Engineering Manager - Consumer

Speedrun Talent Network; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Commission

Job summary

Plaid is building a unified onboarding platform to connect its products. We are seeking an Engineering Manager to lead a team of about ten engineers through a major migration, unifying onboarding experiences on a new foundation while preserving traffic and reliability.

You will partner with a Principal Engineer, Tech Lead, and cross-functional teams to define direction, mentor engineers, and deliver high-quality software at scale. This role emphasizes technical excellence and leadership.

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: ability to dive into architecture and design details and maintain 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.

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) with hands-on design and code review to maintain a high technical bar.
• Hire, manage, and develop a team of engineers, including goal setting, coaching, feedback, and performance management.
• Partner with Product, Design, and engineering teams to define clear interfaces and make the unified platform easy to adopt and extend.
• Keep Link reliable and healthy through the transition, balancing new work with long-term system health.

Skills

Backend engineering

Engineering management

System design

Stakeholder collaboration

PLG / consumer tooling (Nice to have)

Job 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 [e-mail].

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.

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.