VP, Functional Design Engineering

About the role

LPL Financial is seeking a VP, Functional Design Engineering to lead the Functional Design Engineering & Strategy pod within the Foundations team in LPL's Cloud Center of Excellence (CCOE).

Responsibilities

• Lead the Functional Design Engineering & Strategy pod within the Foundations team in CCOE; partner with Enterprise Architecture, Information Security, the other Foundations pods (Security & Governance, FinOps, Network Engineering, Monitoring), and the Platforms, Containers, Support, and Delivery teams to translate enterprise architecture intent into implementable, well-architected, code-driven solutions.
• Take high-level designs from architects and produce detailed, opinionated, build-ready engineering specifications aligned to the AWS Well-Architected Framework and LPL standards.
• Define and curate the cross-CCOE reference pattern library: domain-tagged Terraform module bundles, reference architectures, anti-patterns, and architecture decision records (ADRs).
• Partner closely with the Principal Engineer, Cloud Strategy Lead so that tooling, IaC, and self-service platform strategy stay aligned with enterprise design direction.
• Lead design reviews, architecture review boards, and engineering deep-dives across all five CCOE teams (Foundations, Platforms, Containers, Support, Delivery) and the four peer Foundations pods (Security & Governance, FinOps, Network Engineering, Monitoring).
• Champion the application of the AWS Well-Architected Framework across all six pillars (Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, Sustainability) and drive measurable improvements against each.
• Hands-on contribute to reference patterns, Terraform modules, and proof-of-concept builds, especially in the highest-ambiguity areas where engineering is still discovering the right answer.
• Embed agentic AI capabilities into the team's engineering practice (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, Bedrock, MCP servers, agentic IaC and review workflows) and into the platform's self-service experience for internal customers.
• Embed agentic AI capabilities into the design function: AI-assisted pattern generation, automated Well-Architected reviews, ADR drafting, cross-pattern impact analysis, and MCP-backed agents that surface existing patterns to internal customers.
• Recruit, develop, mentor, and retain a globally distributed team of senior cloud engineers across LPL's US offices and India Global Capability Center (GCC).
• Own all people-management responsibilities for the pod including hiring, onboarding, weekly 1:1s, performance management, compensation planning, career development, and certification-path execution per the CCOE certification matrix.
• Operate as a player-coach: spend meaningful time hands-on in Terraform code, design reviews, peer reviews, and incident response while leading people and delivery.
• Lead and personally participate in 24x7 on-call rotations as senior incident commander and technical escalation point for the pod.
• Partner with peer VPs across the Cloud Center of Excellence — the leaders of the five CCOE teams (Foundations, Platforms, Containers, Support, Delivery) and the leaders of the pods within Foundations (Security & Governance, FinOps, Functional Design Engineering & Strategy, Network Engineering, Monitoring) — to align roadmaps and remove cross-team and cross-pod blockers.
• Champion AWS Well-Architected Framework adoption across all six pillars and drive continuous improvement against operational, security, reliability, performance, cost, and sustainability outcomes.
• Contribute to and curate the private Terraform module library that powers self-service infrastructure for application teams, including module standards, versioning, deprecation, and contribution patterns.
• Participate in Agile/Scrum ceremonies (sprint planning, standups, backlog grooming, retrospectives) and partner with the RTE and PMO on delivery commitments and dependencies.
• Represent the pod in executive forums, architecture review boards, internal audit, and customer engagements; communicate technical risk and trade-offs to non-technical executives.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive technical experience including 5+ years in cloud infrastructure or platform engineering leadership;
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline (or equivalent work experience);
• 5+ years of hands-on production AWS at scale in a multi-account landing zone, with 4+ years of authoring production Terraform in a private module ecosystem delivered through Terraform Cloud and GitHub Actions;
• 5+ years experience as a direct people manager of engineering teams of 5+ engineers, including hiring, performance management, compensation, and difficult personnel decisions;
• 5+ years experience leading and personally participating in 24x7 production on-call rotations in a fast-paced, security-conscious, regulated environment (financial services strongly preferred);
• 5+ years experience translating enterprise architecture intent into implementable engineering designs that downstream engineers actually build, with deep, current command of the AWS Well-Architected Framework and excellent technical writing (ADRs, design documents, reference architectures).

Core Competencies

• Operates as the credible "translator" between architects and engineers — equally at home in both rooms;
• Bias for shipping reference patterns and code — not slideware;
• Calm, opinionated, and evidence-driven in design conversations;
• Player-coach who is comfortable in code reviews, architecture sessions, and people 1:1s in the same day;
• Continuous learner, especially in cloud-native, IaC, platform engineering, and applied AI;
• Bias for self-service, automation, and reducing toil for downstream internal customers;
• Builds high-trust relationships across the US and India organization and across functions (Architecture, Security, FinOps, Application Engineering, Network, Audit);
• Calm, decisive incident commander; fosters a strong post-incident learning culture;
• Excellent written and verbal communication, executive presence, and ability to influence without direct authority;
• Thrives in matrixed, fast-paced, regulated environments with imperfect information.

Preferences

• Experience as an internal architecture review board member or equivalent design-authority role;
• AWS Certified Security - Specialty (preferred for security-aligned design reviews);
• AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate or Data Analytics - Specialty (preferred for data-aligned design reviews);
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or MBA;
• Experience building, scaling, or leading globally distributed engineering teams across the US and India / GCC;
• Experience integrating agentic AI / GenAI tooling (Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot, Bedrock, MCP) into platform, IaC, and engineering practice;
• Strong scripting / programming proficiency in Python, Bash, or PowerShell;
• AWS Solutions Architect - Professional;
• HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (004) or Authoring & Operations;
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD);
• Open-source contributions, public technical writing, or conference speaking on cloud, IaC, or platform engineering topics;
• Experience with Backstage or another Internal Developer Platform (IDP);
• Experience with FinOps practices and cloud cost management at scale.

Pay Range

$149,350.00 - $248,848.00

Company Overview

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LPLA) is among the fastest growing wealth management firms in the U.S. As a leader in the financial advisor-mediated marketplace(6), LPL supports over 32,000 financial advisors and the wealth management practices of approximately 1,100 financial institutions, servicing and custodying approximately $2.3 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets on behalf of approximately 8 million Americans. The firm provides a wide range of advisor affiliation models, investment solutions, fintech tools and practice management services, ensuring that advisors and institutions have the flexibility to choose the business model, services, and technology resources they need to run thriving businesses. For further information about LPL, please visit www.lpl.com.