Engineering Manager (Financial Systems)

Who Are We?

Government technology has failed the public for decades, and Americans have been conditioned to expect websites from the 90s for essential public services.

Kaizen exists to strengthen trust in American public services by building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software that is worthy of the people they serve. We started in outdoor recreation, and now we're building toward something much larger — the software layer that powers how Americans access any government service.

Our platform already reaches 40 million residents across 50+ agencies in 17 states.

Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. We're builders, designers, and operators who believe that beautifully designed software shouldn’t be a luxury in government. It’s how you earn trust back.

Location

This is a hybrid role based out of our New York City HQ. Candidates must reside in New York or be able to commute to New York City to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays - Thursdays).

The Role

As our Financial Systems EM, you’ll be building the financial systems that power this mission - ensuring governments and residents alike can trust every transaction, every time. You’ll get to solve some of the hardest technical challenges in fintech and civic tech, shape the foundation of our platform, and play a key role in scaling an early-stage startup on its way to nationwide impact. You will be responsible for owning and building our financial systems - payments, processors, reporting, and accounting infrastructure. These systems are among the most sensitive parts of our product and codebase, and as we scale to larger, more sophisticated customers, they’re holding us to higher standards of accuracy, compliance, and reliability. This is a highly technical role with leadership responsibility: ~80% hands-on engineering and ~20% people management. You’ll collaborate closely with product and platform teams to design simple, abstracted financial interfaces, while ensuring our systems are accurate and built to scale.

Technical Challenges Unique to This Role

• Building and scaling financial systems that reconcile accounting data, power accurate reporting, and support enterprise-grade compliance.

• Owning integrations with payment processors, ERP systems, and financial reporting tools to ensure reliability and trust.

• Designing simple, abstracted payment and reporting interfaces for our customers.

• Ensuring financial accuracy through reconciliation, alerting, and monitoring systems.

• Supporting diverse use cases - everything from permits and public reservations to point-of-sale transactions and large-scale government payments.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the accounting and payments roadmap - defining priorities, building, and executing.

• Own payments, processors, reporting, and financial accounting systems end-to-end.

• Establish rigorous systems for reconciliation, alerting, and financial accuracy.

• Collaborate with product engineering to design clean, abstracted interfaces for payments and reporting.

• Manage and mentor a small team while remaining a strong IC.

• Drive ERP integrations and ensure smooth connectivity between payments, accounting, and inventory systems.

• Contribute to high-level architectural decisions, helping us design scalable, reliable, and auditable financial systems.

What You Bring

• 6+ years of professional software development experience, with deep exposure to fintech, payments, or accounting systems.

• Background at finance-heavy, tech-forward companies or foundational work at an early-stage startup building financial infrastructure.

• Strong backend engineering skills (TypeScript, Postgres, Stripe API experience preferred).

• Experience with ERP integrations.

• Comfortable leading projects and/or teams, or leading complex, cross-functional initiatives.

• Customer-obsessed mindset - you care about providing reliable systems that empower users and earn customer trust.

• Strong written and verbal communication; able to collaborate across product, engineering, and operations teams.

Bonus Skills

• Experience with POS/payment terminals or retail and e-commerce systems.

• Familiarity with compliance-heavy environments.

• Experience balancing IC engineering responsibilities with early management.

• Background in building systems at companies that scaled.

What Kaizen Offers

• Comprehensive medical through Oxford/United - Gold and Platinum PPO plans, with 85% of premiums covered on the Platinum plan and a $0 employee premium option. Dental through Guardian PPO and vision through Beam, with 99% of employee premiums covered and 50% for dependents.

• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA. 401(k) access through Guideline.

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.

• Unlimited PTO & closed for all federal holidays.

• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.

• One-time home office or desk setup stipend up to $750.

• $50/month commuter benefit.

• $100/month for wellness or productivity - your call on how you use it!

• $500/year for professional development.

• $250/year for recreation.

• Company-provided laptop.

• Expensed lunch while in the office.

Kaizen is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. If you need an accommodation during the interview process, email us at careers@kaizenlabs.co.

Why Now

The government technology modernization wave is happening. Agencies are being pushed to change, and they need partners who can move fast and build well.

We have the contracts. We have the agency relationships. We have the platform. We need the engineers.

If you want to spend the next few years shipping software that actually matters — not another B2B SaaS dashboard, not an internal tool nobody uses — and you want to do it at a company moving aggressively into one of the most consequential markets in tech, this is the role.

Don't Apply If...

You need a detailed ticket to know what to build next. You think AI tools are a crutch. You want to own one layer of the stack and never leave it. You're more comfortable in a 500-person organization than a small team where everyone's accountable. You need the problem fully defined before you start moving. Or if you're looking for low-stakes work — because what we build touches real people in real moments that matter: accessing benefits, families navigating public services, constituents interacting with their government at its most critical touchpoints. This work is serious. The people we serve deserve serious teams.