Engineering Manager (Payments)

Join Proton and build a better internet where privacy is the default

At Proton, we believe that privacy is a fundamental human right and the cornerstone of democracy. Since our inception in 2014, founded by a team of scientists from CERN, we have dedicated ourselves to providing free and open-source technology to millions worldwide, ensuring access to privacy, security, and freedom online.

Our journey began with Proton Mail, the largest secure email service globally, and has since expanded to include Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, and Proton Pass. These tools empower individuals and organizations to take control of their personal data, break away from Big Tech’s invasive practices, and defeat censorship. Our work impacts hundreds of millions of lives, from activists on the front lines defending freedom to leaders in governments protecting sensitive information. In some cases, Proton’s services have even been instrumental in saving lives by enabling secure and private communications in high-risk situations.

Proton is a profitable company that does not rely upon VC funding, supporting over 100 million user accounts with a growing team of over 500 people from over 50 different countries, from the world's top companies and universities. We value intelligence, learning potential, and ambition in our hiring process. Adaptability is key as we navigate uncharted territories and redefine how business is conducted online.

Hiring at Proton is highly selective, with less than 1% of candidates hired. We believe smaller teams of exceptional talent will always prevail over larger teams with lower talent density. You will have the opportunity work with many of the world's top minds in their fields, ranging from former international math and science olympiad winners to chess champions.

We have a global mindset and big ambitions but remain a start-up at heart. We value empowerment and flexibility and keep our structure flat to keep moving fast and avoid unnecessary politics. Tired of blending into the crowd? Join us and do work you can truly be proud of. Check our open-source projects here!

The Payments Team

The goal of the Payments team is to enable revenue generation for the entire Proton ecosystem. This comes in the form of introducing new payment methods for users to architecting our client libraries. This team has impact across all of Proton's products and is critical to the success of the business as a whole.

  • As Proton is a global Company, the Payments Team works to continuously expand the possibilities for users to pay with various payment methods, beyond just plain credit cards or Paypal.
  • The team works in tight collaboration with the Account Team (responsible for the Proton user lifecycle), the Proton Finance team, and every single Business Unit to ensure that plans, promotions and pricing meet user expectations.
  • The mission of the team is to empower anyone in the world who wish to use Proton services, to become a Proton subscriber by building enticing interfaces, being able to progressively reach global markets, by providing the methods and tooling allowing users to pay, and for the Proton organization to properly being able to measure growth, and to follow the relative financial regulations.

Tech Stack and Tools:

  • Differently than many other stacks at Proton, the Payments stack depends largely on external services such as payment providers, tax-information providers, currency-conversion providers... As such it is critical, for the success of the service, to build with resilience.
  • Internally our backend code is in general based on PHP/Symfony, our frontend is based on React, our mobile code is based on Kotlin (on Android) and on Swift (on iOS), with a growing shared codebase in Rust.
  • All our client-code is open-source and GPL3.
  • We are migrating our infrastructure to Kubernetes.
  • Everything runs on premise in Proton's data-centers.
  • To organize our work we use classic tools such as Jira and Confluence.

Future Plans:

  • With payments being the backbone of any subscription business, we have ambitious plans to expand the team to cover a wide breadth of topics ranging from demystifying payment performance data across regions/products, to thinking about the holistic strategy of product catalogs, and everything in between. This particular team requires someone who is a strong generalist, who thrives with ambiguity. There's huge potential for growth no matter the domain, and the outcome for any candidate is an in-depth view into how money moves globally.

Purpose of the role:

As an Engineering manager for our Payments team you will contribute technically and lead the team. While your primary focus is to help deliver new features and also overseeing overall software design and supporting the development of team members.

What you will do:

  • Work with product and engineering stakeholders to build short and long-term roadmaps with user-centric milestones.
  • Manage each engineer's performance and career by providing actionable and timely feedback and distributing opportunities fairly across the team.
  • Drive the hiring and onboarding of new team members by providing them with a clear plan and ensuring quick integration into our organization.
  • Build a highly collaborative environment where opportunities are regularly discussed and everyone's voice is considered for improving the status quo.
  • Promote a team of resiliency by eliminating knowledge silos and rotating scrum and project management duties across the engineers and product owners.
  • Participate in design documents, proposals, and code reviews to unblock the team and shorten feedback loops.  

What we are looking for:

  • Past experience as a backend developer, possibly in PHP, and working with REST API at scale.
  • Database and data modeling knowledge (we use MySQL).
  • Experience with payment processing, billing systems, financial reporting a strong plus
  • Experience leading large and complex projects as a backend engineer
  • Experience managing a team of engineers and coaching them on their career development
  • Familiarity with agile and scrum best practices
  • Experience breaking down large initiatives into smaller, user-centric milestones
  • Experience communicating with product owners and stakeholders to ensure team alignment with business objectives
  • Bachelor's or master’s degree in a relevant field of study

Even if you don’t meet all the requirements listed above, but feel you could still be a great fit, please still apply.

What We Offer

  • Office First: Collaboration is easier and more effective in person, which is why we have offices in Geneva, Zurich, Prague, Barcelona, Paris, London, Vilnius, Skopje, and Taipei. You can also enjoy working from home up to 30% of the time, while enjoying great company during our three core days in the office. 
  • Technology: We provide all the devices and software you need to excel in your role, ensuring you have the best tools at your disposal to achieve your goals.
  • Food: Lunch and snacks are provided by Proton every day at our offices.
  • Transport: We will always support our employees with transport costs through subsidizing public transport, bike allowances, or parking spaces based on your office location.
  • Stock Options: At Proton, we are all owners of the company and you get stock options when you join us.
  • Flexible Working: You can define your own working hours as long as it works with team meetings.
  • Learning and Development: We are committed to your professional growth. Proton offers various learning opportunities, including training programs, conferences and events, and continual learning.
  • Employee Benefits: Comprehensive health insurance plans, competitive retirement savings options, generous vacation and leave policies, and wellness programs.
  • Work that Matters: Proton is a community-first organization, started with the support of a crowdfunding campaign and built with community input. To this day, Proton’s only source of revenue is user subscriptions. Over 100 million people trust and support Proton, and we put our users and community first in everything we do. Read more about our impact here.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Proton, we believe diversity drives innovation and strengthens our mission to provide privacy as a default for all. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical ability, or socio-economic background, feel valued and empowered. We strive to create equal opportunities, promote open dialogue, and support continuous learning to ensure every voice is heard and respected.

If you need any extra support or reasonable adjustments during the hiring process, please let your talent partner know.

Candidate Privacy Notice

When you apply for a position, refer a candidate, or are considered for a role at Proton Technologies AG (Proton, we, us, or our), your information is stored in Greenhouse, in accordance with their Service Privacy Policy. This information is used to evaluate your suitability for the posted position. We also retain this information for consideration for future roles that you may apply for or that we believe may align with your background and skills.

If we no longer have a legitimate business need to process your information, we will either delete or anonymize it. Should you have any inquiries about how we use or manage your information, or if you wish to access, correct, or delete your data, please contact our privacy team at [email protected].

Proton does not accept unsolicited resumes from any sources other than directly from candidates. We will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from an unsolicited offer, even if the candidate is subsequently hired by Proton.

To learn more about our privacy policy, please visit our privacy policy page.

#LI-ONSITE

By applying at a position at Proton AG (“Proton”, “we”, “us”), you understand that your personal data is processed according to the following privacy policy and agree with it. This policy states (i) what data we collect, (ii) the use we make of such data, (iii) the safeguards we put in place to protect your data and (iv) your rights as data subject. This Privacy Policy is complementary to our general privacy policy to the extend applicable when visiting our website. Legal Framework Proton AG is a Company formed under Swiss law and whose Headquarters are located at Route de la Galaise 32, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland. For all questions, you can reach us at [email protected]. We are subject to the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (“FADP”). We are also GDPR compliant. The designated representative of the Company in the European Union (notably for the purpose of art. 27 GDPR) is Proton Europe Sàrl, Rue de Grünewald 94, L-1912 Luxembourg. Data collection and usage Your personal data are processed for the purposes of managing our recruitment-related activities, which include setting up and conducting interviews and tests for applicants, evaluating, and assessing the results thereto, and as is otherwise needed in the recruitment and hiring processes. Such processing is legally permissible under Art. 6(1)(f) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation, “GDPR”) as necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us, which are the solicitation, evaluation, and selection of applicants for entering a contractual relationship. Your personal data are retained by us for an initial period of 720 days (“Initial Period”). 2.1 Upon application via our Career page When applying to a position at Proton, you provide us with personal data such as name, surname, date of birth, address, e-mail address, CV, etc., which we save in our Recruiting Database (“Database”, see below) and process according to this privacy policy. 2.2 Upon sourcing or recommendation If you are sourced by us and added manually to our Database, the personal data is obtained from public sources, such as LinkedIn. If you are referred to us by a third party for potential employment, the personal data added to our Database is that provided by said third party, and/or data available publicly. In all cases, upon inclusion in our Database, you will receive an email informing you of your inclusion and of the processing of your personal data. 2.3 At the end of the Initial Period At the end of the initial period, you will receive an email asking for your permission to extend the period of retention of your personal data, for the purpose of optimising our processes and propose subsequent positions that might be fit for you. If you give us your consent, we will be able to store and process the data for another 270-day period. If you don’t consent, your profile and related data will be deleted from our Database at the end of the initial period. Data Processor Our Database is operated by Greenhouse, according to their privacy policy and terms of service. Your personal data is thus shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider located in the United States of America. The transfer is subject to appropriate additional safeguards, including the Standard Contractual Clauses, as issued by the European Commission.   Right to access, rectification, erasure, portability, and right to lodge a complaint As a company that is complying with the Swiss FADP and the EU GDPR, your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your data privacy rights. You have the right to access, restrict, rectify, or delete your personal data. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. In addition, you may lodge a complaint to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. We remain available via email to [email protected] for any inquiry. 5. Modifications to privacy policy We reserve the right to periodically review and change this policy. Continued consent and application will be deemed acceptance of such changes.  

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