Sr. Software Engineering Manager, Financial Platform

About You and The Role

You are the Sr. Software Engineering Manager, Financial Platform, responsible for turning operational activity (flights, deliveries, manufacturing runs, inventory moves, partner transactions) into auditable, high‑integrity financial records that enable Zipline to scale into new markets. This team owns billing, settlements, ledgers, reconciliation, inventory costing, ERP integrations, and the financial‑event model that downstream reporting, accounting, and controls depend on. Your work prevents billing errors, ensures Finance can close the books reliably, supports regulatory and audit readiness, and directly impacts field launches, partner payments, and operational scale.

This role reports to the Head of Application Software, leads a small team (2–8 engineers), and partners closely with Finance, Commercial, Manufacturing, Operations (field sites), Data, and Platform Engineering. You will operate inside a hardware and regulated aviation environment where financial correctness is mission‑critical.

What You'll Do

• Own end‑to‑end delivery, correctness, and reliability for the Financial Platform: billing engine, pricing rules, tax calculation, payments integration, refunds/credits, partner settlement, reconciliation services, and ledger/financial‑event systems.
• Define and prioritize the product and technical roadmap with Finance and Commercial, using measurable business impact (revenue at risk, manual hours reduced, audit risk avoided) to set priorities.
• Deliver measurable outcomes for the platform: materially reduce manual reconciliation effort in scoped areas, compress month‑end close for covered entities, and raise automated settlement accuracy toward the >99.9% target (calibrated with Finance).
• Design and operate durable financial‑event models and idempotent, ordered processing so transaction records are auditable, replayable, and reconcilable across operational systems and a custom ERP.
• Set and own correctness and availability SLOs/SLIs for critical financial paths (example targets: payment/settlement critical paths >=99.95% availability), lead incident response for production financial incidents, and drive post‑incident root‑cause fixes.
• Own controls and audit readiness: deliver reconciliations, evidence, and remediation tracked with Finance and internal audit to close control gaps and support external audits.
• Support manufacturing finance: design and operate inventory costing pipelines, map production events to financial entries, and ensure COGS visibility through ERP integration.
• Be a hands‑on manager: ship code and technical designs when correctness is at stake, review critical PRs, debug production incidents, and balance hiring/coaching with direct technical ownership.
• Translate operational edge cases from field sites, manufacturing, and operations into durable product and implementation tradeoffs; partner with Data and Platform teams on observability, schemas, and event contracts.

What You'll Bring

• Level fit: senior/lead engineering manager experience managing a small backend team (2–8 engineers), with demonstrated ownership of production systems and responsibility for forecasting and hiring.
• Experience: ~6+ years building backend services and 4+ years managing engineers (or equivalent). Direct experience building billing, reconciliation, ledger systems, marketplace settlement, ERP integrations, or equivalent financial infrastructure is required.
• Domain knowledge: working familiarity with accounting concepts (revenue recognition, reconciliation, COGS, inventory costing, close processes) and regulatory/audit expectations for financial systems.
• Technical skills: systems design for idempotency, ordered processing, durable event storage, at‑least‑once/exactly‑once patterns, and experience integrating payments, tax engines, ERPs, and third‑party vendors.
• Outcomes mindset: track record of delivering measurable improvements (reduced close time, reconciliation automation, improved settlement accuracy), and experience defining SLOs/SLIs for correctness‑critical services.
• Operating intensity: experience working where software must reflect messy physical operations or regulated hardware systems; able to make pragmatic tradeoffs under ambiguity and tight launch or audit deadlines.
• Logistics and location: based in South San Francisco, CA. Regular on‑site presence required (hybrid with majority on‑site). Some travel to field sites or partner locations may be required (typically <20%).
• Must‑have traits: hands‑on technical judgment, ability to push back constructively on requirements, rigorous bias toward correctness over convenience for financial data, and commitment to building durable, auditable systems.

What Else You Need To Know

The starting cash range for this role is $200,000 - $270,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate’s experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!