Brian McMurray

Senior engineering and product leader with 15+ years of experience building and scaling high-performing teams and delivering secure, reliable, and scalable web and mobile platforms. Proven track record of translating company priorities into actionable product and engineering strategies that drive measurable business outcomes. Adept at fostering engineering cultures of quality, accountability, and continuous improvement. Skilled at managing distributed teams, mentoring engineering managers and product managers, and implementing frameworks for technical and operational excellence and career development. Trusted by company leadership to own vision, roadmap, and execution strategies while balancing immediate delivery with long-term architectural and strategic vision.

Experience

Director of Product & Engineering, Payments; Kickstarter, Boston, MA

July 2022 - Present

• Lead cross-functional team of engineering managers, product managers, and engineers responsible for modernizing Kickstarter’s payments platform.
• Defined and executed technical vision for payments, introducing features like installment plans, USD support internationally, performance marketing fee collection, and late pledges, directly expanding creator monetization opportunities and resulting in increasing Kickstarter’s platform revenue margins through expanded payments services.
• Mentored and developed engineering managers, building structured career paths and coaching them on people leadership, strategy, and delivery excellence.
• Fostered an inclusive and collaborative engineering culture, improving retention and engagement by emphasizing transparency, feedback, and diverse hiring pipelines.
• Oversaw vendor review, partnerships and budget allocations across the engineering organization, balancing cost efficiency with scalability, compliance, and reliability.
• Produced security incident and compliance policy and process as the engineering representative of the company’s security working group, including ISO 127:2001 evaluation, PCI-DSS, and security incident response policies.
• Oversaw the security research disclosure (bug bounty) program, revamped engineering on-call and engineering support escalation procedures.
• Represented the company in union negotiations and helped to craft policy and proposals around working hours, AI utlization, and the utilization of contract employees.
• Partnered with product, design, and operations to deliver platform-wide improvements impacting millions of backers and creators.

Senior Engineering Manager, Wayfair, Boston, MA

July 2019 - July 2022

• Managed a 12-person engineering team delivering the relaunch of Wayfair’s private-label credit card program in partnership with Citi, growing program revenue to $1B+ with 700K active cardholders.
• Redesigned payments infrastructure, enabling multi-method integrations and cutting onboarding time for new programs by 50%.
• Actively coached senior engineers into leadership roles, supporting succession planning and career development within the org.
• Balanced short-term delivery and long-term architectural vision, driving platform reliability and scalability.
• Partnered with marketing, product, and finance stakeholders to align technical execution with company objectives.

Web and E-Commerce Lead, Formlabs, Somerville, MA

August 2015 - July 2019

• Directed engineering team responsible for global e-commerce site spanning 30+ countries, generating $43M+ in sales.
• Delivered headless CMS and React-based front-end for both web and mobile experiences.
• Implemented secure global payment systems and compliance processes, ensuring availability and performance at scale.
• Hired, mentored, and grew team members into technical leads, reinforcing culture of ownership and accountability.

Associate Director of Engineering, Phase2 Technology, Alexandria, VA (remote)

July 2010 – August 2015

• Managed a distributed team of 6 engineers and architects delivering large-scale publishing platforms for Time Inc. (RealSimple.com, CookingLight.com, etc.).
• Architected multi-site systems ensuring scalability, performance, and high availability across millions of monthly users.
• Mentored engineers and led adoption of open-source technologies, contributing to industry best practices at DrupalCon and DrupalCamps.

Technical Director, PROD4EVER, Boston, MA

June 2009 – July 2010

• Directed technical projects for high-profile music industry clients (GeorgeHarrison.com, Phish.com), overseeing interns and contractors.
• Delivered Drupal/WordPress sites and custom iOS/Flash applications to support artist fan engagement and digital campaigns.

Web & Interactive Developer, MIT Mobile Experience Lab, Cambridge, MA

June 2008 – June 2009

• Researched and built mobile-first systems including SMS APIs linking feature phones to web-based social networks.
• Designed and tested prototypes in live environments, contributing to innovative mobile interaction research.

Community & Volunteer Leadership

• Town Meeting Member, Town of Arlington, MA, 2020 (appointed), 2022 (elected) - Present
• Chair and Committee Member, Grants Committee of the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, 2021 - 2024
• Board Member, Enjoy Creativity, 2013 - Present

Education

Bradley University, B.A. in Multimedia - Summa Cum Laude