Lithic is the modern card issuing and processing platform empowering ambitious financial companies to build the future of payments.
Our infrastructure powers card programs for 100+ innovative clients, from fintechs reimagining credit and digital banking to platforms transforming disbursements and spend management. Companies like Mercury, Flex, and Novo rely on Lithic's developer-friendly APIs, direct network connections, and flawless reconciliation to launch and scale card programs in weeks, not years.
We're building a future where access to better financial products materially improves people's lives, free from the constraints of 30-year-old mainframes and legacy processors. We're proud to be backed by world-class investors who share that vision, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Spark Capital, Stripes, and Mastercard, along with many others.
We're a team of 160+ across 26 states and 7 countries, headquartered in New York City. Our values (Customer Centricity, Deliver Excellence, Act Like an Owner, Iterate Iterate Iterate, Teach Others, and Be a Good Neighbor) shape how we work and grow as a team.
Lithic is hiring an Engineering Manager to lead the team building the next generation of AI-powered program management tools. Program Services is one of the most operationally complex surfaces in fintech — dispute resolution, fraud monitoring, compliance oversight, cardholder support, reconciliation — and it's almost entirely unexplored territory for agentic AI. Your team will change that.
What you'll do:
- Lead and manage a team of full-stack engineers, owning their performance, growth, and overall team health
- Own the technical vision for agentic program management — defining where AI agents can take over manual workflows in disputes, fraud, compliance, and customer operations, and building the roadmap to get there
- Partner closely with product, design, and Lithic's operations teams to identify automation opportunities and ship tools that meaningfully reduce manual lift for customers and internal teams
- Drive engineering execution — maintaining velocity, managing scope, and holding a high bar for code quality and operational excellence
- Build and reinforce engineering best practices, leveling up the team's tools, processes, and collective craft
- Recruit, hire, and retain strong engineering talent
- Serve as a technical thought partner to cross-functional stakeholders across product, design, and the broader engineering org
What you'll bring:
- Proven experience managing software engineering teams, with a track record of delivering complex products in a fast-moving environment
- Genuine excitement about building agentic systems — you've thought hard about where LLMs and AI agents fit (and where they don't) in high-stakes, regulated workflows
- Strong technical foundation — you've shipped full-stack products and can credibly engage on architecture, code quality, and technical tradeoffs
- Experience with modern web stacks; familiarity with TypeScript, Node/Express, and frontend frameworks (e.g., Vue or React) is a plus
- A clear point of view on what great engineering management looks like — hiring well, developing people, and building team culture
- The ability to balance speed and quality, and to help your team do the same
- Strong communication skills and comfort operating across engineering, product, and business stakeholders
Why this role:
The work of managing a financial card program is still largely manual — compliance reviews, dispute filings, fraud rules, reconciliation reports. Lithic has the platform, the data, and the customer relationships to change that. This team has a legitimate first-mover opportunity to build AI-native operations tooling in a domain where the incumbents are years behind. If you want to lead a team where agentic is creating material value for customers — not demos, not experiments, but real products that run real financial programs — this is it.
The annual US salary range for this role is $169,000 - $265,000 plus equity. This salary range is inclusive of several career levels at Lithic and will be narrowed during the interview process based on the candidate’s experience and qualifications.
- Unlimited PTO
- 12-weeks fully paid parental leave
- 4-Week Fully Paid Sabbatical (earned at your 5-year anniversary)
- Work From Anywhere: work from anywhere in the world 4-weeks each year
- 3% cashback on card purchases with your complimentary Privacy.com employee account
- Health, vision, and dental insurance; HSA Contribution Match
- 401(k) match
- Voluntary Life Insurance and STD/LTD
NYC-based employees work from our SoHo office three days a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays are our core days, and you'll choose a third day that works for your schedule and team needs.
In-office employees receive:
- Commuter benefit
- Catered lunch every Tuesday and Thursday
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