Director of Engineering

Step; New York (NY); On-site; USD 220,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

401k match

Flexible vacation

Parental leave

Job summary

Step is a remote-first company building banking for the next generation. We offer competitive compensation, stock options, and comprehensive benefits as we scale.

Join a leadership team reporting to the CTO, guiding engineers across Product, Design, Operations, Risk, and more to deliver reliable, customer-focused software at scale. Candidates should have 10+ years in software and a track record of building and growing teams.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software engineering with significant leadership experience.
• Proven track record managing engineering managers and senior engineers.
• Strong Computer Science fundamentals and scalable architecture.
• Experience designing distributed systems as products scale.
• Excellent communication with technical and non-technical audiences.
• Hands-on, low-ego leadership with focus on ownership and execution.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a high-performing engineering organization.
• Define and execute Step's technical strategy and roadmap with senior leaders.
• Own engineering execution across multiple teams for quality and speed.
• Collaborate with Product and Design to translate customer needs into technical solutions.
• Provide leadership on architecture, scalability, reliability, security, and quality.
• Evolve systems and practices to support rapid growth and scale.

Skills

Leadership

Distributed systems

CTO collaboration

Cloud infrastructure

Kubernetes

System architecture

Communication

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

PostgreSQL

TypeScript

gRPC

Protocol Buffers

BigQuery

React Native

Kotlin

Job description

About Step

Step's mission is to improve the financial future of the next generation. Millions of people use our banking and borrowing products to manage, build, and grow their money. Now that we're part of Beast Industries – the company behind MrBeast – we're poised for a new phase of growth to deliver financial literacy and tools at massive scale.

About Step

Step's mission is to improve the financial future of the next generation. Millions of people use our banking and borrowing products to manage, build, and grow their money. Now that we're part of Beast Industries – the company behind MrBeast – we're poised for a new phase of growth to deliver financial literacy and tools at massive scale.

The Role

Step is looking for an experienced Director of Engineering to lead and grow our engineering organization as we enter our next phase of scale. You'll work closely with the CTO and leaders across Product, Design, Operations, Risk, and other functions to set technical direction, build high-performing teams, and deliver products that make a meaningful impact for millions of customers.

This is a leadership role for someone who is equally comfortable thinking strategically and getting into the details. You'll help shape our engineering roadmap, architecture, development practices, and organization while maintaining a strong bias toward execution and customer impact.

What you'll do

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering organization, creating an environment where engineers can do their best work.
• Partner with the CTO and other company leaders to define and execute Step's technical strategy and engineering roadmap.
• Own engineering execution across multiple teams, ensuring we deliver high-quality products with speed and predictability.
• Work closely with Product and Design to translate customer and business needs into effective technical strategies and solutions.
• Provide technical leadership on architecture, scalability, reliability, security, and engineering quality.
• Help evolve our systems and development practices to support Step's rapid growth and increasing scale.
• Establish and improve engineering processes, standards, and practices without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Build a strong culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Recruit, develop, and retain exceptional engineering talent, including hiring and developing engineering managers and senior technical leaders.
• Identify and remove technical and organizational bottlenecks that prevent teams from moving quickly.
• Balance near-term product delivery with long-term investments in platform, infrastructure, architecture, and technical quality.
• Help ensure Step's engineering organization can operate reliably and securely as a financial services company serving millions of customers.
• Stay close enough to the technology and product to make informed decisions, challenge assumptions, and contribute when the team needs technical leadership.

What we're looking for

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant experience leading engineering teams and organizations.
• Proven experience managing and developing engineering managers and senior engineers.
• Strong Computer Science and software engineering fundamentals.
• A track record of building and scaling reliable, customer-facing software products.
• Experience designing and evolving distributed systems and engineering organizations as products and companies scale.
• Strong technical judgment and the ability to make pragmatic architecture and technology decisions.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong product sense and an ability to connect technical decisions to customer and business outcomes.
• A hands-on, low-ego leadership style with a strong bias toward ownership and execution.
• Passion for software quality, engineering excellence, and building teams that move quickly without compromising reliability.

Nice to haves

• Experience working in fintech, banking, payments, lending, or other highly regulated financial systems.
• Experience building products at significant consumer scale.
• Experience leading engineering teams through a period of rapid growth or organizational change.
• Experience with mobile-first consumer products.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, and modern distributed systems.
• Experience balancing the demands of security, risk, compliance, reliability, and product velocity.

Some of the technologies we use

• Kotlin
• React Native
• TypeScript
• gRPC
• Protocol Buffers
• Postgres
• JOOQ
• BigQuery
• Kubernetes
• Terraform

How we're different

We stand for the side hustlers, the creators, the freelancers, and the investors — people who are not afraid to take on challenges, especially when it comes to their finances. Step is focused on disrupting the banking industry by delivering a differentiated, mobile-first consumer experience, and we operate like the customers we serve: customer obsessed, acting as owners, moving with urgency, and breaking the norm.

Step is a wholly owned subsidiary of Beast Industries, the media and entertainment company founded by Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast), the most-watched person in the world. Beast Industries spans digital media, consumer products, philanthropy, and new ventures, with an audience reach no consumer company has ever had — and Step is tasked with turning that reach into financial literacy and tools for the next generation at massive scale. With Beast's distribution and brand behind it, Step is positioned to scale significantly over the next 12 months, and joining now means helping shape that trajectory from the inside.

Come work with us!

Step is a remote-first company building banking for the next generation. We offer competitive compensation and stock options, generous medical, dental, vision, and company-paid life insurance, a 401k plan with Safe Harbor company matching, a flexible vacation policy and paid company holidays, 12 weeks paid parental leave with flexible return to work, and a company-provided technology package. If you're looking to join a fast-growing company with a strong mission and vision that puts people first, we want to meet you!

Step is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Step is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and interview process. If you need an accommodation, please let us know at [e-mail] and we'll work with you to provide appropriate support.