Senior Manager, Engineering - Onboarding

Circle; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 218,000 - 264,000; Full time

Job summary

Circle is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager for the Risk and Compliance Engineering team in San Diego. You will lead an engineering group responsible for building and scaling Circle's centralized customer onboarding and lifecycle management platform, a foundational component of risk management and regulatory compliance.

You will drive architecture, automation, and partner-facing integrations across Circle's products to deliver secure, compliant customer experiences.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of people management experience.
• Experience designing scalable distributed systems and APIs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering team responsible for Circle's centralized customer onboarding and lifecycle management platform.
• Build scalable onboarding automation from initial engagement through activation across Circle's products.
• Design and evolve a unified customer lifecycle platform that manages changes in customer relationships and onboarding requirements.
• Guide the development of partner-facing APIs, SDKs, and integrations for onboarding and activation experiences.
• Develop internal tools and collaborate with Product, Risk, Compliance, Fraud, and Engineering teams for lifecycle reviews and risk management.
• Drive architectural decisions, reliability, security, and operational excellence while coaching senior engineers.

Skills

Software engineering experience

People management

Distributed systems design

APIs

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

APIs

SDKs

Job description

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is one of the world’s leading internet financial platform companies, building the foundation of a more open, global economy through digital assets, payment applications, and programmable blockchain infrastructure. Circle’s platform includes the world’s largest regulated stablecoin network anchored by USDC, Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain designed to become the Economic OS for the internet. Enterprises, financial institutions, and developers use Circle to power trusted, internet-scale financial innovation. Learn more at circle.com.

What You'll Be Part Of

Circle is committed to visibility and stability in everything we do. As we grow as an organization, we're expanding into some of the world's strongest jurisdictions. Speed and efficiency are motivators for our success and our employees live by our company values: High Integrity, Future Forward, Multistakeholder, Mindful, and Driven by Excellence. We have built a flexible work environment where new ideas are encouraged and everyone is a stakeholder.

What You'll Be Responsible For

As a Senior Engineering Manager on Circle's Risk and Compliance Engineering team, you will lead the engineering team responsible for building and scaling our centralized customer onboarding and lifecycle management platform, a foundational component of Circle's risk management and regulatory compliance infrastructure. Your team will develop capabilities supporting the entire customer journey, from initial engagement and onboarding through ongoing customer relationship changes, additional product adoption, and product-specific onboarding requirements. Onboarding serves as a critical first line of risk control, establishing the customer identity, eligibility, risk assessments, and compliance safeguards that shape Circle's operating environment and support downstream fraud prevention, ongoing risk management, and regulatory compliance. You will drive the development of scalable automation, partner-facing SDKs, and internal compliance tools that enable seamless, secure customer experiences across Circle's products and jurisdictions. Working closely with Product, Risk, Compliance, and Engineering stakeholders, you will guide technical architecture, engineering execution, and operational excellence while developing a high-performing, inclusive engineering team.

What You'll Work On

• Lead and develop the engineering team responsible for Circle's centralized customer onboarding and lifecycle management platform, establishing foundational risk and compliance capabilities.
• Build scalable business and consumer onboarding automation that supports customers from initial engagement through activation across Circle's products.
• Design and evolve a unified customer lifecycle platform that manages changes in customer relationships, product combinations, and onboarding requirements over time.
• Guide the development of partner-facing SDKs, APIs, and integrations that enable seamless onboarding and product activation experiences within third-party applications.
• Build extensible product-specific onboarding capabilities that support customer eligibility, additional verification, and jurisdiction-specific compliance requirements as customers adopt new Circle products.
• Develop internal tools and partner with Product, Risk, Compliance, Fraud, and Engineering teams to support customer reviews, lifecycle changes, and downstream risk management.
• Drive architectural decisions, engineering reliability, security, and operational excellence while coaching senior and staff-level engineers and developing a high-performing, inclusive engineering team.

Core Requirements

What you'll bring to Circle

• 10+ years of relevant software engineering experience, including 3+ years of people management experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong technical background designing scalable distributed systems, APIs, and complex backend platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical guidance, coach, and mentor senior and staff-level engineers while supporting their professional growth.
• Experience making architectural decisions and delivering secure, reliable systems with high standards for engineering and operational excellence.
• Strong people leadership, execution, and cross-functional collaboration skills, including hiring, performance management, and delivery ownership.

Preferred Requirements

• Experience building customer onboarding, identity verification, KYC/KYB, or regulatory compliance platforms.
• Experience developing partner-facing APIs, embeddable SDKs, or workflow automation for consumer and business applications.
• Familiarity with financial services, fintech, payments, or jurisdiction-specific regulatory requirements.

Circle is on a mission to create an inclusive financial future, with transparency at our core. We consider a wide variety of elements when crafting our compensation ranges and total compensation packages. Starting pay is determined by various factors, including but not limited to: relevant experience, skill set, qualifications, and other business and organizational needs. Please note that compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations. Base Pay Range: $217,500 - $264,167

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, or any other protected status required by the laws in the locations where we hire. Additionally, Circle participates in the E-Verify Program in certain locations, as required by law.

Should you require accommodations or assistance in our interview process because of a disability, please reach out to [e-mail] for support. We respect your privacy and will connect with you separately from our interview process to accommodate your needs.