Senior Manager of Engineering

Very Good Security; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits including medical, and

Stock options

401k with employer match

Life & disability insurance

Pre-tax flexible spending accounts

Flexible work hours and flexible PTO

Holidays

Home office setup allowance

Professional learning reimbursement

Job summary

Very Good Security seeks a Senior Manager, Engineering to lead the Payments Acceptance engineering team and drive the technical strategy of a high-scale payments platform. You will partner with Product Management, the CTO, and platform teams to shape the future of core payments services and to accelerate AI-native SDLC practices.

You will hire and coach engineers, push for best-in-class code quality, automated testing, and blameless incident handling while maintaining security and regulatory

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience managing, leading, or architecting high-throughput engineering teams in enterprise or SaaS environments.
• Strong command of distributed Java microservices and REST APIs.
• Experience with AI-native SDLC practices and AI-assisted deployment pipelines.
• Deep familiarity with DevOps, Agile, and SRE principles at scale.
• Ability to hire, coach, and retain top engineering talent and drive accountability.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Payments Acceptance engineering team to drive technical strategy and platform evolution.
• Champion AI-native engineering management and agentic workflows across the SDLC.
• Ensure system resiliency, performance, and security of mission-critical microservices.
• Collaborate with Product, CTO, and platform teams to balance innovation with reliability.
• Build and elevate high-performing teams through clear expectations and ownership.

Skills

Distributed systems

REST APIs

AI-native SDLC

SRE practices

Engineering leadership

Tokenization/payments

AI developer tools

High-throughput teams

Education

BA/BS degree

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Kafka

SQS

PostgreSQL

NoSQL databases

Job description

• As a Senior Manager, Engineering, you will serve as an operational and technical leader driving our Payments Acceptance engineering team
• In this role, you will lead an autonomous team focused on expanding our high-impact Value-Added Services (VAS) including Network Tokens, Account Updater, 3DS, and Account Validation
• Reporting to the Senior Director of Payments Acceptance, you will work hand-in-hand with Product Management, the CTO, Tech Leads, and adjacent platform teams to shape the future of our core payments platform
• Rather than managing standard daily output or supervising rigid task lists, you will drive technical strategy, pioneer AI-native engineering management, and integrate agentic workflows across the entire SDLC
• VGS is building the platform powering agentic commerce and global payments infrastructure. VGS Engineering is the pillar that supports that vision
• We create a platform that is an indispensable, ubiquitous component of our partners’ payments and security infrastructure
• We build and operate high-scale, reliable, and resilient systems that manage mission-critical payment data across the globe. We don’t just participate in the payments ecosystem; we power it
• Pioneer AI-Native Engineering: Lead the paradigm shift in how we design, build, test, and operate services. Champion AI-augmented SDLC practices and agentic workflows to multiply engineering velocity and shorten the path to production
• Drive Engineering Excellence & Velocity: Challenge outdated workflows and manual toil. Build a high-throughput engineering culture anchored in strict code quality, continuous integration, robust automated testing, and blameless operational rigor
• Strategic Roadmap Execution: Partner closely with Product Management and architectural leadership to align technical strategy with business objectives. Balance rapid innovation in VAS products with long-term platform performance, security, and scalability
• Build & Elevate High-Performing Teams: Hire, coach, and retain top engineering talent. Lead from the front by setting clear expectations, removing cross-team friction, and fostering an environment of deep ownership, continuous learning, and high accountability
• System Resiliency & Operations: Drive high standards for availability, performance, and security across a mission-critical Java microservices environment. Own incident response baselines and establish self-healing system practices alongside adjacent Sustaining and Infrastructure teams

Benefits

• Competitive health benefits including medical, dental, & vision insurance
• VGS stock options
• 401k plan, with employer matching 4% and immediate vesting of employer match
• Life & disability insurance
• Pre-tax flexible spending accounts (dependent and healthcare FSA)
• Flexible work hours and flexible PTO
• 11 US company holidays
• Eligibility for health benefits starts on Day 1!
• New hire home office set up allowance
• Professional learning reimbursement

We are looking for a high-agency leader with an unyielding bias for continuous improvement—someone who refuses to settle for the status quo, hates manual friction, and thrives on building enterprise-grade, mission-critical financial products with world-class scalability, reliability, and securityDistributed Systems Depth: Proven expertise managing distributed Java microservices. Strong command of REST APIs, event-driven architectures (Kafka/SQS), relational/NoSQL databases, and high-performance data platformsCloud-Native Mastery: Direct experience delivering containerized applications (Kubernetes, Docker) in public cloud environments (AWS) with modern telemetry and observability stacksSecurity & Compliance Foundations: Solid understanding of operating within regulated environments (PCI-DSS, SOC2, ISO27001), treating security and compliance as fundamental engineering constraintsAI-Augmented SDLC Command: Deep familiarity with modern Agile, DevOps, and SRE practices, specifically adapted for AI-native workflows (e.g., managing agentic code pipelines, automated testing suites, and AI-assisted deployment pipelines)Engineering Leadership: 5+ years of experience managing, leading, or architecting high-throughput engineering teams within enterprise or high-growth SaaS environmentsHigh-Agency Management Style: A “lead from the front” mindset with a track record of identifying operational friction and reimagining standard processes. You take personal ownership of outcomes and empower engineers to do the best work of their careersExperience with tokenization, payment processing, or security productsProven track record of rolling out AI developer tools or agentic workflows across an engineering organizationA knack for out-of-the-box thinking that thrives in a fast-paced startup environmentBA/BS degreeExperience optimizing low-latency distributed data streams and high-concurrency database queries