Engineering Manager, AI Applications

Plaid is uniquely positioned to become the financial data and insights backbone for AI applications and platforms. How consumers manage their money, how developers build applications, and how companies operate are all being reshaped by AI products shipping today. Consumers should be able to understand and manage their financial lives through conversational AI. They should have peace of mind, with trustworthy consent and authorization, when agents shop on their behalf. Identity verification and fraud prevention should feel seamless and built into AI-powered products. The list goes on. The most important AI companies, major fintechs, and agent platforms are actively integrating Plaid into the products they build. The opportunity is real, and it’s happening now. The AI Applications Team This is a newly formed team with a builder’s mandate: take applied AI products from idea to production, put them in front of real users, and grow them into meaningful businesses for Plaid. As the team’s leader, you’ll set the direction, stay close to the work, and help shape Plaid’s transformation into an AI-first company. What you will build: - The product full-stack backbone for agentic financial workflows - The trust layer for agentic commerce, including consent, governance, and security - How Plaid’s consumer Link experience fits seamlessly into conversational interfaces - The preferred integration pattern for Plaid with AI providers - from API adaptations to the official Plaid MCP Servers, and beyond Responsibilities: - Lead a team of 6 engineers, ranging from junior to staff, developing them through clear goal setting, coaching, and feedback - Define and drive the long-term strategy and manage execution on the team, in close partnership with technical and product leaders across Plaid - Stay hands-on: prototype, review architecture and code, and dig into evals and agent behavior - Be your own technical PM: talk to customers, run fast experiments, and double down on what works - Turn early bets into products that AI companies and fintechs adopt and scale with Qualifications: Must-haves: - 8+ years of industry experience, including time as a Staff-level engineer before moving into management - 1+ years of engineering management experience - Strong product-mindedness and a deep understanding of customer and user needs - Experience shipping full-stack products end to end, from workflow design through iteration on real user feedback - A track record of building and growing high-performing engineering teams - Ability to balance exploring possibilities with judging feasibility in 0-to-1 work - Willing to go into our San Francisco office 3 days a week - Genuine excitement about building applied AI products, especially in fintech Nice to haves: - Hands-on experience shipping LLM-powered products, such as agents, RAG, or evals - Experience training or serving ML models in production - Experience working with AI-native or developer platform customers and partners Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid! Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations@plaid.com. Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here https://plaid.com/legal/#candidate-privacy-notice. Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.