Senior Engineering Manager - Risk

Location: San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Portland, OR, or Remote within Canada or United States

Department: Software Engineering

Every new business that applies to Mercury is like a new star appearing in the night sky. On its own, it’s a single point of light. But when we look closer, patterns emerge—data trails from partners, filings, founders, and financial histories—all connecting to form a larger constellation.

That’s what our Risk product engineering teams do at Mercury. We guide thousands of business applications through our systems—each one unique, each one needing a smooth and trustworthy landing. The challenge: keep everything moving fast without compromising safety. Every day, our work helps founders open their first account, launch their next idea, and accelerate their growth like rocketships.

Our mission is to build the intelligent, automated systems and operational tools that make this possible—where machine learning, AI, and human judgment work seamlessly together to power the next generation of business banking*. We use intelligence to detect risks earlier, make real-time decisions with confidence, and enable instant, delightful account approvals that keep pace with the builders we serve.

When we do it right, the result is quiet brilliance: onboarding that feels effortless, even though it’s powered by galaxies of data, precision, and care.

We’re looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead the teams building the systems and tools that make it all happen—from application approvals to ongoing and enhanced due diligence—ensuring every business that joins Mercury is both safe and their experience is delightful.

*​​Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

In this role, you will:

• Lead teams (4–8 engineers each) responsible for account onboarding, KYC/KYB, AML, and fraud detection decisioning and workflows, and operational tooling.
• Apply AI/ML—from traditional models to large language models—to unlock faster, real-time bank account application approvals. This work sits on the critical business path, directly driving efficiency and revenue growth.
• Partner with Product, Risk, and Data teams to design and deliver scalable systems that balance user experience with compliance rigor.
• Shape the next generation of our KYC and risk platforms—reliable, resilient, and easy to extend as regulations and business needs evolve.
• Create a strong culture of operational excellence, with measurable improvements to uptime, accuracy, and system quality.
• Build, mentor, and grow engineering talent; help managers and senior engineers level up technically and organizationally.
• Drive clarity amid complexity: translating between regulatory nuance and technical execution.
• Foster collaboration across teams to align on priorities, simplify interfaces, and make the whole system more maintainable and elegant.

You should have:

• 9+ years of software development experience, including 3–5+ years of engineering management in a high-scale tech environment.
• AI/ML expertise—you’ve built and launched applied AI products (from LLMs to traditional ML models), shipping them from 0→1 and scaling 1→10 in production environments.
• Proven success building large-scale backend distributed systems, ideally involving integrations and decision automation.
• Experience with or curiosity about KYC, AML, risk, or compliance systems in financial services or fintech.
• A track record of raising the bar for quality and reliability, balancing shipping speed with technical excellence.
• Strong communication and leadership skills—you can inspire engineers, partner across functions, and adapt your management style to the moment.
• The ability to hire, retain, and develop exceptional technical talent.
• A pragmatic builder’s mindset: you believe beautiful systems are those that work, adapt, and last.

The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options/RSUs), and benefits. Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.

Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following:

• US employees (any location): $239,000 - $298,800
• Canadian employees (any location): CAD $225,900 - $282,400

Mercury values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Mercury are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities or special needs. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.

We use Covey as part of our hiring and / or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT. As part of the evaluation process we provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound on January 22, 2024. 

[Please see the independent bias audit report covering our use of Covey for more information.] 

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