---
title: 'Software Engineer V at Lead'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-v-lead-san-francisco-acdbzygpcm5b'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# Software Engineer V at Lead

- **Company:** Lead
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-02-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/leadbank/6d1e1481-5dda-47dc-8886-1ebcfb12e520

## 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 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BpDk5yNqa19IZCp8JbxKUd3ndBLVx44Jcg2DNi2KTeQ/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)

## 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

- [Principal Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-product-manager-lead-kansas-city-0fca9b5k6vwh) — Kansas City, MO / New York, NY / San Francisco, CA / Sunnyvale, CA / United States
- [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
- [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