# Engineering Manager - Consumer **Company:** [Plaid](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/plaid) Lead a team of ~10 engineers at Plaid as an Engineering Manager on the Unified Link platform, overseeing a major transformation to consolidate onboarding products into a single API-driven foundation. This role combines hands-on technical leadership with team management, requiring someone with 8+ years of backend/full-stack engineering experience and 2+ years managing engineers to drive execution on a high-traffic financial infrastructure platform serving 9,000+ apps and processing 750,000+ daily connections. **Role:** Engineering Manager **Seniority:** Manager **Locations:** San Francisco HQ **Salary:** 216000–329400 USD [Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/plaid/229eb28e-a8ab-41a9-97ca-b59c77793d65) Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/plaid/engineering-manager-consumer-229eb28e --- ## Responsibilities - Lead Unified Link Platform Migration Strategy: Set and communicate the technical roadmap and team strategy in partnership with the Tech Lead and Principal Engineer, defining phased migration approach to consolidate existing onboarding products into a single API foundation. Sequence the migration to minimize disruption to existing 750,000+ daily connections while maintaining product velocity. - Drive Execution and Maintain Technical Excellence: Own team execution through sprint planning, milestone tracking, and delivery cadence while maintaining hands-on involvement in architectural design reviews and code reviews. Hold and enforce high technical standards across platform code to ensure reliability and scalability as the system absorbs traffic from legacy products. - Build, Hire, and Develop Engineering Team: Recruit and onboard approximately ten engineers to build the Unified Link team. Establish clear OKRs and performance expectations, provide regular coaching and feedback, manage performance, and create career development opportunities for team members to grow into senior and staff-level roles. - Cross-Functional Platform Alignment and Adoption: Partner closely with Product, Design, and engineering teams across Plaid to define clean technical interfaces, API specifications, and dashboard experiences that make the unified platform intuitive for 9,000+ applications to adopt. Drive alignment on how internal teams consume the platform to accelerate migration. - System Reliability and Technical Debt Management: Ensure Link remains reliable and operationally healthy throughout the major platform transformation. Make informed tradeoffs between building new migration work and addressing technical debt, monitoring system performance metrics, and preventing reliability regressions during the transition. - Communicate with Leadership and Stakeholders: Provide regular updates to engineering leadership and executive stakeholders on migration progress, technical risks, and resource needs. Clearly articulate technical tradeoffs and their business implications to inform prioritization decisions across Plaid's product portfolio. ## Requirements ### education - {"name":"Computer Science or Related Field (Preferred)","description":"Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent professional experience demonstrating mastery of computer science fundamentals, algorithms, and systems design principles."} ### technical - {"name":"8+ Years Backend or Full-Stack Engineering","description":"Proven track record designing and shipping complex, scalable systems at companies with significant technical challenges. Experience building production systems that handle millions of requests, manage data consistency, and scale with reliability requirements."} - {"name":"Distributed Systems and API Architecture","description":"Deep understanding of distributed system design, REST API architecture, microservices patterns, and the tradeoffs between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance. Experience designing APIs that scale to thousands of consumers."} - {"name":"Production System Reliability","description":"Demonstrated expertise in building and maintaining systems designed for high availability, graceful degradation, monitoring, and incident response. Experience managing large-scale platform transitions without impacting production systems."} - {"name":"Code Quality and Design Standards","description":"Ability to evaluate code architecture, identify technical debt, and establish engineering standards that balance velocity with maintainability. Experience conducting meaningful design and code reviews at senior levels."} ### experience - {"name":"2+ Years Engineering Management","description":"Hands-on experience managing engineering teams with direct responsibility for hiring, onboarding, goal setting, performance management, and developing engineers. Track record building high-performing teams and fostering psychological safety for continuous improvement."} - {"name":"Platform/Infrastructure or Consumer Product Development","description":"Background building either internal developer platforms, APIs, or infrastructure that other teams depend on, OR consumer-facing products serving millions of users. Both involve understanding user needs, managing backward compatibility, and scaling systems."} - {"name":"Cross-Functional Leadership","description":"Experience working closely with Product, Design, and other engineering teams to define technical strategy and secure buy-in. Demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders without direct authority and navigate competing priorities."} ## Skills ### required - {"name":"Backend System Architecture","description":"Deep expertise in designing and shipping complex, scalable backend systems with experience in distributed systems, API design, and system reliability. Must demonstrate ability to architect solutions that handle millions of transactions and high-traffic consumer-facing services."} - {"name":"Engineering Management and Leadership","description":"Proven experience managing engineering teams with track record in coaching, performance management, goal setting, and building high-performing teams. Experience with hiring, onboarding, and developing engineers to their full potential in fast-paced environments."} - {"name":"Technical Leadership and Code Review","description":"Ability to maintain strong technical depth while managing, including hands-on involvement in architectural decisions, design reviews, and code quality standards. Credibility to hold high technical bars across team contributions."} - {"name":"Strategic Planning and Roadmap Development","description":"Skill in defining technical strategy, sequencing complex migrations, balancing platform infrastructure work with feature delivery, and communicating technical tradeoffs to stakeholders across product and design teams."} - {"name":"Cross-functional Collaboration","description":"Experience partnering effectively with Product, Design, and other engineering teams to define clear interfaces, align on technical specifications, and drive adoption of platform capabilities. Strong communication skills with non-technical stakeholders."} - {"name":"Production Systems Reliability","description":"Demonstrated expertise in maintaining system reliability and health during major infrastructure transitions, managing technical debt, and making sound tradeoffs between new functionality and long-term system maintainability."} - {"name":"Full-Stack or Backend Development","description":"8+ years professional experience as a backend or full-stack engineer with proven ability to design, build, and ship systems at scale. Experience with REST APIs, microservices, and consumer-facing platform architecture."} ### preferred - {"name":"Consumer-Facing Product Experience","description":"Background building products directly used by consumers or end-users, with understanding of user adoption patterns, usability considerations, and managing high-traffic customer journeys at scale."} - {"name":"Product-Led Growth (PLG) Platform Development","description":"Experience building developer tools or platforms with product-led growth models, including self-serve APIs, dashboard experiences, and minimizing friction in customer onboarding and feature adoption."} - {"name":"Fintech or Financial Services Engineering","description":"Background in fintech, financial services, or regulated technology environments with understanding of compliance requirements, security considerations, and the complexity of financial data integration at enterprise scale."} - {"name":"Major System Migration Experience","description":"Track record successfully leading or managing large-scale platform migrations, consolidations, or infrastructure rewrites while maintaining production stability and customer experience."} - {"name":"Principal/Tech Lead Collaboration","description":"Experience partnering with Principal Engineers and Technical Leads in setting technical direction, leveraging specialized expertise, and maintaining alignment on architectural decisions for large initiatives."} ## Tech stack ### tools - {"name":"CI/CD and Deployment Infrastructure","description":"Experience managing continuous integration, deployment pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code for reliable and frequent releases while minimizing impact to production traffic."} - {"name":"Monitoring and Observability","description":"Proficiency with logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting systems to maintain system health and visibility across complex platform migrations."} - {"name":"Version Control and Code Review Tooling","description":"Expertise using Git, code review platforms, and development workflows to maintain code quality standards and facilitate team collaboration."} ### others - {"name":"API Design and Integration","description":"Deep expertise in designing APIs that balance developer experience, platform extensibility, and feature discoverability for 9,000+ applications at scale."} - {"name":"Data Security and Compliance","description":"Understanding of security best practices, data encryption, compliance requirements (SOC 2, PCI-DSS), and secure handling of financial credentials and PII in regulated environments."} ### databases - {"name":"PostgreSQL / RDBMS","description":"Experience with relational databases at scale for financial data, transactions, and state management in high-traffic systems."} - {"name":"Distributed Data Systems","description":"Understanding of caching layers, message queues, and data consistency patterns required for scaling financial platforms across thousands of integrations."} ### languages - {"name":"Backend Languages (Java, Go, Python, Kotlin, TypeScript/Node.js)","description":"Proficiency in one or more backend languages commonly used for scalable financial platform development. Backend language expertise required for hands-on code review and architectural decisions."} ### frameworks - {"name":"REST API Frameworks","description":"Experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs at scale for financial data integration and consumer-facing applications with focus on reliability and user experience."} - {"name":"Microservices Architecture","description":"Familiarity with microservices patterns, service-oriented architecture, and distributed system design for managing complex platform migrations and scaling."} ## Benefits ### benefits - {"name":"Comprehensive Health Coverage","description":"Medical, dental, and vision insurance plans with employer contributions to support employee wellness and healthcare needs."} - {"name":"Retirement Benefits","description":"401(k) retirement plan with competitive employer matching to help employees build long-term financial security."} - {"name":"Equity Compensation","description":"Stock options as part of compensation package, allowing employees to participate in company growth and success."} - {"name":"Flexible Work Arrangements","description":"Opportunities for flexible and remote work options to support work-life balance (specific policies subject to team and role requirements)."} - {"name":"Professional Development","description":"Investment in engineering team growth through technical training, conference attendance, and mentorship opportunities to support career advancement."} - {"name":"Inclusive Culture and Mission Alignment","description":"Mission-driven organization committed to building a diverse team focused on unlocking financial freedom. Strong emphasis on equity, belonging, and team member perspectives."} ## Compensation - **max:** 340000 - **min:** 220000 - **currency:** USD - **stockOptions:** true ## Interview process ### steps - {"name":"Initial Recruiter Conversation","description":"Introductory call to discuss background, career goals, interest in the Unified Link platform work, and assess mutual fit. Estimated duration: 30 minutes."} - {"name":"Technical Leadership Discussion","description":"Conversation with hiring manager focused on engineering depth, system design experience, and approach to leading technical teams. Discuss examples of complex systems designed and shipped, team leadership philosophy, and experience with platform migrations. Estimated duration: 60 minutes."} - {"name":"Team Collaboration and Vision Setting","description":"Panel or conversation with Tech Lead and/or Principal Engineer to discuss technical strategy, architectural approach to the Unified Link platform, and collaboration style. Assess alignment on technical direction and partnership model. Estimated duration: 60 minutes."} - {"name":"Product and Cross-Functional Collaboration","description":"Conversation with Product Lead or Design partner to evaluate ability to partner across functions, understand user needs, and make technical tradeoffs informed by product requirements. Discuss examples of successful cross-functional projects. Estimated duration: 45 minutes."} - {"name":"Leadership and Culture Discussion","description":"Conversation with senior engineering leader or executive to discuss management philosophy, approach to building and developing teams, handling of complex technical decisions, and alignment with Plaid's mission to build an equitable financial ecosystem. Estimated duration: 45 minutes."} - {"name":"Offer and Negotiation","description":"Following positive interviews, offer discussion including base salary, equity package, benefits, and any specific accommodations or negotiations. Plaid values transparent communication on compensation and benefits."} ## Full description Plaid Link is the front door to modern financial experiences. It securely connects people’s financial accounts to the apps and services they trust, and it’s the foundation Plaid’s product teams build onboarding, payments, identity, and lending experiences on. Link supports more than 12,000 financial institutions and 9,000+ apps and services, is used by roughly one in two adults with a bank account, and is the starting point for approximately 750,000 connections every day. The Unified Link team is now focused on building a single onboarding platform for Plaid’s products. Customers will integrate once through a single API and turn on additional products with a toggle in the dashboard, making it easy to adopt new capabilities and expand their use of Plaid. As the Engineering Manager, you will lead roughly ten engineers through a major transformation: bringing our existing onboarding products together, moving Link’s highest-traffic experiences onto the new foundation without disrupting the traffic they carry every day, and continuing to improve the Link experience along the way. You’ll partner closely with a Principle Engineer and the team’s Tech Lead to set technical direction and sequence the migration, and with Product, Design, and teams across Plaid to make the platform easy to adopt and extend. All while maintaining a high bar for quality and reliability, and growing your engineers through clear priorities, coaching, and feedback. **Responsibilities** * Set team strategy and the technical roadmap in partnership with the Tech Lead, balancing the platform migration with ongoing improvements to Link * Drive team execution (planning, sprints, delivery) and hold a high technical bar through hands-on involvement in design and code review * Hire, manage, and develop a team of engineers, including goal setting, coaching, feedback, and performance management * Partner with Product, Design, and engineering teams across Plaid to define clear interfaces and make the unified platform easy to adopt and extend * Keep Link reliable and healthy through the transition, making sound tradeoffs between new work and long-term system health **Qualifications** * 8+ years of experience as a backend or full-stack engineer, with a track record of designing and shipping complex, scalable systems * 2+ years managing engineers, including coaching, performance management, and building a team * Strong technical depth: you can dive into architecture and design details, and credibly hold a high bar for the team * Strong user empathy and the ability to balance technical tradeoffs with product outcomes * **Nice to have:** experience building consumer-facing products and/or product led growth (PLG) dev tools Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid! Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations@plaid.com. Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice [here](https://plaid.com/legal/#candidate-privacy-notice). Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.