workflows, APIs, and architecture
• You improve product outcomes and not just code

Use AI as a Force Multiplier and Have High Ownership

• How AI has meaningfully improved your development speed or approach
• How you build systems around AI (not just prompts)
• How you validate outputs and handle failure modes
• Where AI works and where it breaks
• You take responsibility for outcomes, not just your role
• You don’t wait to be told what to do

Why Join pmtbox

• Early-stage fintech with real momentum and VC-backing by Tandem Ventures (Founders of fintech unicorns Divvy, Finicity, etc.)
• Small team, high ownership
• Work on meaningful ecommerce infrastructure
• Build alongside founders and experienced operators in a five-days-a-week in-office culture
• Competitive compensation and benefits package including enterprise-level medical, dental, vision, 401k, and generous time off