I’m looking for a mission-driven company where I can lead high-performing engineering teams, scale technical systems, and build impactful products. I thrive in collaborative environments where engineering is closely tied to business outcomes, ideally at the Series A–C stage in fintech, healthtech, or developer tools.
Donato Perconti
@donato
Entrepreneurial fintech engineering manager and leader.
What I'm looking for
I’m a seasoned engineering leader with over a decade of experience scaling high-performing, product-focused teams across early-stage and growth-stage startups. My background spans fintech, healthtech, and developer tools, consistently focusing on building inclusive, high-agency cultures where teams can do their best work.
Most recently, I served as Head of Engineering at Heard, leading 16 engineers across infrastructure, full-stack product, and data teams. I drove large-scale architectural improvements—including a Heroku to AWS migration—and introduced AI-powered financial tooling to reduce operational burden and improve customer experience. I also implemented engineering KPIs tied to company OKRs, strengthened cross-functional partnerships, and helped establish systems that accelerated delivery while maintaining product quality.
I thrive in environments that value clarity, autonomy, and impact. I enjoy coaching EMs and senior ICs, designing technical strategies in collaboration with product and design, and solving high-leverage business problems through well-run engineering organizations. My interests include distributed systems, AI/ML applications, and platform design—with a deep belief in using technology to make complex workflows intuitive and human-centered.
Outside work, I enjoy woodworking, 3D printing, hiking around the Pacific Northwest, and building things with my kids.
Experience
Work history, roles, and key accomplishments
Head of Engineering
Heard
Oct 2023 - Apr 2025 (1 year 6 months)
Directed a global team of 14 remote engineers spread across multiple time zones, organized into three distinct, self-managed product teams.
Devised and deployed a performance management framework to minimize bias and bolster engagement through enhanced mentorship and coaching practices.
Head of Engineering
Ness
Mar 2023 - Nov 2023 (8 months)
Led and managed a diverse team of mobile, QA, DevOps, web, and backend engineers consisting of off-shore units and US-based full-time engineers.
Successfully migrated project management tools from shortcut to linear, enhancing engineering communication and project management through aligned product design requirements and engineering requirement specs with Figma, Notion, and Linear.
Grew a team of 4 to 7 within two months of being hired, consisting of all senior to staff-level developers.
Coordinated implementation of new banking partnerships, ensuring the delivery of the final 10% to meet market demands (FTX collapse) within a pre-existing timeline.
First external manager on the team. Created new onboarding and clear and compelling expectations for newly hired managers.
Senior Engineering Manager
Elevate Security
Jul 2021 - Oct 2022 (1 year 3 months)
Led, motivated, and scaled a highly diverse team spanning five countries and 18 engineers across +/-12.5 hours of time zones.
Worked closely with executive staff, product, design, and CS teams to ensure alignment on product strategy, roadmap refinement, and strategic KPIs.
Lead membership and payment initiatives for future visions by integrating into new payment providers, scaling data lakes, and simplifying subscription management.
Created automated solutions for finance and data teams, including an automated revenue recognition tool to serve finance and legal IPO preparedness.
Lead Software Engineer
lululemon
Oct 2018 - Oct 2019 (1 year)
Led a talented software development team of 4 to develop MVPs for emerging product initiatives.
Increase development productivity and product release velocity by introducing and implementing feature management processes.
Increased cross-team collaboration (2 teams totaling 24) by reducing communication friction between teams with documentation and consistent knowledge transfer sessions.
Senior Software Engineer
Cloudentity
Aug 2017 - Oct 2018 (1 year 2 months)
Consulted with technical and product personnel to strategize and implement security-focused product enhancements.
Delivered hundreds of security-related web application projects for global Fortune 500 companies in insurance and investment banking.
Coordinated with product releases and with a remote overseas team.
Co-founder
Paylasso
Apr 2016 - Aug 2017 (1 year 4 months)
Architected and implemented the entire evolution of the product.
Grew and led a team of 4 consisting of remote and local developers and designers.
Assisted in raising capital from angel investors with a 3MM cap by conveying technical strategies.
Product Engineering Consultant
PNW Technology
Oct 2019 - Present (5 years 7 months)
Product and engineering consulting for early-stage startups seeking go-to-market and/or go-to-market fit within various industries.
Creating micro-saas business models and proof of concepts
Education
Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework
Donato hasn't added their education
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Browse remote talentTech stack
Software and tools used professionally
AWS Shell
AWS CLI
AWS Glue
AWS IAM
Amazon EC2
Google Cloud Platform
Amazon S3
Google Cloud Storage
GitHub
Cloudflare
Amazon CloudFront
Heroku CI
PostgreSQL
Google Fonts
Node.js
Django
Figma
Amazon Rekognition
Google Cloud Code
React
JavaScript
Python
HTML5
CSS 3
Django REST framework
Google Cloud Bigtable
AWS X-Ray
Heroku
Heroku Postgres
Notion
Google Cloud Dataflow
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
AWS WAF
AWS Shield
AWS Lambda
AWS Batch
Google Cloud SQL
Vercel
TypeScript
Git
Docker
NGINX
Django REST framework JWT
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Render
Google Cloud Run
AWS KMS
Heroku Redis
Availability
Location
Authorized to work in
Website
pnw.technologySalary expectations
Job categories
Skills
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