Role Description We're looking for an Engineering Manager to own and grow the BaaS pod. This is a foundational role: you'll shape how Vantaca connects to banking partners, define the API contracts that downstream teams and clients build on, and ensure every dollar we move is compliant, traceable, and reliable. If you've shipped event-driven payment systems at companies like Stripe, Modern Treasury, Increase, or Meow, or aspire to bring that caliber of engineering rigor to a high-growth vertical SaaS, this role was written for you. BaaS is one of Vantaca’s most strategically important investments. You won’t be maintaining a legacy payments layer; you’ll be architecting a greenfield banking platform with modern tooling, real banking partners, and a tight product loop with customers who care deeply about where their money goes. What You'll Own - Banking Infrastructure & Compliance: - Lead engineering for Vantaca’s BaaS layer, including outgoing ACH/transfers, incoming bank file ingestion, per-association account management, and real-time event processing. - Ensure all systems meet NACHA operational rules, bank partner contractual obligations, and emerging regulatory requirements for embedded banking. - Partner with compliance, legal, and BaaS providers to operationalize controls into the platform rather than bolting them on afterward. - Own incident response and root cause analysis for any payment or banking system failures. - Event-Driven Architecture: - Design and evolve the event-driven architecture underpinning BaaS, from bank file arrival through ledger reconciliation and downstream notification. - Drive reliability, idempotency, and observability standards across async payment flows; build for fault tolerance in a domain where errors have financial consequences. - Define event contracts and schema ownership practices that allow other Vantaca pods to consume banking events safely. - API Design & Developer Experience: - Own the design and versioning of BaaS-facing APIs consumed by internal teams, partner integrations, and client-facing surfaces. - Apply API-first thinking: define contracts before building, enforce backward compatibility, and ensure external-grade quality on APIs used by bank and property management clients. - Collaborate with Platform and Integrations leads to establish consistent API governance standards across Vantaca engineering. - Bank & Client Onboarding: - Own the technical onboarding lifecycle for new banking partners — from integration spec through certification and production cutover. - Build and maintain the client onboarding pipeline for associations joining Vantaca’s banking products, including account provisioning, KYC/KYB hooks, and initial funding flows. - Work closely with Product and Customer Success to reduce time-to-live for new banking clients without sacrificing compliance. - Team Leadership: - Lead a pod of 2–5 engineers; own hiring, onboarding, performance, and career development. - Operate within Vantaca’s Spec-Driven Development (SDD) framework — driving specs before sprints and leveraging AI-assisted development practices across the team. - Partner with your EM peers and report into senior engineering leadership; contribute to org-wide engineering culture and standards. Qualifications - 3–5 years of people management experience leading backend engineering teams in a product company. - Strong backend engineering background with hands-on experience in distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and API design. - Experience shipping or operating systems that process financial transactions, ideally ACH, wire, or real-time payments. - Familiarity with banking compliance concepts: NACHA rules, AML/BSA basics, Reg E, and how compliance requirements translate into engineering controls. - Proven track record of defining and evolving external or internal APIs with a developer-first mindset. - Comfort navigating bank partner relationships and technical certifications. Preferred - Hands-on experience with BaaS platforms or sponsor bank integrations (e.g., Column, Increase, Unit, Sila, or similar). - Background at a fintech-native company where payment reliability and compliance were first-class engineering concerns (e.g., Modern Treasury, Stripe, Increase, Meow, or comparable). - Experience with event streaming infrastructure (Kafka, Azure Service Bus, or similar) in a financial context. - Exposure to property management, HOA, or real estate tech — helpful but not required. - Familiarity with AI-assisted development tooling and an interest in evolving SDLC practices. Core Values - Always Growing: Likes change and enjoys finding new ways to improve their knowledge and the platform. Always ready to learn quickly about emerging AI technologies and infrastructure patterns, helping themselves and the team grow. - Win as a Team: Builds trust and works together by making sure everyone communicates well. Actively involved in daily platform work, working closely with engineering teams, listening to their infrastructure needs, and celebrating technical successes together. - Accountability Starts with Me: Notices platform problems and takes personal action to solve them. Takes ownership of platform performance, reliability, and the success of internal customers building on the platform. - Unwavering Commitment to Customer Experience: Regularly talks to internal customers (product teams, engineers), taking personal responsibility to understand what they need from the platform, address infrastructure concerns, and make their development experience better with improved platform capabilities. - Innovate Boldly: We challenge the status quo and push technical boundaries to create meaningful change. We act with urgency and purpose, knowing that platform innovation drives our AI-native product success. Benefits - Medical, Dental, and Vision kick in day one. - Unlimited PTO (with a requirement for employees to take a minimum of one continuous week per year). - 401K with Company Match. - Remote Flexible - come to the office when needed. - Great parental leave benefits.