Engineering Manager - User Foundations
Plaid
Software Engineering, Other Engineering
New York, NY, USA
USD 214,800-366k / year
Posted on Jan 22, 2026
We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. We’re dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. Plaid powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. We work with thousands of companies like Venmo, SoFi, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaid’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Washington D.C., London and Amsterdam.
Plaid’s authoritative source of truth for the user lifecycle: powering recognition, authentication, and the data models behind Plaid’s newest ML-based insights products (LendScore, Protect, etc.). We build the APIs, systems and data models that let Plaid products deliver user-level intelligence at scale.
At the center of our work is the living graph that represents people’s entire financial lives; the largest dataset at Plaid! This links all of Plaid’s users, identities, accounts, and transactions. We operate it reliably at global scale for some of the world’s largest companies, including Google, Meta, Shopify, Square, Robinhood, and Venmo.
The team owns 3 core pillars:
- The User Graph: Defines Plaid’s global user and maintains the graph linking identities, accounts, and transactions, exposed via internal APIs for product development and ML inference.
- The User API: Plaid’s newest API surface, enabling easy multi-product integration and powering fraud prevention, credit decisioning and pre-qualification capabilities, and other data partner insights.
- The User Decisioning Layer, which powers returning user recognition and authentication across Link and API-only experiences.
We tackle hard problems in identity, graph integrity, and trust so product, ML, and data teams can build reliable fraud, credit, and financial management experiences at U.S. financial network scale.We are a high‑performing group of engineers based in San Francisco and New York, collaborating in‑office.
Responsibilities
- You will lead a team of 6 engineers, ranging from mid-level to Staff, developing them through clear goal setting, coaching, and feedback.
- You’ll define and drive the long-term strategy for this foundational area, in close partnership with technical and product leaders across Plaid.
- You’ll collaborate with cross-functional partners to identify high-leverage opportunities, shape the roadmap, and dive deep into technical design and execution details to ensure consistent delivery of high-impact business outcomes.
- You’ll uphold a high bar for technical quality and delivery velocity, leading by example.
Qualifications
- 8+ years of industry experience, that includes time as a Staff-level engineer before transitioning into management.
- 1+ years of engineering management experience
- Deep experience designing scalable, reliable architectures that support real-world products at scale.
- Track record of building and growing high performing engineering teams (either as an engineer or a manager).
Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!
Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations@plaid.com.
214800 - 366000 USD a year
The target base salary this position ranges from $214,800 and $366,000 per year in San Francisco and New York.
The base salary range listed for this full-time position excludes equity and benefits. The pay range shown on each job posting is the minimum and maximum target for new-hire salaries. Actual pay may be higher or lower depending on factors like skills, experience, and relevant education or training.