ForFutures Financial, Planning, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services LLC
Director of Application Engineering
ForFutures Financial, Planning, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services LLC, Santa Ana, California, United States, 92725
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Director of Application Engineering
role at
ForFutures Financial, Planning, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services LLC
What We Do The Director of Application Engineering provides strategic and operational leadership over all application engineering and modernization functions within Sentinels. This leader oversees multiple pods responsible for sustaining proprietary and legacy applications, ensuring secure CI/CD pipelines, driving modernization readiness, and embedding developers within sustainment teams to reduce risk and improve velocity. The role collaborates closely with peers across Platform & Cloud Infrastructure, Operations & Support, Service Delivery & Governance, and internal partners in Foundational Services, Cloud and Server Engineering to deliver a unified, SLA‑driven managed service experience. This is a chance to lead an elite team in building a centralized sustainment model that blends engineering excellence, operational discipline, and financial performance.
What You’ll Do Strategic Leadership
Define and execute the application sustainment and modernization strategy for 200‑250 enterprise and proprietary apps in AWS.
Partner with Platform and Operations Directors to align build vs. run ownership models and drive automation‑based efficiency gains.
Develop and manage quarterly objectives (OKRs) for application engineering aligned to Sentinels’ cost, compliance, and availability targets.
Lead engineering participation in app intake, migration readiness, and sustainment transitions.
Represent application development at enterprise governance and audit reviews.
Application & Engineering Management
Lead engineering managers and developers embedded within sustainment and modernization pods.
Oversee CI/CD pipelines, version control, and secure deployment frameworks (GitHub Actions, Terraform, Liquibase, etc.).
Drive codebase quality and standardization across legacy and modern app stacks (AngularJS, ReactJS, Python, .NET, C#, COTS customizations, etc.).
Champion reusable modules, IaC patterns, and modernization accelerators (containerization, API gateways, etc.).
Maintain alignment to compliance control library (e.g., code signing, vulnerability scanning, TLS 1.2+).
Cross‑Functional Collaboration
Partner with the Platform Director on Terraform/IaC integration, AWS architecture, and patch readiness.
Work with the Ops Director on incident triage, observability (Kibana/StatusCast/XMatters), and defect management.
Collaborate with the Governance Director to ensure code and configuration audit readiness.
Contribute to unified dashboards for executive metrics and SLA compliance reporting.
Team Development & Leadership
Manage 3–4 Engineering Managers and 5–6 onshore application sustainment pods and partner closely with offshore leadership/teams.
Establish technical mentorship programs and career paths for engineers and pod leads.
Drive culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and automation‑first mindset.
Support upskilling to drive removal of application SMEs across the portfolio.
Operational Excellence
Ensure incident and change management compliance with divisional tools and procedures.
Develop the operational discipline and proactive resiliency strategy to ensure 99.9%+ application availability for sustained apps.
Drive toil reduction initiatives across pods.
Collaborate on vulnerability remediation, library updates, and secure patching initiatives.
Enforce deployment quality gates, rollback validation, and post‑release health checks.
What You’ll Bring
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline (Master’s preferred).
10+ years of experience leading application development, sustainment, or DevOps teams in enterprise‑scale environments.
Proven leadership in hybrid cloud (preferably AWS) environments.
Strong experience with CI/CD tools (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Terraform, Liquibase) and modern development practices (IaC, containers, microservices).
Solid understanding of ITIL‑based service management, incident/change/release processes, and SLAs.
Demonstrated success managing hybrid teams (U.S. + offshore) with high performance and collaboration.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management across technical and business functions.
Preferred Experience
Experience leading teams within a Managed Service Provider or internal shared service model.
Hands‑on familiarity with legacy modernization (e.g., .NET, SQL Server migrations to AWS RDS, containerization).
Knowledge of security and compliance frameworks (SOX, SOC2, NIST, CIS benchmarks).
Background in application cost optimization and TCO reduction initiatives.
Exposure to governance tools (ServiceNow, SailPoint, CMDB, Security Hub).
Key Performance Indicators
App coverage ratio: # apps sustained per FTE.
SLA adherence rate (≥99.9% uptime).
Compliance coverage (≥80%).
Reduction in toil and manual release tasks (% automated).
Vulnerability remediation SLA compliance (%).
Pay Range: $192,000 – $256,525 Annually
We are an equal‑opportunity employer and welcome applicants of all backgrounds. We are committed to supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce.
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Director of Application Engineering
role at
ForFutures Financial, Planning, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services LLC
What We Do The Director of Application Engineering provides strategic and operational leadership over all application engineering and modernization functions within Sentinels. This leader oversees multiple pods responsible for sustaining proprietary and legacy applications, ensuring secure CI/CD pipelines, driving modernization readiness, and embedding developers within sustainment teams to reduce risk and improve velocity. The role collaborates closely with peers across Platform & Cloud Infrastructure, Operations & Support, Service Delivery & Governance, and internal partners in Foundational Services, Cloud and Server Engineering to deliver a unified, SLA‑driven managed service experience. This is a chance to lead an elite team in building a centralized sustainment model that blends engineering excellence, operational discipline, and financial performance.
What You’ll Do Strategic Leadership
Define and execute the application sustainment and modernization strategy for 200‑250 enterprise and proprietary apps in AWS.
Partner with Platform and Operations Directors to align build vs. run ownership models and drive automation‑based efficiency gains.
Develop and manage quarterly objectives (OKRs) for application engineering aligned to Sentinels’ cost, compliance, and availability targets.
Lead engineering participation in app intake, migration readiness, and sustainment transitions.
Represent application development at enterprise governance and audit reviews.
Application & Engineering Management
Lead engineering managers and developers embedded within sustainment and modernization pods.
Oversee CI/CD pipelines, version control, and secure deployment frameworks (GitHub Actions, Terraform, Liquibase, etc.).
Drive codebase quality and standardization across legacy and modern app stacks (AngularJS, ReactJS, Python, .NET, C#, COTS customizations, etc.).
Champion reusable modules, IaC patterns, and modernization accelerators (containerization, API gateways, etc.).
Maintain alignment to compliance control library (e.g., code signing, vulnerability scanning, TLS 1.2+).
Cross‑Functional Collaboration
Partner with the Platform Director on Terraform/IaC integration, AWS architecture, and patch readiness.
Work with the Ops Director on incident triage, observability (Kibana/StatusCast/XMatters), and defect management.
Collaborate with the Governance Director to ensure code and configuration audit readiness.
Contribute to unified dashboards for executive metrics and SLA compliance reporting.
Team Development & Leadership
Manage 3–4 Engineering Managers and 5–6 onshore application sustainment pods and partner closely with offshore leadership/teams.
Establish technical mentorship programs and career paths for engineers and pod leads.
Drive culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and automation‑first mindset.
Support upskilling to drive removal of application SMEs across the portfolio.
Operational Excellence
Ensure incident and change management compliance with divisional tools and procedures.
Develop the operational discipline and proactive resiliency strategy to ensure 99.9%+ application availability for sustained apps.
Drive toil reduction initiatives across pods.
Collaborate on vulnerability remediation, library updates, and secure patching initiatives.
Enforce deployment quality gates, rollback validation, and post‑release health checks.
What You’ll Bring
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline (Master’s preferred).
10+ years of experience leading application development, sustainment, or DevOps teams in enterprise‑scale environments.
Proven leadership in hybrid cloud (preferably AWS) environments.
Strong experience with CI/CD tools (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Terraform, Liquibase) and modern development practices (IaC, containers, microservices).
Solid understanding of ITIL‑based service management, incident/change/release processes, and SLAs.
Demonstrated success managing hybrid teams (U.S. + offshore) with high performance and collaboration.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management across technical and business functions.
Preferred Experience
Experience leading teams within a Managed Service Provider or internal shared service model.
Hands‑on familiarity with legacy modernization (e.g., .NET, SQL Server migrations to AWS RDS, containerization).
Knowledge of security and compliance frameworks (SOX, SOC2, NIST, CIS benchmarks).
Background in application cost optimization and TCO reduction initiatives.
Exposure to governance tools (ServiceNow, SailPoint, CMDB, Security Hub).
Key Performance Indicators
App coverage ratio: # apps sustained per FTE.
SLA adherence rate (≥99.9% uptime).
Compliance coverage (≥80%).
Reduction in toil and manual release tasks (% automated).
Vulnerability remediation SLA compliance (%).
Pay Range: $192,000 – $256,525 Annually
We are an equal‑opportunity employer and welcome applicants of all backgrounds. We are committed to supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce.
#J-18808-Ljbffr