Director of Engineering - Payments

Patreon is a media and community platform where over 300,000 creators give their biggest fans access to exclusive work and experiences. We offer creators a variety of ways to engage with their fans and build a lasting business including: paid memberships, free memberships, community chats, live video, and selling to fans directly with one-time purchases.

Ultimately our goal is simple: fund the creative class. And we're leaders in that space, with:

• $10 billion+ generated by creators since Patreon's inception

• 100 million+ free memberships for fans who may not be ready to pay just yet, and

• 25 million+ paid memberships on Patreon today.

Patreon is looking for an Engineering Leader to lead our Payments team. This is one of the most consequential parts of Patreon's business: the systems that let creators earn a living and get paid reliably, and that let fans support them with a seamless, trustworthy checkout experience.

About the Team

The Payments team owns the 1) Payments Infrastructure which includes bill processing, compliance, vendor integrations, pay-in and payout methods, 2) Payments Experience which includes fan-facing checkout, and creator-facing payout experience, 3) Support & Internal tooling used across Patreon to run the business and support creators and fans. The team consists of 10-12 engineers that partner closely with dedicated Product, Design, and Product Marketing leads.

About the Role

As an Engineering Leader of the Payments teams, you will be partnering with product, operations, design, and data to craft a vision and roadmap to deliver a high quality payments product for our creators and their fans. You will be overseeing a team of software engineers to realize that vision.

• Set technical direction and roadmap priorities in tight partnership with Product, Design, and PMM leads

• Drive execution on major infrastructure initiatives (legacy billing deprecation, payments reliability, local payment methods expansion).

• Set the org structure and operating model for Payments — determine team boundaries, staffing plan, and where to invest across infrastructure, experience, and support tooling

• Champion a culture of operational excellence; Improve reliability and efficiency of payments infrastructure, and hold the line on guardrail metrics like Brand Trust and Total Payment Volume.

• Collaborate with other teams so payments experiences feel cohesive across other surfaces product areas

• Make the call on build-vs-buy and vendor partnership decisions for payment processing, compliance, and payout infrastructure

• Represent Payments in cross-functional planning with Finance, Risk, Support, and GTM stakeholders

About You

• 12+ years of software engineering experience and 7+ years of experience managing engineering managers and teams

• Direct experience with payments, billing, or financial infrastructure at scale — you understand PCI compliance, payment processing/orchestration, chargebacks, and reconciliation, or adjacent regulated-fintech domains

• Comfort owning both the "keep the lights on" reliability work and new product bets in the same portfolio

• Experience navigating vendor relationships and build-vs-buy decisions for critical infrastructure

• Proven record of shipping high-impact, end-to-end product work in complex domains (ideally payments, fintech, or other mission-critical systems) at the org level

• Operates comfortably at the executive level — regularly partners with and influences VP/C-level stakeholders across Finance, Risk, Support, and GTM

• Strong cross-functional partnership skills — you'll work daily with Product, Design, Finance, and Support leads

• Deep commitment to building high craft user experiences for both creators and fans

• Experience working with experimentation driven approaches to optimize product surfaces and use of data to inform roadmap decisions

• Skilled at building healthy, trusting relationships across Product, Design, business partners, and other engineering teams.

• Nice to Have

  • Experience with international payments expansion (local payment methods, currency conversion, cross-border compliance)

  • Background in marketplace or creator-economy businesses

About Patreon

Patreon powers creators to do what they love and get paid by the people who love what they do. Our team is passionate about making this mission and our core values come to life every day in our work. Through this work, our Patronauts:

• Put Creators First | They’re the reason we’re here. When creators win, we win.

• Build with Craft | We sign our name to every deliverable, just like the creators we serve.

• Make it Happen | We don’t quit. We learn and deliver.

• Win Together | We grow as individuals. We win as a team.

We hire talented and passionate people from different backgrounds because workplace diversity and inclusion is critical to our ability to serve creators worldwide. If you’re excited about a role but your past experience doesn’t match with every bullet point outlined above, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway. If you’re a creator at heart, are energized by our mission, and share our company values, we’d love to hear from you.

Patreon is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other protected class. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the interview process, please let us know via email at accommodations@patreon.

Patreon offers a competitive benefits package including and not limited to salary, equity plans, healthcare, flexible time off, company holidays and recharge days, commuter benefits, lifestyle stipends, learning and development stipends, patronage, parental leave, and 401k plan with matching.

Patreon operates under a hybrid work model, where employees based in office locations are expected to come into the office two days per week, excluding sick time and paid leave. The goal of this policy is to be intentional about the in-person time we spend together to strengthen the feeling of community at Patreon. Candidates hired into remote-eligible roles are not expected to meet the same requirements.

At Patreon, we believe in fair and transparent pay. In compliance with New York and California pay transparency laws, we are sharing the expected salary range for this role.

The posted salary range is dependent on the location and the level. This range may encompass multiple levels within the role’s job family. The final offer will be based on candidate’s experience, skills, competencies, and geographic location, aligning with the appropriate job level within Patreon’s leveling framework. For remote employees located outside CA and NY, salary may vary based on location and local market conditions.

Patreon reserves the right to modify or update compensation and benefits at any time.