Brian McMurray

Building and supporting products, companies, teams, and communities focused on opening up access – to open source software, to affordable digital manufacturing hardware, to funding for culture and creative projects – has been the through line of my career.

I am an Engineering and Product leader with 15+ years of experience building and scaling high-performing teams; adept at fostering engineering cultures of quality, accountability, and continuous improvement for distributed teams while mentoring engineering leaders and guiding their career development.

I have a proven track record designing and building several payment platforms (ecomerce, private label credit card, and b2b and b2c) and developiing and translating company and product priorities into actionable engineering strategies. I am a trusted partner to executives, aligning technical direction with organizational strategy while balancing immediate delivery with long-term architectural vision.

Experience

Director of Engineering, Platform and E-Commerce; Kickstarter, Boston, MA

July 2022 - Present

Leads cross-functional group of 16 engineering managers, product managers, and engineers responsible for modernizing Kickstarter’s product and payments platform, processing more than $750 million per year in 15+ currencies.

• Defined and executed technical vision for payments, conceiving and introducing new product features directly expanding creator monetization opportunities and resulting in Kickstarter’s highest revenue earning years.
• Mentored and coached 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.
• 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.
• Represented the company in union negotiations and helped to craft policy and proposals around working hours, AI utlization, and the utilization of contract employees.

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.

• Actively coached senior engineers into leadership roles, supporting succession planning and career development within the org.
• Redesigned payments infrastructure, enabling multi-method integrations and cutting onboarding time for new programs by 50%.
• 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.

Adjunct Faculty, Bradley University, Peoria, IL

August 2007 – May 2008

Part-time faculty member in the Multimedia Program of the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts.

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
• Open Source contributor: Django, Drupal, Magento, jQuery Mobile

Education

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

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MicroMasters, Data, Economics, and Design of Policy - currently enrolled