Staff Engineer, User Engagement

Menlo Ventures; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 238,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity package

Health, dental and vision benefits

401(k) with employer match

Flexible PTO policy

Job summary

Menlo Ventures seeks a Staff Engineer at Betterment in New York, NY to develop systems enhancing user trust, focusing on fraud prevention and account security. This role requires experience in full-stack development and knowledge of security protocols.

The position offers a salary range of $200,000 - $238,000, competitive equity, and comprehensive benefits. The hybrid work model necessitates in-office attendance Monday through Thursday, creating a collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• Experience designing, building, and operating systems for fraud detection.
• Familiarity with reliability and auditability in customer-facing tools.
• Track record of balancing user experience with business goals.
• Experience in at least one server-side language and modern JavaScript frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Build systems and experiences to help users trust Betterment's platform.
• Work on capabilities spanning user privacy, account access, and fraud prevention.
• Guide your team’s full-stack development practices.
• Collaborate with senior engineering leaders.

Skills

Fraud detection and prevention

Risk mitigation

Full-stack development

Ruby

React

Team leadership

Effective communication

Job description

About Betterment

Betterment is a leading, technology‑driven financial services company that offers investing, savings and retirement solutions for retail investors and investment advisors as well as financial wellness solutions, including a 401(k) for small and medium‑sized businesses. Our team is passionate about our mission, to empower people to build wealth with confidence and ease. We’re headquartered in NYC and offer hybrid NY‑based positions (four days/week in‑office, with no required office days during the summer and winter holidays).

About the Role

On User Trust, you’ll build the systems and experiences that help users, partners, and regulators trust Betterment’s platform. You’ll work on critical capabilities spanning user privacy and compliance, account access, KYC, risk scoring, login and account recovery, and fraud prevention.

This role sits at the intersection of security, legal & compliance, risk, and product engineering to deliver scalable, reliable solutions that protect customers, reduce fraud, and support Betterment’s regulatory obligations.

As a staff engineer, you’ll play an instrumental role in designing and implementing complex systems within the team’s domain, guiding your team’s full‑stack development practices and collaborating with other senior engineering leaders to advance Betterment’s technology and create high performance, reliability and exceptional developer experience.

If you’re passionate about delightful customer experiences, building scalable, high‑performance web applications and are eager to work in a collaborative, forward‑thinking environment, we’d love to have you on our team.

New York City: $200,000 - $238,000

We offer a competitive equity package, health, dental and vision benefits, life and AD&D, short‑term and long‑term disability insurance, EAP, commuter and parking benefits, FSA/HSA, and 401(k) with employer match as well as a flexible PTO policy. This job may also be eligible for variable compensation in the form of a company incentive bonus. For jobs based out of our NYC HQ, we require in‑office attendance Monday through Thursday, weekly.

What We’re Looking For

• Experience designing, building, and operating systems for fraud detection, prevention, or risk mitigation in high‑trust environments.
• Familiarity with building customer‑facing and internal tools that require strong reliability, auditability, and thoughtful handling of risk.
• Exposure to domains involving identity, access, privacy, compliance, financial workflows, or other trust‑critical user experiences.
• Track record of balancing user experience, business goals, and control frameworks when building scalable full‑stack systems.
• Have proven and recent experience scoping, building, and leading technical projects (and the teams building them) from discovery through release.
• Experience in at least one server‑side language – Ruby, Java, C#, C++, Python (we use Ruby on Rails).
• Experience building interactive web applications using modern JavaScript frameworks (we use React).
• Strong understanding of appropriate technical design, architecture, and other complexity in building web applications.
• Experience gathering inputs, building consensus, and making technical decisions in an inclusive manner.
• Effective communication with technical and non‑technical colleagues across different roles, teams, and lines of business.
• Commitment to upskilling teammates through feedback, pairing, and mentorship.
• Passion for software engineering and for creating what doesn’t exist.
• Ability to make trade‑offs required to ship without compromising quality.
• Realize that automated tests are a worthwhile investment.
• Appreciate agility and pragmatism in software development.
• Thrive in a startup environment.

E‑Verify Statement

Betterment participates in E‑Verify. We will provide the Social Security Administration, and if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security, with information from each new employee’s Form I‑9 to confirm work authorization. Please note that we do not use this information to pre‑screen job applicants.

Equal Opportunity Employment

Betterment is an equal‑opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. We strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants, or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, sex, gender (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, past, current or prospective service in the uniformed services, predisposing genetic characteristic, domestic violence victim status, arrest records, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

Betterment is dedicated to providing accommodations to candidates upon request. If you need accommodations at any point throughout the interview process, please reach out to your recruiter.

Please note that in any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age‑identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.