Engineering Manager, Risk Engineering

Our mission is to increase the success rate of small businesses. Traditional banking has been a growth limiter rather than a growth enabler for business owners, and we're changing that. Relay is the all-in-one, collaborative money management platform. We're building for employer SMBs and their finance function, internal and external, and are focused on delivering a human-centric customer experience. Ultimately, we help SMBs be 'on the money'.

Relay is entering an exciting new chapter of growth. We're looking for an Engineering Manager on our Risk Engineering team, as we continue scaling. This is an opportunity to come in and build your team from the ground up and work on a greenfield product for Relay. You'll make high-impact decisions daily and have direct influence on building a product loved by thousands of users.

Please note that we are a hybrid environment and choose to collaborate in the office three days a week (Tues-Thurs)

About the team:

Relay's Risk Engineering team builds automated systems that detect, prevent, and reduce financial risk and fraud, while maintaining a frictionless experience for legitimate customers and minimizing manual intervention. Our goal is simple: enable Relay to grow safely, confidently, and without unnecessary friction.

What You'll Be Doing

• Oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of risk-critical engineering initiatives, ensuring systems meet quality, reliability, and safety standards
• Ensure engineering processes and rituals support high-stakes systems, including thoughtful sprint planning, strong code reviews, and rigorous technical design reviews
• Collaborate with senior leadership to shape and execute the technical strategy for risk, fraud, and trust systems, balancing business growth, customer experience, and risk exposure
• Work closely with Product, Risk, Compliance, Operations, and other partners to turn ambiguous risk problems into clear, scalable engineering solutions
• Build, support, and grow a high-performing team of engineers by hiring strong talent, setting clear ownership, and coaching engineers through complex, high-impact work
• Foster a collaborative engineering culture that encourages feedback, learning, and growth. Organize knowledge-sharing sessions and support professional development opportunities for team members

Who You Are

• 5+ years of relevant development experience in a start-up environment; 1+ year of which includes people-management experience
• You have a strong technical background with a proven track record of shipping high-quality products. Exposure to our tech stack (Node.js/Typescript/React/AWS is a plus)
• You are excited about building and scaling an engineering team while supporting them in doing their best work
• You have excellent communication skills and are able to calmly provide clarity in times of uncertainty or change - we are a startup after all!
• You're a pragmatic decision maker - delivering product in a startup often requires tradeoffs in scope, technical debt, and tight timelines, and you're comfortable making those calls
• You think deeply about the impact of engineering decisions on customers and the business, especially in areas where mistakes are costly or hard to reverse
• You have experience building or owning internal tools or platforms, and working closely with internal stakeholders to turn ambiguous problems into scalable, reliable systems
• You are an energetic and results-oriented person, committed to adding value to our business and inspire this same ethos with your team
• You're highly collaborative and know how to connect the dots between teams and manage cross-functional initiatives

Bonus Points

• You've joined a company at its early stages and have seen it through scale
• You have experience working in a fintech

Our Commitment To You

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity: Relay employees are Relay owners, complete with equity and a competitive salary.
• Comprehensive health benefits: enjoy full health benefits from day one: no probation period required. We offer flexible Health or Wellness Spending Accounts and medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents.
• Flexible vacation and time off: every team member starts with 15 vacation days and 5 flex days to use as needed, plus an extra week of office closure during the end-of-year holidays so you can take time off to recharge and come back better for our customers.
• Parental leave with top-up: we offer 12 weeks off with a 100% salary top-up for all full-time employees, regardless of location, and accessible for all parents: birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive.
• Hybrid work environment: we value meaningful collaboration and connection at our Toronto office twice a week, with lunch, snacks, and beverages on us.
• Dog-friendly space: can dogs really make you happy and healthy? We don't know for sure, but since we don't want to chance it, our office is 100% floof-friendly.
• Personal and professional growth: through ongoing feedback, mentorship, and coaching, work with peers and leaders who are invested in your growth and success.
• Top-tier equipment: as a Mac-first company, our Toronto offices have everything you need to produce your best work comfortably, from multiple screens to ergonomic seating.
• Social connection: we believe in celebrating our wins with two annual company-wide get-togethers, quarterly team events, happy hours, and special events and networking opportunities with industry leaders.

The Interview Process

Stage 1: A 45-minute Google Meet video call with a member of the People Team

Stage 2: A 60-minute Google Meet video call with the Hiring Team, our Senior Engineering Managers

Stage 3: A 45-minute in person meeting with a member of our leadership team

Stage 4: A take-home case study followed by a 60-minute Google Meet video call with our team

Why Relay Might Be the Perfect Fit For You

• You push relentlessly for reinvention: You're built to constantly ask, "How can this be better?" Change excites you and you drive it.
• You crave autonomy: We trust our team with big challenges and the freedom to solve them. If you're someone who takes initiative, is comfortable taking risks, and seeks input when needed, you'll find the freedom here empowering.
• You own your work: You take pride in your work, follow through on commitments, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks.
• You treat comfort as a red flag: You seek growth. When things feel too comfortable, you lean into change. You're excited about stepping into the unknown and navigating new terrain to create something better alongside your team.
• You care about impact, not noise: You care deeply about the substance of your work. You measure success by results, not recognition and you let your work speak for itself.
• You're energized by complexity and ambiguity: You enjoy tackling problems that don't come with a playbook. You're comfortable building from scratch, iterating as you go, and collaborating to shape the best path forward.
• You seek out feedback: We value directness, clarity, and respect. We believe honesty fuels great work and career growth. You see feedback as a tool for learning and improvement, and you know that open, honest dialogue is key to achieving the best results - together.
• You're here for more than a job: At Relay, everything we do is in service of our mission to help small businesses thrive. To drive impact and have purpose here, that mission must matter to you too.

Our Promise

We're driving real change for small business owners, powered by truly remarkable people. At Relay, you'll find the confidence to take chances, trust to take initiative, and the support you need to build a career you love. Here, we make sure every team member feels empowered to make big decisions, encourage to ask tough questions, and challenged to take risks that result in work we're all proud of. We give you the baton-you run the Relay.

What's Important to Us:

Research shows that women-identifying and other marginalized individuals often apply only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. But no one is a perfect match on paper. If this role excites you, we'd love to hear from you and figure out together if it's a great fit.

At Relay, we believe that diversity is key to building high-performing teams, and creating an inclusive work environment is our priority. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills.

We will work with applicants to provide accommodations at any stage of the hiring process. If you require accommodations during the interview process, please email your Talent Partner, and we will work with you to meet your needs.

Disclaimer: For compliance reasons, all offers of employment at Relay are conditional upon a successful background check & employment verification through Certn.