Staff Product Engineer - Payments

THE PROBLEM WE'RE SOLVING

Most people don't think twice about going to the doctor. But for over 85 million uninsured and underinsured Americans — the cashiers, drivers, home health aides, and construction workers who keep this country running — getting care is complicated, expensive, and often out of reach.

WE BUILT VITABLE TO CHANGE THAT.

Vitable is the health benefits platform designed for every worker. We make it easy for employers to offer real, high-quality healthcare to their teams — not watered-down coverage, but benefits that actually work. It's better for employees. It's smarter for employers. And it matters.

We're a small, passionate team moving fast and solving a problem that genuinely deserves solving. If you're looking for a place where your work has a tangible impact on real people's lives, you've found it.

WHERE YOU COME IN

We are seeking a Staff Product Engineer who combines strong backend engineering expertise, product judgment, and technical leadership.

In this role, you will help build and scale the infrastructure that powers our Benefits Money Movement Platform. This platform enables Vitable to move millions of dollars across thousands of bank accounts securely, reliably, and accurately, creating a seamless health benefit expense experience for our members and customers.

You will work closely with engineering, product, operations, finance, and business stakeholders to solve ambiguous, mission-critical problems. You’ll be expected to deeply understand the product and business context, make thoughtful technical tradeoffs, and lead projects from problem definition through production launch and ongoing operation.

This is primarily a backend role, but we are looking for someone comfortable working across the stack when needed.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own mission-critical systems: Design, build, and operate reliable backend systems that support money movement, benefit spending, account verification, transaction processing, reconciliation, and related workflows.
• Lead ambiguous projects end-to-end: Take large, complex problems from discovery and technical design through implementation, release, monitoring, and iteration.
• Drive product and business impact: Partner with product, operations, finance, and business teams to understand user needs, business goals, and operational constraints.
• Shape technical direction: Make architectural decisions that balance speed, reliability, security, compliance, maintainability, and user experience.
• Build reliable financial infrastructure: Develop systems with strong guarantees around correctness, idempotency, auditability, observability, and failure recovery.
• Contribute across the stack: While the role is backend-focused, contribute to frontend experiences when needed to deliver complete product outcomes.
• Raise the engineering bar: Write clean, maintainable code; participate in thoughtful code reviews; mentor other engineers; and champion engineering best practices.
• Operate with urgency and ownership: Move quickly while maintaining high standards for quality, security, and reliability.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 2+ years of experience in fintech, payments, banking, benefits administration, or another domain involving financial transactions or regulated workflows.
• Experience building, maintaining, and operating production systems where reliability, correctness, and observability are critical.
• Proven ability to independently deliver complex projects with measurable business or customer impact.
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and ownership mindset.
• Experience working cross-functionally with product, operations, finance, compliance, or business stakeholders.
• Startup or high-growth company experience is a plus.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Strong proficiency in Python.
• Strong understanding of backend system design, software architecture, APIs, data modeling, and distributed systems fundamentals.
• Experience with payment processing concepts such as transactions, ledgers, reconciliation, KYB/KYC, account verification, ACH/card payments, or payment operations.
• Experience designing resilient systems with robust monitoring, alerting, logging, and incident response practices.
• Strong SQL skills and experience with relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL.
• Comfortable using AI coding tools and agents to accelerate development while maintaining strong technical judgment and ownership of decisions.
• Experience with Django and Django REST Framework.
• Experience designing financial data models, ledgers, reconciliation systems, or transaction-processing workflows.
• Experience with compliance-aware engineering in fintech, healthcare, benefits, payroll, banking, or insurance.
• Experience with component-based frontend frameworks such as React or Vue.
• Ability to collaborate with designers to build polished, user-friendly interfaces when needed.

SOFT SKILLS

• Clear, direct communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong collaboration skills and comfort working across engineering, product, operations, and business teams.
• High adaptability in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Strong product sense and ability to connect technical decisions to user and business outcomes.
• Bias toward action, balanced with good judgment around risk, reliability, and long-term maintainability.

HOW WE TAKE CARE OF YOU

We believe in taking care of the people who take care of our members. Here's what that looks like:

• 100% Silver Plan medical coverage — plus dental and vision
• Vitable Primary Care membership — the same care we give our members, yours too
• 401(k) and life insurance
• Unlimited PTO — and we actually mean it
• Remote-first — work from wherever you do your best thinking
• MacBook and home office setup stipend — the gear you need to do great work
• Competitive equity — you're building something real, you should own a piece of it

ARE YOU OUR KIND OF PERSON?

We don't have a big corporate machine behind us. What we have is a clear mission, a lot of heart, and a deep sense of urgency about the problem we're solving. That means we move fast, figure things out, and hold ourselves to a high bar — not because someone's watching, but because we care.

You'll thrive here if you're the kind of person who:

• Feels personally connected to making healthcare more accessible
• Gets energized by building, not just maintaining
• Can navigate ambiguity without losing momentum
• Does the unglamorous work when it needs doing — and does it well
• Asks for help when you need it and offers it when you see someone else does
• Cares about the details, but keeps sight of the bigger picture

We're a team that shows up for each other. We celebrate wins together, work through hard problems together, and genuinely like each other. If something feels off, we say so. If someone's struggling, we notice.

No egos. No jerks. Just good humans doing meaningful work — and having fun doing it.

ONE LAST NOTE ON WHO WE HIRE

The people we serve are diverse — and our team should be too. We're committed to building a workplace where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives aren't just welcomed, they're essential to the work.

Vitable is an equal opportunity employer. We don't hire to check boxes. We hire people who care about what we're building and bring something real to the table.

If this role excites you but you don't meet every requirement on the list, please apply anyway. We mean that.