Tech Lead Manager, AI & App Experience

Chime Financial, Inc; New York (NY); On-site; USD 199,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Chime Financial, Inc is seeking an engineering leader to guide an AI & App Experience (AAX) squad. You will manage a team of 4-5 engineers, own end-to-end delivery, write production code, and set the squad's technical direction to ensure reliability and scale.

You will work closely with Product, Design, Data Science, and Risk, and guide the deployment of LLM-powered features with strong guardrails and observability for millions of members.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of managing 4-5 engineers and coaching talent.
• Experience shipping AI-enabled features with attention to safe, reliable scale.
• Hands-on coding with current proficiency and willingness to code daily.

Responsibilities

• Manage and develop a squad of 4-5 engineers: hiring, 1:1s, career coaching, performance.
• Own end-to-end delivery for squad including sprint planning, SLAs, and health.
• Write and ship production code alongside the team.
• Set technical direction, architecture, and quality bar for the squad.
• Lead the use of AI tooling to raise team leverage and establish durable practices.
• Guide design and delivery of LLM-powered capabilities with guardrails and observability.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Data Science, and Risk on scope and planning.
• Be cross-functional point of contact for technical capabilities and dependencies.
• Identify technical debt and advocate for sustainable engineering and on-call culture.
• Foster growth paths toward higher IC levels or future TLM roles.

Skills

People management

Hands-on coding

AI tooling

Cross-functional collaboration

Python/Ruby/React Native

Distributed systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Claude Code

Codex

Cursor

Job description

About the role

Chime is looking for an engineering leader to help manage and guide one of the AI & App Experience (AAX) engineering teams. Chime’s AAX org is building the next generation of the Chime member experience, including Jade, our AI-powered financial assistant. Jade helps millions of members manage their spending, stay on top of subscriptions, and reach their financial goals through conversation that's natural, reliable, and trustworthy.

TLMs at Chime manage a team of 4-5 engineers: Setting the hiring bar, coaching and developing talent, and driving all formal people management activities. They own execution and delivery for the squad. They stay in the code, authoring and shipping features alongside their team. For this team, that also means building with AI yourself and setting the bar for how LLM-powered features get shipped safely and reliably at scale.

The base salary offered for this role and level of experience will begin at $199,000.00 and up to $275,000.00. Full-time employees are also eligible for a bonus, competitive equity package, and benefits. The actual base salary offered may be higher, depending on your location, skills, qualifications, and experience.

In this role, you can expect to

• Manage and develop a squad of 4-5 engineers: Hiring, 1:1s, career coaching, managing for performance
• Own delivery for your squad end to end, from sprint planning and delivery commitments through service SLAs and operational health
• Write and ship code alongside your team, authoring pull requests that land in production
• Be accountable for the squad's technical direction, architecture, and quality bar, either via a tech lead on the squad, or by taking on the tech lead role yourself
• Use AI coding agents and tooling to raise both your own leverage and your squad's, and establish the practices that make that durable for the team
• Guide the design and delivery of LLM-powered capabilities, from agent experiences and evals to the guardrails and observability that keep Jade reliable at the scale of millions of members
• Partner with Product, Design, Data Science, and Risk on scope, prioritization, and quarterly planning, surfacing technical dependencies and capacity needs early
• Act as the squad's cross-functional point of contact for its technical capabilities and dependency coordination, and carry the "what should we build" conversation if/when a PM isn't dedicated to your squad
• Identify technical debt and advocate for sustainable engineering, staying an active contributor to the codebase, while ensuring quality, performance, and operational health, including a healthy on-call and incident-response culture
• Build growth paths for the engineers on your squad towards the higher IC levels or a future TLM role, and contribute to broader AAX and Chime engineering initiatives as a member of the engineering leadership team

To thrive in this role, you have

• 2+ years in people management responsibilities
• Current, hands-on coding ability and the desire to keep it. You are writing code today and want a role where that continues
• A track record of using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor to accelerate real delivery, and of getting a team to adopt them with measurable impact on output
• AI-native fluency: You build with LLMs and AI tooling yourself and actively foster that practice across your team rather than treating it as someone else's job
• Familiarity with the challenges of shipping LLM-powered products, including agents, evals, prompt strategies, guardrails, and observability, or a strong drive to come up to speed quickly
• Experience supporting and coaching members of your team around project execution, skill development, and career progression
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with a track record of partnering closely with Product, Design, Data Science, and other cross-functional partners
• A fascination with how to make teams and people thrive, an interest in pushing the technology, people, and organization envelope, and the ability to motivate a team through delivery on aggressive schedules and goals
• Enjoyment in learning and diving into the deepest levels of how things work
• Experience with similar tech: Python, Ruby, React Native, Distributed Systems, AWS services (data, compute), and Service Oriented Architectures

#LI-Onsite#LI-AC1

A little about us

At Chime, we believe that everyone can achieve financial progress. We created Chime—a financial technology company, not a bank*—on the premise that core banking services should be helpful, easy, and free. Through our user-friendly tools and intuitive platforms, we empower our members to take control of their finances and work towards their goals. Whether it's starting a savings account, purchasing a first car or home, launching a business, or pursuing higher education, we're proud to have helped millions unlock their financial potential.

We're a team of problem solvers, dreamers, and builders with one shared obsession: our members. From day one, Chimers have worked tirelessly to out-hustle and out-execute competitors to bring our mission to life. Their grit and determination inspire us to work harder every day to deliver the very best experience possible. We each bring an owner's mindset to our work, refusing to be outdone and holding ourselves accountable to meet and exceed the highest bars for our teams, our company, and our members.

We believe in being bold, dreaming big, and taking risks, while also working together, embracing our diverse perspectives, and giving each other honest feedback. Our culture remains deeply entrepreneurial, encouraging every Chimer to see themselves as stewards of our mission to help everyday Americans unlock their financial progress.

We know that to achieve our mission, we must earn and keep people's trust—so we hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity in everything we do. These aren't just words on a wall—our values are embedded in every aspect of our business, serving as a north star that guides us as we work to help millions achieve their financial potential.

Because if we don't—who will?

*Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC.

What we offer for our full-time, regular employees

• Our in-office work policy is designed to keep you connected - with four days a week in the office and Fridays from home for those near one of our offices, plus team and company-wide events depending on location. Whether you’re coming in regularly or are part of our fully remote program, you’ll stay engaged with your work and teammates.
• Benefits that support your work and life, including backup child, elder, and pet care and subsidized commuter benefits for eligible employees.
• Comprehensive health, financial, and wellbeing benefits designed to support you at every stage of life.
• Generous vacation policy and company-wide paid days off
• 1% of your time off to support local community organizations of your choice
• Annual wellness stipend to use towards eligible wellness related expenses
• Up to 22 weeks of paid parental leave for birthing parents and 12 weeks of paid parental leave for non-birthing parents
• Access to family planning reimbursement
• A challenging and fulfilling opportunity to join one of the most experienced teams in FinTech and help millions unlock financial progress

We know that great work can’t be done without a diverse team and inclusive environment. That’s why we specifically look for individuals of varying strengths, skills, backgrounds, and ideas to join our team. We believe this gives us a competitive advantage to better serve our members and helps us all grow as Chimers and individuals.

Chime is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital or family status, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis under provincial, federal, state, and local laws, regulations, or ordinances. We will also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of state and local laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Cook County Ordinance, NYC Fair Chance Act, and the LA City Fair Chance Ordinance, and consistent with Canadian provincial and federal laws. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation during any stage of the application process, please contact: [e-mail].

To learn more about how Chime collects and uses your personal information during the application process, please see the Chime Applicant Privacy Notice.