API Engineering Manager

What We Do:

At Brightwell were using technology to make global money movement faster safer and more accessible. Our platform simplifies cross-border payments by navigating complex regulatory environments with elegant secure solutions. Were on a mission to make remittances seamless for businesses and individuals around the world and were looking for bold thinkers to help us get there.

Under the hood that means building systems for multi-corridor payment routing partner integrations across different financial networks and real-time compliance and fraud detection with the kind of reliability requirements that come with moving peoples money.

Who We Need:

Were looking for an API Engineering Manager to lead one of our API teams responsible for building and maintaining the services that power Brightwells payment platform. Your team owns core services that enable cross-border payments and partner-facing integrations that connect our platform to the broader financial ecosystem. Youll guide your team to deliver reliable high-performance APIs while driving improvements in architecture developer experience and engineering practices.

This is a hands-on manager role with a true 50/50 split. Half your time writing and reviewing C#/.NET code half leading your team and shaping the process.

This is a REMOTE position based in the U.S. with preference for candidates local to the Atlanta GA area. Quarterly travel to Atlanta will be required.
Eligible states of residence: FL GA IL TX

What Youll Do:
Hands-On Technical Work (50%):

• Write review and ship production C# code daily. This is not a review from the sideline role; youre in the codebase alongside your team.
• Lead the adoption of AI-assisted development workflows (Claude Code Cursor etc.) coaching your team on effective use while establishing quality gates for AI-generated code through rigorous planning and review.
• Own the technical direction for your teams domain within Brightwells API platform partnering closely with the peer API Engineering Manager to ensure alignment and consistency across both API teams.
• Drive API architecture decisions including patterns for versioning error handling authentication and scalability.
• Lead incident response and resolution for critical API and integration issues.
• Dive deep into the product with the team to gain a thorough understanding of the platform and the underlying technology.

People & Process Management (50%):

• Lead a team of 4 engineers developing API solutions in C# Core and Azure.
• Partner with Product and other Engineering Managers to align priorities coordinate dependencies and deliver projects on time identifying risks early and making pragmatic trade-offs to keep your team focused.
• Conduct 1-on-1s performance reviews and career development planning.
• Identify and implement improvements in engineering processes tools and architecture to enable delivery on key initiatives.
• Grow your teams capabilities through hands-on mentoring code-level coaching and clear engineering standards.

What Were Looking For:
Required:

• 7 years of experience in software engineering including hands-on coding experience and architectural design.
• 2 years of experience managing distributed software engineering teams.
• Strong C# experience including Core Web APIs.
• Experience with relational databases and Entity Framework (PostgreSQL or equivalent).
• Strong Azure experience (Functions Queues Event Hub Service Bus App Services and related services).
• Proven ability to deliver complex projects spanning months of development.
• Experience coaching and mentoring individuals at various levels of experience from leaders to individual contributors.
• Comfortable moving between a 1-on-1 conversation and a pull request review in the same hour while doing both well.
• Experience leveraging modern AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Claude Code Cursor GitHub Copilot) to accelerate engineering workflows and improve team productivity.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Nice to Have:

• Fintech or regulated industry experience (SOC 2 PCI cross-border payments).
• Experience designing and maintaining partner-facing APIs and integration patterns.
• Experience with event-driven architectures and messaging systems.
• CI/CD expertise with Azure DevOps GitHub Actions or similar.

What Youll Get:

• A role where you actually code. Most EM positions say hands-on and mean youll review PRs sometimes. We mean 50%.
• A peer EM structure that gives you a real partner not a hierarchy to navigate. Two API teams aligned on direction each with autonomy.
• A team thats already leaning into AI-assisted development. Youll help define what that looks like at scale not fight to get buy-in.
• Direct access to engineering leadership and real input into platform strategy. Small company short feedback loops.
• Remote work with benefits: medical dental vision 401(k) paid parental leave and PTO.

What Success Looks Like:

• First 30 days: Youve shipped your first PR built context on the platform and codebase and started building trust with your team and the peer API EM.
• First 90 days: You own your teams roadmap. Youve identified the highest-leverage improvements and started delivering on them. Your team knows where theyre headed and why.
• First year: API reliability and developer experience are measurably better. Your team is shipping faster and with more confidence. You and the peer EM have a shared API strategy that the rest of engineering trusts.

Why Brightwell

• Empowered Work: Own your work and grow your career with real autonomy.
• Flex Friendly Culture: Enjoy flexibility with support for remote work and periodic team meetups.
• Startup Energy Global Impact: Join a passionate team building mission-critical tools for people around the world.
• Great Benefits: Medical dental vision disability 401(k) paid parental leave PTO and more.
• Supportive Environment: Thrive in a collaborative inclusive workplace that values innovation and continuous learning.

Brightwell is an equal opportunity employer (EOE) committed to employing a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture.