Lead

Software Engineer V at Lead (San Francisco, CA)

Lead· San Francisco, CA·

Role details

Work type
Hybrid
Employment
Full-Time

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.

Engineering Team at Lead

The Engineering team builds and maintains the technology that powers Lead's modern banking platform. Partnering with the Product, Finance, and Compliance teams, they architect secure, scalable financial systems that power money movement, credit and lending, card issuing, and account products for fintechs. Success requires technical excellence, a passion for solving complex infrastructure challenges, and the ability to collaborate effectively with a diverse set of stakeholders. The team is made up of ambitious builders and pragmatic problem solvers who are genuinely excited to see their work reach millions of end users across the globe.

Role Description:

This candidate will have technical ownership of designs and services, while influencing good coding practices amongst peers. Responsibilities include designing, coding, reviewing, testing, fixing, researching, deploying and maintaining services and code in AWS production environments. Candidates are technical leaders in their domain who can prioritize well, develop at a high standard, mentor and navigate ambiguous problem domains, and have a consistent track record of high performance and delivery autonomously.

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties. Team members will also perform all other duties assigned based on business needs.

Basic Qualifications

  • You are passionate about changing the banking system to meet the needs of a digital economy
  • 15+ years of experience developing production software for large scale consumer facing mobile applications.
  • Experience as a Principal Engineer level or above either presently or in the past
  • Advanced Degree in Computer Science or Equivalent experience in lieu of degree
  • Experience leading large feature releases; usually multi-person projects that cross engineering team boundaries within multiple departments
  • Experience architecting scalable backend systems in Java, Go, or Ruby
  • Experience with AWS or other cloud platforms.
  • Experience partnering with cross functional stakeholders on technical approaches to deliver a product from infancy into maturation
  • Experience with leadership/mentorship amongst team members
  • Experience maintaining a high quality code base, consistently delivering challenging, stable, and maintainable projects on schedule.
  • Ability to collaborate/compromise to get to the best, most efficient outcome
  • You are curious, have humility and are open to learning
  • Familiarity with relational databases

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Fintech experience is a plus
  • Ability to perform in a fluid environment with high autonomy

What We Offer:

  • At Lead, we design our benefits to support company culture and principles docs.google.com/edit, 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 and cash bonus, 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.

*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: $223,888 - $280,000 (SF/Bay Area, NYC)

Why work at Lead

  • 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.

Application questions