Engineering Manager, AI

Who We Are Cross River builds the infrastructure behind the world’s most innovative financial products. Our technology and capital solutions power payments, cards, lending, and digital asset capabilities that move money safely, instantly, and inclusively — trusted by leading fintechs, enterprises, and disruptors across the globe. Our mission is simple: to build the financial infrastructure that expands access and opportunity for all. Guided by a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and purpose, Cross River has been named one of American Banker’s Best Places to Work in Fintech year after year. Whether you’re designing code, solving regulatory puzzles, or developing strategy, you’ll join a team where innovation and integrity drive everything we do — and where your work helps shape the future of finance. About Our Team Cross River’s AI Transformation team is a newly formed group of problem solvers passionate about bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI capabilities and real-world business needs. Based in-office at our Fort Lee, New Jersey headquarters, we work face-to-face with stakeholders across the organization to identify opportunities, adopt and adapt AI tools, and build sustainable solutions. Our mission is to bring AI-powered solutions to life, ensure they are maintainable, auditable, and resilient, and to continuously leverage advances in AI technologies for the benefit of the business. What We’re Looking For We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead and grow our AI Transformation team ( official title: " AVP, Engineering ") . . This is a hands-on leadership role—approximately 60% engineering and 40% people and project management—where you will work in-office at least three days per week at our Fort Lee, New Jersey headquarters. You will collaborate closely with an AI strategy team and collaborate face-to-face with business stakeholders to deeply understand their problems, cut through surface-level descriptions to identify root challenges, and determine the most efficient path to solutions. You will guide your team and partners through a solution journey, ensuring the business comes along every step of the way. We are looking for someone who thrives in ambiguity, identifies high-impact opportunities—from quick wins to complex, less obvious challenges—and applies strong engineering discipline to deliver sustainable, AI-centered or augmented outcomes. People & Project Management Responsibilities (~40%): Lead, mentor, and support a small team of engineers and QA professionals with empathy, trust, and a focus on individual growth Foster a culture that promotes sharing ideas, taking calculated risks, and learning from setbacks Plan, triage, and prioritize work across multiple initiatives with lifecycles ranging from two weeks to three months Guide business partners through the solution journey—helping them understand tradeoffs, come along with the process, and stay focused on the problem rather than prescribing solutions Engineering Responsibilities (~60%): Design, develop, and deliver scalable, flexible, and reusable components and solutions leveraging AWS AI tools and services and internally-designed components, evolving into a flexible, resilient, and reusable platform Utilize engineering best practices to implement AI-centered and augmented solutions with a sustainable, auditable, and maintainable mindset Collaborate with the AI strategy enablement team to adopt, adapt, and optimize the latest AI tools for real-world business problems Document solution architectures, design decisions, and technical approaches collaboratively with the team and stakeholders Qualifications: 8+ years of experience in software engineering (a mix of front-end, back-end, API, security, and other best practices), with progressive leadership or management responsibilities 6+ years of experience with C#, .NET Core, and the Microsoft development ecosystem deployed via AWS 6+ years of experience in real-time data management (SQL, NoSQL, cach