--- title: 'Principal Product Manager at Lead' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-product-manager-lead-kansas-city-0fca9b5k6vwh' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-06' --- # Principal Product Manager at Lead - **Company:** Lead - **Location:** Kansas City, MO / New York, NY / San Francisco, CA / Sunnyvale, CA / United States - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-09-04 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/leadbank/5e830025-31ab-4b24-83ad-1379df281a60 ## Job description ## About Lead Bank Lead is a banking infrastructure platform trusted by the most innovative companies to power complex financial products. We enable fintechs to offer compliant, programmable services like payments, lending, and digital assets at scale. Banking has moved beyond traditional institutions and is now embedded directly into everyday experiences, meaning companies need modern infrastructure that is safe, secure, and operationally sound. Today, Lead is one of the only API-first, developer-focused partner banks with the financial, regulatory, and legal expertise required to help fintechs succeed. We operate offices in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, and New York City, and an FDIC-insured bank in Kansas City. Product Team at Lead Lead’s Product team identifies partner needs, defines strategy, and works closely with Engineering and Design to bring products to life, guiding execution from concept through launch. But building financial infrastructure isn't just about shipping features. This team is tasked with transforming the most complex banking systems and regulatory requirements into intuitive products that developers love to build with. To help fintechs launch, grow, and innovate with confidence, the Product team must be driven by a singular goal: creating elegant solutions to difficult problems. To that end, success on this team requires genuine curiosity, exceptional communication, and thoughtful collaboration. Role Description: We are looking for a Principal Product Manager/ Product Lead to support the development of our Banking as a Service platform. The services that you build will create the pathway for our clients to deliver innovative financial products relating to deposits, credit and lending, issuing and accepting credit card and/or debit card transactions, and more. Our ideal product manager is highly analytical and uses “first principles thinking” when understanding a new domain. We are looking for someone with a user first mindset to build a next generation platform from the ground up. In this role you will: - Be passionate about changing the banking system to meet the needs of a modern digital economy - Define product strategy and ensure alignment with broader company goals and vision - Break down ambiguous problems, ask the right questions when gathering data across cross-functional groups, and use a structured (first principles) approach to create clarity and move forward - Develop and maintain a prioritized product roadmap with well-defined product requirements and compelling business justifications - Set clear goals and success metrics to measure product performance and guide decision-making - Maintain knowledge of the technical and operational elements of your product to make informed, data-driven decisions - Develop clear, actionable product requirements and communicate them effectively to engineering and design teams - Collaborate closely across engineering, design, compliance, operations, and other teams to drive execution from concept to launch - Be the glue in a diverse cross-functional environment, facilitating alignment, decisions, and consensus - Manage and mentor a team of product managers, providing guidance, support, and feedback to help them grow - Own resource allocation and hiring decisions to ensure the team is structured to meet product and business goals - Gather customer insights and feedback to inform roadmap prioritization and feature design - Begin making trade-off decisions that balance user value, technical complexity, and business impact - Perform all other duties as assigned Qualifications: - 10+ years demonstrated experience in product management and/or engineering with a track record building world class fintech products - Prior experience in enterprise software domain, scalable SaaS platform design experience, and highly compliance-centric product - Have strong technical competence, with experience and track record of success in building high-velocity, low-latency, high-availability services with beautiful API design - The ability to be practical and are eager to collaborate/compromise to get to the best, most efficient outcome - Strong judgment and analytical skills - Strong communication skills and the ability to work cross-functionally to align stakeholders on the goals and behaviors required for success - Operate as a craftsman who will explore and execute on details to create great product experiences - Have humility and are open to coaching What we offer: At Lead, we design our benefits to support company culture and principles, to foster an efficient and inspiring work environment, and to create the conditions for our team to give their best in both work and life: - Competitive compensation, including opportunities for equity grants based on experience, geographic location, and role - Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, 401k Matching, and other wellness benefits, including FSA, HSA and HRA - Paid parental leave - Flexible vacation policy, including PTO and paid holidays - A fun and challenging team environment in a dynamic industry with ample opportunities for career growth *Lead Bank is proud to have an inclusive culture committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity in all employment decisions regardless of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, veteran status or any other legally protected status. *Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. *Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. *Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. *Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. Pay is based on a number of factors and may vary depending on geographical market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. These ranges may be modified in the future. Zone 1: $250,000 - $275,000 (SF/Bay Area, NYC, Seattle) Zone 2: $220,000 - $250,640 (Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Denver, Boston, Washington DC, San Diego, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento, Miami) Zone 3: $200,000 - $240,233 (Other US Metros) ## About Lead ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Lead is a state-chartered, FDIC-insured bank that provides programmable financial services and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) APIs, enabling fintechs and crypto companies to embed compliant banking products into their own platforms. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series B) - **Headquarters**: Sunnyvale, California, USA - **Founded**: 1928 (original bank), relaunched as a fintech-focused BaaS platform - **Founders**: Jacqueline Reses (CEO), Erica Khalili (CLO/Risk Officer), and a team of fintech and banking veterans ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: Financial Services / Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) - **Target Customers**: B2B — specifically Fintech companies, crypto platforms, and other businesses that want to embed financial services (lending, payments, card issuing, deposits) into their own products - **Mission/Purpose**: “Define what’s possible in banking” by combining regulatory expertise with modern technology to support builders and innovators ## Products & Services - **Lend (Lending API)**: Originate secured/unsecured term loans and lines of credit, with disbursement via the platform’s rails. - **Issue (Card Issuing API)**: Issue debit, prepaid, and credit cards through a card-issuing processor; Lead handles settlement, network oversight, and compliance. - **Move (Payments API)**: Send and receive payments across domestic (ACH, wires), international, and blockchain (stablecoin) rails. - **Store (Deposit Accounts API)**: Hold customer funds in FDIC-insured, multi-currency deposit accounts with flexible account structures. - **Partner Platform**: A unified compliance and oversight portal for partners to manage risk, KYC/KYB, and regulatory reporting. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$200M** across 3 rounds: - Series B (Oct 2024): **$70M** — led by **Andreessen Horowitz** and **Khosla Ventures**, with participation from 5 other investors - Private Equity Round (Aug 2022): **$100M** — 5 investors - Debt Financing (Mar 2021): **$30M** - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Chainalysis (compliance partner) - **Growth Signals**: - **265 employees**, up **77.2% YoY** (LinkedIn, mid-2025) - Headcount growth fueled by hiring from Pinwheel, Square, Stripe, Loop Crypto, and Block - Active job postings: 17 roles (quarterly growth +21.4%) - Ranked in *Inc.* America’s Best Startup Employers 2025, *Forbes* Best Places to Work 2025 - Certified as a “Most Loved Workplace” for 2025 - Won “BaaS Innovation Award” from American Banker (2022, 2023, 2025) - Acquired Loop Crypto in Jan 2024 to strengthen stablecoin capabilities ## Competitive Advantages - **Bank Charter**: One of only a few de-novo banks built in the last two decades in the US — offers the compliance and regulatory infrastructure of a fully chartered, FDIC-insured bank while operating like a modern fintech. - **Composability by Design**: Its four product pillars (Lend, Issue, Move, Store) can be used individually or together, allowing partners to assemble custom financial products without being locked into a monolithic stack. - **Stablecoin Expertise**: With the acquisition of Loop Crypto and dedicated stablecoin leadership, Lead is positioned to help partners move money via blockchain rails compliantly. - **Founder-Led**: Leadership team has deep fintech and banking experience (including building a de-novo bank previously), reducing the risk of regulatory friction for partners. ## Strategic Focus - **Deepening Stablecoin & Crypto Capabilities**: Recent Chainalysis collaboration to enhance blockchain compliance. Stablecoin payments are a growing priority. - **Scaling Platform Adoption**: Opening up APIs (additional endpoints in active development) and documentation (e.g., `llms.txt` for AI-readiness) to attract more developer-friendly partners. - **Winning BaaS Market Share**: Targeting fintechs and crypto companies that are dissatisfied with legacy BaaS providers (a crowded space that includes Synapse, Treasury Prime, etc.). - **Talent Growth & Culture**: Rapidly scaling headcount while maintaining recognition as a top workplace — key to attracting engineering and compliance talent. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Certified Most Loved Workplace 2025. Operating principles include “Client Obsession,” “Champion Change & Innovation,” “Embrace Divergent Perspectives,” and “Owner Mentality” — indicating a high-trust, empowered environment. - **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: The company has 7 offices across the US (Sunnyvale HQ, Kansas City, New York, San Francisco, and others) but job postings (e.g., Software Engineer, Technical Account Manager) do not explicitly state remote vs. in-office — likely hybrid or on-site for many roles. - **Awards & Recognition**: *Inc.* America’s Best Startup Employers, *Forbes* Best Places to Work, *American Banker* BaaS Innovation Award — strong external validation of workplace quality. - **Team Composition**: 51 technical employees (8% of workforce), heavily skewed toward specialists (103, 15%) and managers (45, 7%). Departments include Finance (98), Technical (51), Operations (21). Deep bench of talent drawn from Block, Stripe, Square, and Yahoo. - **Perks**: Not explicitly listed on the careers page, but the culture emphasis on “owner mentality” suggests potential for equity, autonomy, and impact. The company is still in growth phase (Series B, recent 77% headcount growth) — likely means high ownership for new hires. - **Who Should Apply**: Engineers (especially TypeScript, Python, blockchain), Technical Account Managers, Compliance/Risk specialists, and Product Leaders who want to work at the intersection of banking regulation and modern fintech. ## Sources 1. [lead.bank](https://www.lead.bank/) 2. [LinkedIn – Lead](https://www.linkedin.com/company/lead-bank) 3. [Explore Lead – Lead Bank](https://www.lead.bank/explore-lead) 4. [Most Loved Workplace Certified – Lead Bank Blog](https://www.lead.bank/blog-posts/most-loved-workplace-certified) 5. [Lead API Docs – What is Lead](https://docs.lead.bank/get-started/what-is-lead) ## Other roles at Lead - [Senior Technical Governance Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-governance-program-manager-lead-kansas-city-8pmttns6nwya) — Kansas City, MO / New York, NY / San Francisco, CA / Sunnyvale, CA / United States - [Regulatory Product Counsel](https://feeny.ai/job/regulatory-product-counsel-lead-kansas-city-7qpb4mkpm1yg) — Kansas City, MO / New York, NY / San Francisco, CA / Sunnyvale, CA / United States - [Part-Time Teller](https://feeny.ai/job/part-time-teller-lead-lee-s-summit-nbcpp3rfwhh0) — Lee's Summit, MO / Blue Springs, MO - [Business Banking Specialist II](https://feeny.ai/job/business-banking-specialist-ii-lead-kansas-city-apdhbvqjnjwf) — Kansas City, MO / Lee's Summit, MO / Blue Springs, MO - [Senior Technical Account Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-account-manager-lead-united-states-tky2dn1t0tek) — United States - [Software Engineer V](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-v-lead-san-francisco-acdbzygpcm5b) — San Francisco, CA - [Technical Account Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-account-manager-lead-united-states-0e5h11sabasj) — United States - [Financial Crimes Analyst II, Third Party Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/financial-crimes-analyst-ii-third-party-partnerships-lead-united-states-nfm2hajxngg9) — United States - [Senior Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-lead-new-york-msydgxtzmnxq) — New York, NY / San Francisco, CA / Sunnyvale, CA / United States - [Senior FP&A & Treasury Strategy Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-fp-a-treasury-strategy-analyst-lead-new-york-6a223hzx68mh) — New York, NY