Head of Engineering

coinflow; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 220,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant

Health benefits

401(k)

Job summary

Coinflow, a Chicago-based fintech, seeks a Head of Engineering to lead an engineering team and own day-to-day delivery in a regulated payments environment. This player-coach role blends hands-on coding with team leadership, balancing shipping critical paths with building a scalable organization.

You will drive architecture, set technical direction, mentor engineers, and ensure delivery remains on cadence while reporting to the CTO.

Qualifications

• Senior engineering leader who remains an active IC and ships code
• Delivery ownership: shipping real product on cadence with accountability
• Experience building process without bureaucracy, avoiding overhead
• Stack proficiency: TypeScript/Node (Express, React), MongoDB, ClickHouse, Redis
• High reliability, security, and correctness mindset
• Direct communicator who documents clearly and shares bad news openly

Responsibilities

• Write, review, and ship production code on critical payment paths while remaining hands-on
• Debug production incidents and fix reliability gaps, performance, correctness issues
• Set technical direction and make architecture calls that matter
• Mentor engineers and raise the engineering bar through code reviews and standards
• Own delivery: break work down, sequence it, ensure it lands; drive accountability
• Lead team health: 1:1s, feedback, hiring, and tough conversations
• Own process: clear requirements, project ownership, fast feedback loops
• Report to CTO on personnel matters and team health

Skills

Senior IC delivery

Technical leadership

TypeScript/Node

Express

React

MongoDB

ClickHouse

Redis

Code review

Strong communication

Tools

MongoDB

ClickHouse

Redis

Express

React

Job description

About Coinflow

Coinflow is the next-generation payment service provider revolutionizing global financial infrastructure with stablecoins, AI-driven fraud prevention, and instant settlement. Coinflow enables businesses to grow faster with instant settlement, fraud & chargeback indemnity, global pay-ins, multi-currency FX, and unified payouts. Founded in 2023, the company serves marketplaces, fintechs, remittance providers, gaming platforms, and ecommerce merchants worldwide.

Since our seed round in 2024, we’ve achieved 23x revenue growth and scaled to multi-billion-dollar annual transaction volume. In response to this growth, Coinflow announced a $25M Series A in October 2025—led by Pantera Capital, CMT Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Jump Crypto, and Reciprocal Ventures—accelerating our mission to power the world’s fastest-moving businesses with innovative, reliable global payments.

Coinflow is proudly headquartered in Chicago, IL. Learn more at coinflow.cash.

Role Overview

Coinflow is seeking a Head of Engineering to lead our engineering team and take ownership of day-to-day engineering, including prioritization, delivery, technical direction, and team health, that currently runs through the CTO. Coinflow is white-label payments infrastructure: card acquiring, payin/payout across numerous methods, hosted and embedded checkout, and merchant onboarding, operating in a heavily regulated environment where the bar for correctness, security, and reliability is high and non-negotiable.

This is a player-coach role, not a hands-off management job. You'll be in the codebase shipping real work on critical payment paths while building and leading the team. You own the team's deliverables — when something is late, broken, or unclear, it's yours to drive to done.

The first 6-12 months: this role is built around a handoff. Early on, you'll work closely with the CTO and ship alongside the team to earn context and trust. As you prove out judgment and delivery, more of the day-to-day — planning, technical decisions, team ownership — shifts to you. Success looks like the team running confidently under you while the CTO steps back from operational engineering.

Key Responsibilities

In the trenches (player)

• Write, review, and ship production code on critical payment paths — you stay hands-on
• Debug the hard stuff: production incidents, reliability gaps, performance and correctness issues
• Set the technical direction and make the architecture calls that matter
• Raise the engineering bar through code review, standards, and example

Leading the team (coach)

• Own delivery — break work down, sequence it, and make sure it lands
• Mentor every engineer on the team, from senior to junior, leveling people up rather than just directing them
• Manage and grow the engineers: 1:1s, feedback, performance, hiring, and the occasional hard conversation
• Own the process — clear requirements before work hits engineering, real ownership per project (DRI), and a feedback loop that catches problems early
• Be the point of accountability for the team's output to the founders
• Report to the CTO on personnel matters — performance, team health, and people decisions run through you and surface to the CTO directly

Required Qualifications

• Senior engineering leader who is still a strong, current IC — able to hold your own in the codebase, not just review it
• Track record owning delivery for a team: shipping real product, on a real cadence, with real accountability
• Experience building process without bureaucracy — you know the difference between rigor and overhead
• Comfortable in our stack: TypeScript/Node (Express, React), MongoDB, ClickHouse, Redis/queues
• High bar for reliability, security, and correctness — you've operated where mistakes cost money
• Direct communicator — you write things down and don't hide bad news

Preferred Qualifications

• Payments experience (acquiring, card networks, ACH, chargebacks, PCI)
• Stablecoin or blockchain infrastructure experience (Solana programs, EVM smart contracts, on-chain settlement)
• Experience working in a regulated, compliance-forward environment
• Early-stage startup experience

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation including base salary, performance bonus, and meaningful ownership
• Opportunity to own engineering delivery and team leadership at a rapidly scaling fintech company
• Collaborative and innovative work environment with world-class investors
• Direct impact on core product and company trajectory during a hyper growth phase

The base salary range for this role is $220,000 - $275,000 USD. The actual base salary offered depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to experience, education, skills, qualifications and business needs.

In addition, the employee who fills this role will be eligible for an equity grant, allowing you to share in the long-term success of the company. You will also have access to a wide array of benefits, including health and wellness benefits, 401(k) savings plan, and flexible time off.

Join the team rewriting how money moves worldwide—and become a driving force in the $194 trillion cross-border payments market.