Engineering Manager, PFM

Remote OK - Anywhere in Japan
Full-time
December 12, 2024

The Moneytree Personal team's mission is to deliver impactful tools and features that empower users to take control of their personal finances. As the Engineering Manager for Moneytree Personal, you will lead a team of engineers focused on building and scaling our personal finance app. You will be responsible for driving engineering excellence, delivering a seamless user experience, and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement within your team. This role combines people management, technical leadership, and strategic oversight to ensure that our engineering efforts align with our product vision and user needs.

At Moneytree, our mission is to unleash the power of data by providing the tools & capabilities needed, by reducing or removing barriers, and by delivering meaningful value today. Our technology is used by major banks, accounting software companies and fintech companies in Japan. Key clients include Mizuho, SMBC, and Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos.

In this role you will

Lead a team of engineers, setting goals, providing mentorship, and supporting their professional development.
Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and other cross-functional teams to deliver features that enhance user engagement and satisfaction.
Own the technical roadmap and ensure that your team’s projects are aligned with business priorities, timelines, and quality standards.
Drive best practices in engineering, including code quality, testing, and deployment to ensure reliable, scalable, and performant applications.
Facilitate agile ceremonies (e.g., sprint planning, retrospectives) and foster an environment of accountability and transparency.
Identify and address technical debt, while balancing new feature development to maintain a sustainable pace for your team.
Actively participate in code reviews, architecture discussions, and technical decision-making.
Promote a user-focused approach, ensuring that engineering choices enhance the overall app experience.

In the first days your expected deliverables will include

Conduct a team assessment, including skill sets, strengths, and areas for improvement; create a development plan for each team member.
Review the current codebase, architecture, and infrastructure to identify any immediate improvements in quality, security, or scalability.
Establish key metrics to measure the team’s productivity, quality, and success in delivering user-centric solutions.
Collaborate with product managers to understand the product roadmap and business goals, and begin defining quarterly objectives for your team.
Implement or improve agile practices within the team to enhance efficiency and visibility in the development process.
Take ownership of at least one major feature release or product update, managing the project from development through to deployment.
Initiate regular 1:1s with team members, setting clear expectations and building an open, supportive environment.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; a Master’s degree is a plus.
5+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 2 years in a leadership or management role.
Proven experience managing engineering teams in a B2C product environment, ideally within the finance, fintech, or app-based sectors.
Strong technical background in full-stack development, mobile app development, or relevant technologies (e.g., React, Swift, Kotlin).
Solid understanding of agile methodologies, with a track record of successfully leading agile teams.
Demonstrated experience with product development and working cross-functionally with product, design, and QA teams.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and motivate others.
A passion for building user-centric products and enhancing the customer experience through technical innovation.

Benefits

Working remotely from anywhere in Japan
Flexible working hours
Employee stock option program participation
Referral bonus 250,000 JPY per successful hire
Communication allowance (10,000 JPY/month)
Remote work allowance (3000 JPY/month)
20 annual paid leave
10 annual sick and carer leave
Health and social insurance support
Ability to work from overseas for short periods
Learning support (7500 JPY/quarter)

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About Moneytree

Moneytree is a fin-tech start-up founded by three foreign entrepreneurs in Tokyo. Their Moneytree Link product provides a "utility layer for connecting financial services" that serves banks and other fin-tech companies, but they also have a popular consumer app that helps people manage their finances. They're a truly international company with an English-first environment and a high technical skill level for engineers, so it sounds like a really great place to work!

Salary
Moneytree's salary structure is designed to offer a base salary along with stock options. Stock options are still a relative rarity in Japan, so Moneytree is one of a reasonably small list of Japanese companies offering them.
Japanese Language Policy
Japanese is not required for engineers, but it is desirable.

As a customer-centric company building products for Japanese customers, Japanese fluency is required for product managers and product designers in order to do users research, product discovery etc.
Visa Sponsorship
- With the current pandemic, we are only accepting applicants with valid working visas in Japan.
- We offer support for visa renewal to new hires with valid working visas in Japan.
Paid Leave
Moneytree's paid time off policy is awesome.

They offer 20 paid holidays in addition to 10 sick/care leave days.

The legal minimum number of paid time off days in Japan is 10 for an employee's first year, so this is what you'll get at the majority of companies. The fact that Moneytree doubles this to 20 really makes them stand out from other companies in Tokyo.

And then there's their sick day policy. Since these aren't legally mandated in Japan, most companies don't have them at all. Moneytree really goes above and beyond here with 10.
Benefits
💹 Employee stock option program participation

💻 New tech gear

🏠 Remote work allowance

📕 Book purchases

🏋 Gym benefit

👶 Financial support for childcare costs

👶 Parental Leave

👍 Residential rent tax benefits (i.e. company housing / 'shataku')

🧡 Communication (phone + internet bills) support allowance (10,000 JPY/month)

💛 Referral bounty

🚃 Commuter allowance

🏥 Healthcare insurance

💟 Social security / insurance benefits included
Engineer Interview Process
This may depend somewhat on the position but in general, the steps are as follows:
- CV screening (+ survey to fill out for some positions)
- Casual screening meeting (onsite or remote)
- Pair programming
- Topgrading
- Provisional offer + reference check
Remote Work
Moneytree is a remote-first company, so you can work remotely from anywhere in Japan. Those who wish to work from their Tokyo office are allowed to (as long as there's not a state of emergency in effect), but it's also fine to work 100% remotely. Their hybrid approach ensures that everyone can work in the style that allows them to feel secure and safe.

Even once COVID-19 is no longer a concern, Moneytree intends to continue their full remote policy.

※ You will be required to come to Japan if you are living abroad.
Work style
Work hours: 10:00-19:00, core working hours 10:00-16:00
Diversity
Moneytree has been a globally-minded, diverse company from the start. It was founded by 3 foreigners and over 50% of their total members are from outside of Japan, with over 20 nationalities represented. Women account for around 1/3 of their staff, which is on the higher side for tech start-ups.

They maintain a meritocratic culture and conduct quarterly performance reviews with feedback from managers, plus 360 feedback from 3 key people you work closely with cross-functionally.

This helps them track staff performance in an objective way regardless of ethnicity, disability, gender (including transgender), age, sexual orientation, or beliefs (including lack of religion or beliefs).