Engineering Manager, Processing

Lithic
CA
Career-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Best suited to engineering managers with infrastructure expertise working in fintech, particularly those comfortable with high-availability systems and card network protocols.

Best fit for

  • Infrastructure-focused engineering leaders who thrive in high-stakes reliability environments.
    — “systems we maintain have strict latency and uptime requirements
  • Player-coach managers capable of hands-on technical contributions when needed.
    — “this is a player-coach role where the manager can unblock
  • Fintech-curious technologists eager to master payment processing protocols.
    — “Experience with or interest in learning payment processing

Things to consider

  • On-call participation expected as part of team rotation.
    — “team's on-call rotation
  • No visa sponsorship available — must already have Canadian work authorization.
    — “We do not offer visa sponsorship or assistance

How to stand out

  • Showcase specific examples of improving system reliability metrics.
    — “Raise the bar on operational excellence: observability, incident response
  • Highlight cross-functional collaboration with product teams in past roles.
    — “Partner closely with Product and cross-functional stakeholders
  • Demonstrate technical depth in network infrastructure and peering.
    — “infrastructure and networking expertise are important
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Manager

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • high system reliability
  • successful new feature launches
Typical background
engineering managementnetwork infrastructure

Skills & requirements

Required

Network InfrastructurePayment ProcessingSystem Reliability

Preferred

On-call ReadinessNetwork Peering

Stack & domain

JavaPythonKotlinAWSLeadershipTechnical JudgmentSystem DesignCard ProcessingNetwork InfrastructurePayment Processing

About the role

Original posting from Lithic via Greenhouse

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. 

We are hiring an Engineering Manager for our Processing team to lead Lithic's next phase of growth.

The Processing team builds and maintains the real-time interfaces between Lithic and external payment networks. Every card authorization, clearing message, and settlement file flows through systems this team owns. The team manages both online and batch transaction flows across Mastercard, Visa, and Amex, along with transaction enrichment, disputes processing, and network compliance. The systems we maintain have strict latency and uptime requirements, because they sit on the critical path for every card transaction. The team also manages the physical network peering with card network partners, so infrastructure and networking expertise are important. The team primarily uses Java, Python, and Kotlin on AWS.

What You'll Do:

Ensure high reliability, low latency, and correctness for Lithic's transaction processing interfaces and related services

Lead delivery of new capabilities across authorization, clearing/settlement, disputes, and network integration surfaces

Own and evolve the infrastructure supporting physical network peering with card network partners, ensuring connectivity, failover, and capacity meet reliability requirements

Raise the bar on operational excellence: observability, incident response, on-call readiness, and pragmatic reliability improvements

Own initiatives from planning to launch, keeping stakeholders informed and aligned along the way

Partner closely with Product and cross-functional stakeholders to clarify requirements early and keep engineering time focused on the highest-impact work

Lead efforts to improve systems, processes, and documentation so new team members can ramp quickly

Participate in and help evolve the team's on-call rotation

What You Bring

Experience managing and growing engineers, including coaching, feedback, and hiring

Strong technical judgment and system design skills, especially for low-latency, high-availability systems, with solid networking and infrastructure knowledge

Comfort staying close to the work — this is a player-coach role where the manager can unblock, review designs, and occasionally contribute hands-on when needed

Experience shipping and operating production services with strict uptime and latency requirements

Experience with or interest in network infrastructure — peering, connectivity, failover, and capacity planning for external partner integrations

Experience with or interest in learning payment processing — card network protocols, authorization flows, clearing/settlement, or similar domains

Experience with Java, Python, or Kotlin and AWS (or closely related stacks), and an ability to ramp quickly where the stack is unfamiliar

Strong cross-functional communication skills and an ability to keep teams aligned under time pressure

Growth mindset and continuous desire to learn and improve

An interest in fintech and payments is preferred

The annual Canadian salary range for this role is CA$232,000 - $333,000 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. This is a remote position. We do not offer visa sponsorship or assistance.

Crack the code

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Benefits for Full-Time US Employees:

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

Source: Lithic careers (Greenhouse)

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