Vice President Product Engineering

Our Company

Oaktree is a leader among global investment managers specializing in alternative investments, with more than $220 billion in assets under management. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented, and risk-controlled approach to investments in credit, equity, and real estate. The firm has more than 1,400 employees and offices in more than 25 cities worldwide.

We are committed to cultivating an environment that is collaborative, curious, inclusive and honors diversity of thought. Providing training and career development opportunities and emphasizing strong support for our local communities through philanthropic initiatives are essential to our culture.

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For additional information, please visit Oaktree’s website at http://www.oaktreecapital.com/

Position Summary

As Vice President Product Engineering you will be joining our newly established Product Engineering group. This is a senior individual contributor role that will play a critical part in designing and building the next‑generation technology platform supporting Oaktree’s credit business—one of the firm’s largest and most sophisticated investment strategies.

• Hands-on engineering role: Work directly in the codebase, solving complex problems and building production-grade systems daily; ideal for engineers who prefer building over managing.
• High ownership & autonomy: Collaborate with global stakeholders (primarily Los Angeles-based) while independently driving problem identification, solution design, execution, and communication.
• Full-stack, data-intensive development: Build applications that support credit investment workflows—spanning data pipelines, backend services, and user-facing tools.
• Product-focused engineering: Operate without traditional product managers; engage directly with business stakeholders, translate needs into technical solutions, and own delivery end-to-end.
• Modern cloud architecture: Contribute to an evolving Azure-based platform, influencing scalable, reliable system design with practical, experience-driven decisions.
• Applied generative AI: Leverage AI tools to improve engineering efficiency and enhance product capabilities in a practical, results-driven way.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and deliver end-to-end platform components, including data pipelines, backend services, and user-facing applications.
• Design and build scalable, reliable data systems (ingestion, transformation, analytics, APIs).
• Contribute to modernizing architecture and technology stack, influencing design decisions with strong technical judgment.
• Collaborate directly with business stakeholders and investment teams to understand workflows and translate them into impactful solutions.
• Act as a product owner for your domain—define scope, prioritize work, and iterate quickly based on business impact.
• Operate independently across time zones, proactively communicating progress, decisions, and risks.
• Apply generative AI thoughtfully to improve development efficiency and enable intelligent product features.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and technical leadership.
• Implement modern engineering practices including CI/CD, testing, observability, and feature management.
• Drive data-informed decision-making using metrics, telemetry, and experimentation.
• Clearly communicate technical trade-offs to both engineering and business audiences.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with strong ownership of production systems.
• Proven success as a senior individual contributor (Staff/Principal level) in complex domains (e.g., financial systems, data platforms, infrastructure).
• Demonstrated ability to work independently with minimal supervision and drive outcomes end-to-end.
• Strong foundation in computer science fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, distributed systems, performance).
• Deep experience building data-intensive systems, including pipeline design, data modeling, and large-scale processing.
• Proficiency in Python and at least one compiled language (e.g., C#, Java, Go, C++, Scala).
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP) and modern architectures (microservices, event-driven systems, containers, IaC).
• Comfortable working without traditional product management, engaging directly with stakeholders and navigating ambiguity.
• Strong written communication skills for effective asynchronous collaboration.
• Demonstrated product mindset, connecting technical work to business impact.
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing without authority.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field required.
• Advanced degree (MS, MBA) or equivalent experience in product-focused engineering leadership preferred.

Equal Opportunity Employment Policy

Oaktree is committed to diversity and to equal opportunity employment. Oaktree does not make employment decisions on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, past or present physical or mental disability, HIV status, medical condition as defined by state law (genetic characteristics or cancer), pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, veteran status, military service, marital status, familial status, genetic information, domestic violence victim status or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state and local laws and ordinances. This policy applies to hiring, placement, internal promotions, training, opportunities for advancement, recruitment advertising, transfers, demotions, layoffs, terminations, recruitment advertising, rates of pay and other forms of compensation and all other terms, conditions and privileges of employment. This policy applies to all Oaktree applicants, employees, clients, and contractors. Staff members wishing to report violations or suspected violations of this policy should contact the head of their department or Human Resources