Director of Engineering

Step; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Medical, dental, vision

Company-paid life insurance

401k with Safe Harbor matching

Flexible vacation policy

Parental leave

Tech package

Job summary

Step is a remote-first company building banking for the next generation. We are seeking an experienced Director of Engineering to lead and grow our engineering organization as we scale.

You will partner with the CTO and other leaders to define the technical direction, build high-performing teams, and deliver customer‑facing software with impact. You will shape the roadmap, architecture, and development practices, balancing delivery speed with reliability, security, and platform longevity.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience including leading teams.
• Proven track record in developing engineering managers and senior engineers.
• Strong CS fundamentals and experience building scalable, customer-facing software.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a high-performing engineering organization.
• Partner with the CTO and leaders to define and execute Step's technical strategy and roadmap.
• Own engineering execution across multiple teams delivering high-quality products with speed and reliability.
• Collaborate with Product and Design to translate customer and business needs into technical strategies.
• Provide leadership on architecture, scalability, reliability, security, and quality.
• Evolve systems and development practices to support Step's rapid growth.
• Establish and improve engineering processes and standards while avoiding bureaucracy.
• Foster ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Recruit, develop, and retain engineering talent, including managers and senior leaders.
• Identify and remove bottlenecks enabling faster delivery.
• Balance near-term delivery with long-term platform investments.
• Ensure secure and reliable operations for millions of customers.

Skills

Leadership

Engineering management

Distributed systems

Communication

Product sense

Strategic thinking

Tools

Kubernetes

BigQuery

Postgres

Terraform

gRPC

Protocol Buffers

React Native

Kotlin

TypeScript

JOOQ

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.

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.

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.