Senior Manager of Engineering, Very Good Security

• We are looking for a high-agency leader with an unyielding bias for continuous improvement—someone who refuses to settle for the status quo, hates manual friction, and thrives on building enterprise-grade, mission-critical financial products with world-class scalability, reliability, and security
• Engineering Leadership: 5+ years of experience managing, leading, or architecting high-throughput engineering teams within enterprise or high-growth SaaS environments
• AI-Augmented SDLC Command: Deep familiarity with modern Agile, DevOps, and SRE practices, specifically adapted for AI-native workflows (e.g., managing agentic code pipelines, automated testing suites, and AI-assisted deployment pipelines)
• Distributed Systems Depth: Proven expertise managing distributed Java microservices. Strong command of REST APIs, event-driven architectures (Kafka/SQS), relational/NoSQL databases, and high-performance data platforms
• Cloud-Native Mastery: Direct experience delivering containerized applications (Kubernetes, Docker) in public cloud environments (AWS) with modern telemetry and observability stacks
• High-Agency Management Style: A "lead from the front" mindset with a track record of identifying operational friction and reimagining standard processes. You take personal ownership of outcomes and empower engineers to do the best work of their careers
• Security & Compliance Foundations: Solid understanding of operating within regulated environments (PCI-DSS, SOC2, ISO27001), treating security and compliance as fundamental engineering constraints

Desirable

• As a Senior Manager, Engineering, you will serve as an operational and technical leader driving our Payments Acceptance engineering team
• In this role, you will lead an autonomous team focused on expanding our high-impact Value-Added Services (VAS) including Network Tokens, Account Updater, 3DS, and Account Validation
• Reporting to the Senior Director of Payments Acceptance, you will work hand-in-hand with Product Management, the CTO, Tech Leads, and adjacent platform teams to shape the future of our core payments platform
• Rather than managing standard daily output or supervising rigid task lists, you will drive technical strategy, pioneer AI-native engineering management, and integrate agentic workflows across the entire SDLC
• VGS is building the platform powering agentic commerce and global payments infrastructure. VGS Engineering is the pillar that supports that vision
• We create a platform that is an indispensable, ubiquitous component of our partners' payments and security infrastructure
• We build and operate high-scale, reliable, and resilient systems that manage mission-critical payment data across the globe. We don't just participate in the payments ecosystem; we power it
• Pioneer AI-Native Engineering: Lead the paradigm shift in how we design, build, test, and operate services. Champion AI-augmented SDLC practices and agentic workflows to multiply engineering velocity and shorten the path to production
• Drive Engineering Excellence & Velocity: Challenge outdated workflows and manual toil. Build a high-throughput engineering culture anchored in strict code quality, continuous integration, robust automated testing, and blameless operational rigor
• Strategic Roadmap Execution: Partner closely with Product Management and architectural leadership to align technical strategy with business objectives. Balance rapid innovation in VAS products with long-term platform performance, security, and scalability
• Build & Elevate High-Performing Teams: Hire, coach, and retain top engineering talent. Lead from the front by setting clear expectations, removing cross-team friction, and fostering an environment of deep ownership, continuous learning, and high accountability
• System Resiliency & Operations: Drive high standards for availability, performance, and security across a mission-critical Java microservices environment. Own incident response baselines and establish self-healing system practices alongside adjacent Sustaining and Infrastructure teams