Senior Manager, Engineering

Our mission is to make higher education accessible and affordable for everyone. We empower students with financial support and supercharge their ability to pay down their debt, so they can get on the right financial track, fast.

We build tools that help people feel in control of their financial future, including:

• Private student loans - low rates, people-first service, and flexible payments.
• Student loan refinancing - break free from high-interest rates or monthly payments.
• Scholarships - access to thousands of scholarships to help students pay less.

Earnies are committed to helping students live their best lives, free from the stress of student debt. If you’re as passionate as we are about our mission, read more below, and let’s build something great together!

The Senior Engineering Manager position will report to the VP of Engineering.

As the Senior Engineering Manager, you will:

• Oversee engineering managers and engineers and drive strategy and execution across multiple engineering teams, including Growth Acquisition, Growth Partnerships, and New Products domains. 
• Own the technical direction and delivery of these teams, as well as hiring plans and career growth of engineering managers.
• Partner closely with Product, Design, Data, and other stakeholders to create strategic direction and roadmap. 
• Guide teams through experimentation, iteration, and validation of new product concepts and growth strategies. 
• Partner with other engineering leaders to improve engineering practices, processes, and culture across the org.

Your Impact:

• Accelerate Earnest’s customer growth through scalable, data-driven experimentation.
• Drive the expansion of our product portfolio to support broader financial needs beyond student loans.
• Shape the long-term engineering org structure and raise the bar for technical leadership at Earnest.
• Be a key voice in strategic decisions at the intersection of product innovation, growth, and engineering.

About You: 

• Excellent leadership and team management skills with a track record of building and leading successful engineering teams.
• Track record of scaling growth-focused and/or 0-1 product teams in a consumer-facing environment.
• 4+ years of management experience, with 2+ years managing other engineering managers and leaders.
• 8+ years of experience building large-scale web and/or mobile applications.
• Strong experience with A/B testing, experimentation platforms, and frontend frameworks such as React or Next.js.
• Clear and effective communicator with a collaborative, data-informed approach to decision-making.

Even Better:

• Experience in fintech or other regulated industries.
• Familiarity with cloud-based microservice architectures.
• Hands-on full-stack development experience.
• Experience leading mobile app engineering teams.

Where:

• This role will be based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• While you’ll enjoy the flexibility of remote work, we also love to see our Earnies face-to-face! We ask you to join us at our Oakland office for 3 consecutive days a month for team collaboration and some fun. It's a chance to connect, share ideas, and maybe even grab some coffee together!

#LI-NS1

A little about our pay philosophy: We take pride in compensating our employees fairly and equitably. We are showcasing a range of your potential base salary based on the roles location. The successful candidate’s starting pay will also be determined based on job-related qualifications, internal compensation, candidate location and budget. This range may be modified in the future.

Pay Range $271,000—$307,000 USD

Earnest believes in enabling our employees to live their best lives. We offer a variety of perks and competitive benefits, including: 

• Health, Dental, & Vision benefits plus savings plans
• Mac computers + work-from-home stipend to set up your home office
• Monthly internet and phone reimbursement
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
• 401(k) plan to help you save for retirement plus a company match
• Robust tuition reimbursement program
• $1,000 travel perk on each Earnie-versary to anywhere in the world 
• Competitive days of annual PTO
• Competitive parental leave

What makes an “Earnie” culture: 

• Drivers – Drivers are satisfied by making things happen, not coming along for the ride. They feel a str