Head of Engineering (FinTech)

Who We Are Is What We Do. Deel is the all‑in‑one payroll and HR platform for global teams. Our vision is to unlock global opportunity for every person, team, and business. Built for the way the world works today, Deel combines HRIS, payroll, compliance, benefits, performance, and equipment management into one seamless platform. With AI‑powered tools and a fully owned payroll infrastructure, Deel supports every worker type in 150+ countries—helping businesses scale smarter, faster, and more compliantly.

Role Overview

Lead the engineering organization responsible for Deel’s end‑to‑end financial infrastructure, including:

• Payments orchestration & PSP integrations
• Wallets & regulated entity flows (FBO / safeguarding)
• General Ledger & accounting automation
• Treasury, FX, and liquidity systems
• Billing, invoicing, and revenue flows
• Reconciliation & financial data integrity
• Fincrime & compliance systems

This role sits at the intersection of engineering, product, finance, and compliance, with direct impact on Deel’s ability to scale globally and meet IPO‑grade standards.

What You’ll Do

• Own the Fintech Engineering Vision
• Define and execute the technical strategy for Deel’s financial infrastructure
• Build a scalable, modular architecture across payments, ledger, treasury, and compliance
• Drive the evolution toward real‑time, event‑driven financial systems
• Lead Product‑Centric Engineering
• Partner deeply with Product, Finance, Treasury, and Compliance
• Ensure teams deliver business outcomes, not just features
• Embed product thinking into engineering culture in the era of LLMs
• Drive clarity on what gets built, why, and in what order
• Build for Scale, Accuracy, and Reliability
• Design systems handling high transaction volumes and global scale
• Ensure idempotency, consistency, and fault tolerance across all financial flows
• Lead architecture for:
  • Wallet‑to‑wallet / wallet‑to‑payout flows
  • Multi‑currency and FX handling
  • High‑throughput payment processing
• Deliver IPO‑Grade Financial Infrastructure

Drive engineering execution across three core pillars:

• Controls
  • SOX readiness, auditability, permissions, separation of duties
  • Strong internal controls embedded in systems
• Compliance
  • Regulated entities (MTL, PI, EMI) across US, EU, UK, and beyond
  • KYC, AML, transaction monitoring
• Accounting
  • Enable fast and accurate close (target 5–7 days)
  • Build and scale General Ledger and MCP infrastructure
  • Reduce manual reconciliation through automation
  • Build an AI‑First Fintech Platform

AI in Engineering

• Enable developers to leverage LLMs across the development lifecycle:
  • Code generation and refactoring
  • Automated reviews and validation
  • Detection of logical inconsistencies in financial flows

AI in Financial Systems

• Apply AI to:
  • Reconciliation – automated matching, break detection, resolution suggestions
  • Accounting validation – detect inconsistencies before posting to financial systems
  • Transaction monitoring – anomaly detection and risk scoring
  • Data integrity – identify silent corruption or inconsistencies across systems

AI in Operations & Close

• Build systems that:
  • Detect risks to book close timelines in real time
  • Explain discrepancies in financial data
  • Suggest or execute corrective actions

MCP Servers & AI Infrastructure

• Design and evolve MCP server infrastructure as a foundation for:
  • AI‑assisted financial workflows
  • Standardized access to financial data and services
  • Safe execution of automated or AI‑driven actions
• Ensure MCP servers enable:
  • Controlled, auditable interaction between AI systems and financial data
  • Secure orchestration of actions across payments, treasury, invoicing, and accounting
  • Clear boundaries between decision‑making (AI) and execution (systems)

AI Governance & Safety

• Ensure all AI systems are:
  • Auditable and explainable
  • Compliant with financial and regulatory requirements
  • Designed with strong guardrails for correctness and risk management

Drive Operational Excellence

• Establish strong engineering processes, SLAs, and reliability standards
• Reduce incidents impacting financial data
• Build high‑signal monitoring and observability for financial systems
• Ensure systems are audit‑ready and explainable
• Build and Scale High‑Performing Teams
• Lead multiple teams across:
  • Payments orchestration
  • Ledger & accounting
  • Treasury
  • Billing & invoicing
  • Reconciliation
  • Fincrime
• Hire, mentor, and develop senior engineering leaders and ICs
• Maintain a culture of:
  • Ownership
  • Speed with control
  • High accountability
• Drive Cross‑Team Alignment
  • Align engineering across Product, Finance, Legal, and Compliance
  • Resolve cross‑functional friction and unblock execution
  • Bring structure to complex, multi‑team initiatives

Must Have

• Proven experience as Head of Engineering / Director / Senior EM in fintech or financial systems
• Built or scaled systems in companies like Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, Wise, Revolut, Coinbase, or similar
• Deep experience with:
  • Payments infrastructure
  • Ledger/accounting systems
  • High‑scale distributed systems
• Experience in regulated environments:
  • KYC / AML
  • Compliance systems
  • Financial reporting constraints

What You Bring

Technical Leadership

• Strong backend expertise (Node.js / TypeScript preferred, or similar stack)
• Deep understanding of:
  • Distributed systems
  • Event‑driven architectures
  • Data consistency and reconciliation

Financial Systems Understanding

• Strong grasp of:
  • Payments and PSP
  • Double‑entry accounting and General Ledger design
  • Reconciliation systems at scale
  • FX and multi‑currency flows
  • Treasury operations

Execution at Scale

• Experience scaling systems handling billions in transaction volume
• Built systems with:
  • High concurrency
  • Idempotency guarantees
  • Strong audit trails

Product Mindset

• Ability to translate business problems into technical solutions
• Strong prioritization and trade‑off decision‑making
• Focus on delivering real customer and business value

Leadership

• Experience managing multiple teams and senior leaders
• Strong communicator across technical and non‑technical audiences
• Ability to operate in high‑growth, ambiguous environments

You’re a Great Fit If You

• Think in systems, not features
• Balance speed and control in a fintech environment
• Are obsessed with data correctness and financial integrity
• Can navigate complex, cross‑border regulatory constraints
• Build trust with C‑suite, Finance, and Engineering teams
• Take ownership of critical, business‑impacting systems

Bonus Points

• Experience preparing systems for IPO readiness (SOX, audit, close processes)
• Built or operated:
  • Wallet systems
  • Payment orchestration layers
  • Treasury or liquidity platforms
  • Automated reconciliation systems
• Experience with:
  • NetSuite or similar ERP integrations
  • Event‑driven accounting systems
  • MCP / real‑time posting infrastructures

Why Join

• Build one of the most advanced global fintech stacks
• Operate at massive scale across multiple regulated entities
• Play a key role in Deel’s IPO journey
• Work on problems at the intersection of:
  • Payments
  • Compliance
  • Accounting
  • Infrastructure

Total Rewards

Some things you’ll enjoy

• Stock grant opportunities dependent on your role, employment status and location
• Additional perks and benefits based on your employment status and country
• The flexibility of remote work, including optional WeWork access

Equal Opportunity

At Deel, we’re an equal‑opportunity employer that values diversity and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of race, religion, sex, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, pregnancy or maternity or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

Accommodations

We will provide accommodations on request throughout the recruitment, selection and assessment process for applicants with disabilities. If you require accommodations, please inform our Talent Acquisition Team via the contact information provided during the application process.