Technical Lead

Location: United States
Job Type: Full-Time | Exempt | Remote
Salary Range: $150,000 – $160,000 per year

About VCI - Transformation Begins with Our Purpose

VCI was founded upon the concept of providing a payment solution to help businesses improve their efficiency, stability, and grow their profits. More than 30 years later, and with a lot more options in the marketplace, we’re that same entrepreneurial company that stands out from the rest. Our leading technology is powered by Commercial Bank of California, a $3.8 billion Latino owned, community business bank, that provides us the stability and flexibility that comes with a strong financial institution.

Our clients and partners have honored us with a 97 percent retention rate, because we provide them with more than just a means to process ACH payments.

Job Summary

We are seeking a seasoned, self-directed Technical Lead to own the design, development, and delivery of robust, scalable, and secure ﬁnancial systems and payment processing solutions, while directly leading a small engineering team (typically 4–8 engineers). This is a player-coach role: hands-on technical expertise across front-end and back-end technologies, direct accountability for the team's delivery execution (performance reviews and PTO remain with the Director of IT), and a strategic mindset to guide cross-functional stakeholders through complex migration projects and challenging product requirements in a fast-paced, highly regulated cloud-native environment. We need a go-getter who identiﬁes problems and drives them to resolution without waiting to be told, someone who proactively surfaces delivery risk, champions automation, and treats AI-assisted development as a core part of the team's workﬂow rather than an experiment.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end architecture, design, and development of enterprise-grade applications using Java, PHP, Angular, and REST APIs
Oversee and contribute to microservices-based architecture and cloud-native solutions on Microsoft Azure and AWS
Drive development of responsive, user-friendly front-end interfaces with Angular and modern UI/UX principles
Champion CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and automation practices
to ensure efficient and reliable deployments
Collaborate with product owners, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions
Manage code quality and security using tools like SonarQube, Bitbucket, and IDE integrations along with code review and approvals
Experienced in hands-on development, unit testing frameworks and peer reviews
Drive migration projects from legacy systems to modern platforms with minimal disruption
Deliver secure, scalable and high-performance payment processing solutions, ensuring compliance with industry standards
Drive adoption of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) across the team, and personally identify and automate mundane, repetitive engineering tasks (test generation, code-review triage, documentation, deployment checklists, ticket triage) to raise team throughput
Own end-to-end delivery timelines and budget; proactively surface schedule, scope, and dependency risk before it threatens a deadline, and track delivery health via metrics such as velocity, cycle time, and defect-escape rate
Utilize JIRA and Conﬂuence for agile project management, documentation, and
team collaboration
Mentor and guide developers, promoting best practices and professional growth

Team Leadership (Small Team, ~4–8 Engineers)

Own sprint capacity planning and technical sequencing, translate the Product-owned, prioritized backlog into a realistic sprint plan, size and sequence work with the team, and ﬂag capacity constraints to Product before commitments are made; balance hands-on coding (target ~40–50% of time) against leadership duties without becoming a delivery bottleneck
Set clear, individually-owned commitments and deadlines for every deliverable, and run standups, sprint reviews, and retros to track the team against them in real time
Hold engineers directly accountable for missed commitments, address slippage with the individual as it happens rather than waiting for retrospectives; deﬁne and enforce team engineering standards (code quality, testing, deﬁnition of done)
Escalate chronic or unresolved accountability issues to the Director of IT with supporting evidence, this role does not own performance reviews or PTO, which remain with the Director of IT
Act as the team's primary technical escalation point, and represent the team's delivery status and risks to the Director of IT and cross-functional stakeholders
Own the on-call rotation (as applicable) and incident response for production/payment systems, including blameless post-incident reviews and follow-through on remediation items
Maintain coverage and continuity planning for a small team document tribal knowledge and cross-train to avoid single points of failure

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related ﬁeld
7+ years of experience in software development, with 4+ years in technical leadership role
Proven experience with Java, PHP, Angular, and RESTful API development
Deep understanding of cloud platforms preferably Azure, CI/CD, IaC, and DevOps practices
Strong front-end and back-end development skills with Java, PHP, Angular, HTML5 and CSS3
Experience in secure data handling and managing relational and NoSQL databases
Solid grasp of software architecture, design patterns, and system integration
Hands-on production experience with AI coding assistants speciﬁcally Claude (Claude Code) and GitHub Copilot and with AI agents in enterprise systems, including judgment on where AI-generated code needs additional scrutiny in a regulated environment
Experience with SonarQube Cloud, Bitbucket, JIRA, Conﬂuence
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with challenging product requirements
Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills
2+ years leading a small engineering team's delivery running sprint ceremonies and holding engineers accountable to commitments in a role without formal HR authority over reviews or compensation (matrixed/dotted-line leadership)
Demonstrated track record of proactively identifying and driving initiatives to
completion with minimal oversight, evidenced by speciﬁc, veriﬁable examples
Demonstrated experience automating manual/repetitive engineering workﬂows and a consistent record of meeting software delivery timelines in a regulated or otherwise high-compliance environment

Preferred Skills

Hands-on with automation frameworks and IDE tools
Proﬁcient in Power BI
Background in migration projects and legacy modernization
Experience working with third-party payment gateways, payment processing systems, fraud detection systems, and named compliance regimes (e.g., PCI-DSS, SOC 2)
Formal ﬁrst-time/people-manager training or equivalent management certiﬁcation

Benefits & Perks

Competitive employer contribution to medical, dental and vision coverage
401k plan with employer match
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Dependent Care Accounts
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Employer provided Calm subscription
Employer provided mental health benefits through Teladoc
Life, AD&D and disability insurance
Minimum 10 Days of Vacation, 6 Paid Federal Holidays, 5 paid personal days/per year
Online discount program
Tuition Reimbursement Program

Join Our Team!

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Equal Employment Opportunity & Accommodations

VCI is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. All qualified individuals will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.

We evaluate applicants fairly and equitably, including those with criminal histories, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

VCI is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact us at hrrecruiting@cbcal.com with the nature of your request and your contact information.

Recruitment Policy

VCI does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to VCI, either directly or indirectly, will be considered the property of VCI.

We will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. To submit candidates for consideration, recruiting agencies must have a valid, written, and fully executed agreement with VCI. Without such an agreement in place, no agency submissions will be accepted or compensated.

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