Software Engineering Lead, Financial Systems

Kaizen Labs•New York, NY

14d•$180,000 - $220,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As our Financial Systems Engineering Lead, 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.

Requirements

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.
Familiar with (or excited to learn about) integrating AI-assisted coding and problem-solving tools into everyday development.

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

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.

Benefits

Comprehensive Health Coverage We offer Silver, Gold, and Platinum PPO plans through Oxford (United), with 85% of premiums covered for employees on the Platinum plan, with a $0 premium option
Dental, Vision & Financial Wellness You’re covered with Guardian PPO dental and Beam vision plans - Kaizen pays 99% of premiums for employees and 50% for dependents. We also offer:
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA & Dependent Care FSA)
$100,000 in fully paid life insurance
401(k) access through Guideline
Parental Leave That Supports Families Because time with your growing family matters.
16 weeks fully paid for birthing parents and 10 weeks paid for non-birthing parents
Everyday Support & Flexibility
$50/month toward your commute
One-time setup stipend (up to $750) for your home or NYC office
$100/month for wellness or productivity
Perks That Make Life Better
$250/year for recreation - because fun matters
$500/year for professional development - because growth does too
Expensed lunch three days a week when you're in the office
Company-provided laptop
Time Off to Recharge
Unlimited PTO
All federal holidays off
A company-wide winter break during the week of Christmas