Technology Lead Manager (Lending)

Chime; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

Wellness programs

Financial planning & legal assistance

Travel stipends & CRGs

Job summary

Chime is seeking an engineering leader in San Francisco to drive the Lending squad's technical direction and code quality. You will work closely with Product, Analytics, Marketing, Design, and Data leaders to shape the team's trajectory and deliver high-impact features.

You will hire, coach, and grow a group of engineers (3–5 direct reports), oversee performance, and ensure sustainable engineering practices while partnering on quarterly planning.

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineering squads with accountability for delivery and performance.
• Direct people management of 3–5 engineers, including 1:1s and career coaching.
• Experience in lending, payments, or regulated financial systems is highly valued.
• Ability to mentor engineers on technical and product growth.

Responsibilities

• Own the squad’s technical direction, architecture, and code quality.
• Lead technical design discussions, code reviews, and planning with strong collaboration with PM/Design.
• Identify debt and advocate sustainable engineering practices as an active contributor.
• Drive hiring and staffing for the squad and build an inclusive, high-performing team.
• Provide full people management for 3–5 direct reports and career coaching.

Skills

People management

Technical leadership

AI-driven engineering

Lending/payments domain

Code reviews

Job description

• Chime serves millions of members on a mission to help them unlock financial progress. Chime’s Lending org builds the products and platforms that give members access to fair, transparent credit and liquidity when they need it most, from Earned Wage Access through MyPay, to flexible overdraft with SpotMe, to longer-term Instant Loans, and the platforms that power credit decisions, funding, repayments, and servicing behind the scenes
• We operate some of Chime’s most consequential systems. Our teams build real-time money movement and decisioning infrastructure at scale, including underwriting and eligibility, ledgering and reconciliation, capital markets workflows, repayment systems, and financial transactions that must be correct, resilient, and auditable
• A meaningful problem. Helping engaged members get more value over time is one of the highest-leverage things we can do for members and for the business
• Real ownership. This is a newer team with clear executive support and meaningful surface area. You’ll have room to shape both the technical direction and the team itself
• Strong cross-functional partners. You’ll work day-to-day with senior Product, Analytics, Marketing, Design, and Data leaders who are deep in the problem
• A team to build. You’ll hire, coach, and grow a group of engineers, and define the culture as it scales
• Author and ship scoped, incremental features hands-on
• Own the squad’s technical direction, architecture, and code quality — leading technical design discussions, code reviews, and technical planning, with support from the team and Tech Leads
• Identify technical debt and advocate for sustainable engineering practices as an active, ongoing codebase contributor
• Provide full people management for 3–5 direct reports, including 1:1s, career coaching, performance feedback, and promotion decisions
• Drive hiring and staffing for the squad, building an inclusive, high-performing team and owning its health and engagement, with support from the Director of the area
• Mentor product engineers on technical and product growth, modeling ownership and craft
• Build a path for engineers on the squad toward Staff Engineer or a future TLM role
• Partner with Product and Design on sprint scope and delivery commitments, surfacing technical dependencies and capacity needs into quarterly planning

Benefits

• Physical: We believe in taking care of your physical health, so as a Chimer you’ll get medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as benefits to support your physical activity, family planning, and all of your little Chimers
• Emotional: We know that staying healthy involves a lot more than doctor’s checkups. We partner with Modern Health to help you navigate your mental health, give monthly Take Care of Yourself Days, and want you to take time off when you need it
• Financial: We want Chimers to save and feel financially supported, so we offer savings plans with competitive matching, as well as access to financial planning and legal assistance so that you can find your financial peace of mind
• Social: We’ll celebrate your milestones together with travel stipends, swag, and high-fives and make sure you’re connected to fellow Chimers through our Chime Resource Groups (CRGs) and company events

Have a bias toward ownership and action over process, and are comfortable being the one person accountable for both what ships and how the team is doingUse AI coding tools and workflows as a core part of how you build and lead, with a track record of introducing AI-driven practices that measurably improved a team’s velocityCan tie-break technical disagreements and make speed-vs-durability calls under real delivery pressure, while partnering closely with a PM and Design on scope, dependencies, and quarterly planningHave managed engineers directly with full people-management ownership (1:1s, career coaching, performance feedback, promotion decisions, hiring) for a small team, while staying hands-on technically yourselfYou hold a high quality bar through design and code review rather than delegating it entirelyHave direct experience in lending, payments, or other regulated financial/transactional systems