Justin Otero

About Justin Otero

Director of Engineering with experience taking products from 0→1 through scale and IPO in B2B SaaS and Fintech environments.I lead product and platform teams building reliable, AI-enabled systems that support growth at scale.I’ve led multi-disciplinary engineering teams across product development, platform foundations, and business-critical systems in high-growth environments. My experience spans early-stage ambiguity through later-stage scale, where execution, reliability, and people leadership all matter.I build teams and systems that scale, with a focus on enabling AI to enhance system capabilities and engineer productivity. I’m hands-on when needed, deliberate about ownership and accountability, bias toward action, and experienced in hiring, leveling, performance management, and cross-functional execution with Product, Design, and business partners.I’m particularly effective in consumer-grade applications at scale, where simplicity, reliability, and trust must be maintained despite underlying complexity. I coach and mentor engineers as part of how I lead, which helps attract, develop, and retain strong talent.I’m open to Director and senior engineering leadership roles where I can own meaningful scope and help organizations scale with confidence.

Experience

1. Director of Engineering

   Navan

   Aug 2025 — Present

   Own the strategy, execution, and technical leadership for multiple engineering teams delivering Expense, Card Issuing, and Transaction systems that serve as critical infrastructure across the company- Lead multiple engineering teams (5–10 engineers each) across Expense Admin, Manager workflows, Card Programs, Transaction Lifecycle, and client-side web infrastructure- Own the stability, performance, and scale of the Expense web platform- Oversee the Transaction Lifecycle and core metadata systems powering travel, expense, cards, transactions, reporting, budgets, users, and bookings- Manage Card Issuing and Management programs (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, direct issuing, BYOC) and the approval routing and targeting- Drive revenue enablement, operational efficiency, and product quality for Admin and Manager personas- Explore and validate new business opportunities in partnership with product and leadership- Integrating AI and agentic capabilities thoughtfully to deliver real user value.

Education

• The Art Institute of California

  Bachelor's of Science, Web Design & Interactive Media

  2011 — 2015

Skills

• Nonprofits
• Usability Testing
• User Experience
• Semantic Html
• Angularjs
• Javascript
• Node.js
• Mysql
• Gulpjs
• Typescript
• User Interface Design
• Front-End Development
• Web Design
• Oop
• Web Development
• Angular
• Social Integration
• Gruntjs
• Wordpress
• Public Speaking
• Git
• Php
• Rest Apis
• Css
• Cascading Style Sheets (Css)
• Jquery