Sr. Manager, Research & Innovation – WEX Technology

Location: Remote (US) | Portland, ME | Dallas, TX | Chicago, IL
Reports To: VP of Engineering, Architecture, Research & Innovation
Department: WEX Technology

About WEX

WEX is a global commerce platform that simplifies the business of running a business. We operate at the intersection of financial technology and benefits administration, serving millions of consumers and thousands of employers through our Health & Benefits, Corporate Payments, and Mobility solutions. Our Health & Benefits business processes billions of dollars in healthcare payments annually and administers benefits for a significant portion of the U.S. workforce.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Sr. Manager, Research & Innovation to lead our R&I function within the Health & Benefits organization. This role is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and prototyping emerging technologies that will shape our next-generation platform capabilities—from AI-native engineering and agentic workflows to novel approaches in identity, data, and developer experience.

You will own our innovation pipeline end-to-end: scanning the technology landscape, building proof-of-concept implementations, validating business applicability, and partnering with Architecture and Product teams to graduate promising innovations into production roadmaps. This is a hands-on leadership role that balances strategic technology foresight with the ability to build working prototypes that demonstrate the art of the possible.

This role is ideal for a technologist who is energized by what's next—someone who reads research papers for fun, builds side projects to test new frameworks, and can translate bleeding-edge concepts into practical solutions for enterprise-scale problems.

What You'll Do

Innovation Pipeline Leadership

Own and operate the innovation funnel with Product from Ideation → Validation → PoC → Incubation → Graduation, managing initiatives across both revenue-generating and internal efficiency tracks
Develop structured intake processes that capture innovation ideas from across the organization and prioritize based on strategic fit and feasibility
Define success criteria for each pipeline stage and make go/no-go recommendations to leadership
Maintain visibility into pipeline status and communicate progress to stakeholders through regular readouts

Technology Scouting & Evaluation

Continuously scan the technology landscape for emerging trends, tools, and techniques relevant to fintech, healthcare, benefits administration, and enterprise platforms
Monitor competitor and industry developments including product launches, patent filings, conference presentations, and open-source releases
Evaluate new technologies against our architectural principles, compliance requirements, and operational constraints
Build and maintain a technology radar that informs architectural and product decisions
Produce written assessments and recommendations that help leadership make informed technology adoption decisions

Proof-of-Concept Development

Lead hands-on development of proof-of-concept implementations that demonstrate viability and value of emerging technologies
Design PoCs that answer specific technical and business questions with minimal investment
Build working prototypes across a range of technology areas including AI/ML, agentic systems, developer tooling, integration patterns, and user experience innovations
Document PoC outcomes with clear findings, limitations, and recommendations for next steps
Ensure successful PoCs can be evolved into production-ready patterns

Strategic Focus Areas

AI-Native Engineering: Explore applications of large language models, agentic workflows, and AI-assisted development practices to accelerate engineering productivity and product capabilities
Emerging Identity & Security: Evaluate decentralized identity, passkeys, zero-trust architectures, and privacy-enhancing technologies
Data & Analytics Innovation: Investigate advanced analytics, real-time processing, and intelligent automation opportunities
Developer Experience: Identify tools, frameworks, and practices that improve developer productivity and platform usability

Partnerships & External Engagement

Establish relationships with technology vendors to gain early access to roadmaps, betas, and partnership opportunities
Engage with academic institutions, research labs, and industry consortia to stay connected to foundational research
Represent WEX at conferences, meetups, and technology forums; contribute thought leadership through writing and speaking
Facilitate vendor evaluations and pilot programs in partnership with Procurement and Legal

Team Leadership

Lead and mentor a small team of research engineers, fostering a culture of curiosity, experimentation, and rigorous evaluation
Create an environment where creative exploration is balanced with disciplined execution
Coach team members on technical skills, research methodology, and stakeholder communication
Collaborate closely with Architecture, Engineering, Product, and Security teams to ensure R&I efforts align with organizational priorities

What You'll Bring

Required Experience

8+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with 3+ years leading innovation, R&D, or advanced engineering initiatives
Hands-on technical proficiency with the ability to personally build proof-of-concept implementations across multiple technology domains
Track record of technology evaluation that led to successful adoption decisions—and equally important, decisions to pass on technologies that weren't ready
Experience translating research into practice—taking concepts from whitepapers, conferences, or vendor pitches and determining real-world applicability
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both engineering and business audiences

Technical Breadth

Demonstrated ability to quickly learn and prototype with unfamiliar technologies, languages, and frameworks
Solid foundation in distributed systems, cloud platforms (AWS and/or Azure), and modern application architectures
Familiarity with AI/ML concepts including large language models, prompt engineering, embeddings, and retrieval-augmented generation
Understanding of API design, event-driven architectures, and integration patterns
Awareness of security and compliance considerations in regulated industries (HIPAA, PCI-DSS experience is a plus)

Innovation Mindset

Genuinely curious about emerging technology—you read Hacker News, follow research labs, and experiment with new tools on your own time
Comfortable with ambiguity and able to structure exploration when the destination isn't clear
Pragmatic optimist who can separate hype from substance and identify what's actually production-ready
Skilled at building consensus and generating excitement for new ideas across skeptical audiences
Resilient in the face of failed experiments—you treat negative results as valuable data

Preferred Experience

Background in healthcare technology, benefits administration, or payments/fintech
Experience with agentic AI systems, workflow orchestration, or autonomous agent architectures
Familiarity with developer experience tooling, platform engineering, or internal developer platforms
Contributions to open-source projects or published technical writing
Experience managing vendor relationships and technology partnerships

Why WEX

Greenfield innovation mandate: Dedicated investment in exploring what's next, not just maintaining what exists
Real-world impact: Your innovations will eventually serve millions of people managing their healthcare benefits
Technical depth: Work alongside experienced architects and engineers solving complex, high-stakes problems
Executive visibility: Direct line to leadership with opportunities to present findings and recommendations
Learning culture: An organization that values continuous learning and experimentation

The base pay range represents the anticipated low and high end of the pay range for this position. Actual pay rates will vary and will be based on various factors, such as your qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role. Base pay is one component of WEX's total compensation package. Most sales positions are eligible for commission under the terms of an applicable plan. Non-sales roles are typically eligible for a quarterly or annual bonus based on their role and applicable plan. WEX's comprehensive and market competitive benefits are designed to support your personal and professional well-being. Benefits include health, dental and vision insurances, retirement savings plan, paid time off, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, disability insurance, tuition reimbursement, and more. For more information, check out the "About Us" section.

Pay Range: $192,700.00 - $211,700.00

Sr. Manager, Research & Innovation - WEX Technology