When Leon Johnson joined SoFi's Invest team, he had a clear mission: to build seamless, intuitive financial experiences for members. Now, as a Lead Mobile Engineer on the Bank team, he continues to shape how people interact with their money, from opening new accounts to managing complex financial goals. In this spotlight, Leon discusses a project he's particularly proud of, his transition to a new team, and how working on family banking resonates with him on a personal level as a SoFi member himself.
You started your SoFi career on our Invest Team. Tell me about a project you worked on that you were most proud of?
Leon: One of the projects I worked on and am most proud of is the Robo 1.5 migration. The goal was to completely redesign the onboarding experience for opening a robo account, roll out BlackRock’s updated portfolios, and introduce a 0.25% management fee, thus helping the Invest business generate additional revenue.
As the Lead Mobile Engineer, I created the front-end design document, defined the implementation timeline, and broke the work into actionable tickets. I collaborated closely with the backend team to define API contracts, and we were able to utilize OpenAPI for the first time in this flow. The project was split into two main efforts, onboarding and post-onboarding, with the latter requiring new BFF changes. This initiative touched multiple areas of the app and gave us the opportunity to develop new Pacific widgets that didn’t previously exist, improving reusability for future projects.
One of the biggest challenges was aligning with another workstream that was in the process of revamping and updating our terms and conditions for compliance. Both efforts touched onboarding, so coordinating rollout plans and avoiding conflicts was critical. This required frequent syncs, careful sequencing of feature flags, and ongoing collaboration to ensure each project could launch without disrupting the other.
How does engineering at SoFi collaborate with product, design, and marketing to ensure a project's success?
Leon: For the Robo 1.5 migration, Engineering worked closely with Product to define the business requirements and break them into technical milestones. Design partnered with us to rethink the onboarding flow for clarity, ensuring members clearly understood the updated portfolios and the new 0.25% management fee.
Marketing played a critical role in the broader rollout of this project. They communicated the migration to members through emails and ensured the member was aware of the new robo experience. Our main touchpoint was ensuring that any deep links in their campaigns brought members directly to the updated robo onboarding flow.
What was your biggest takeaway or learning from this project?
Leon: The Robo 1.5 migration was a huge success, we had a smooth launch with no major incidents. We gradually migrated members' portfolio accounts to BlackRock’s latest portfolios, which now include options like Alternatives and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) strategies. This gave members more flexibility to align their investments with their values and goals. The new onboarding flow is simpler, more direct, and matches the clean, intuitive feel of the SoFi app. Overall, the update elevated both the product experience and the investment choices available to our members.
This project ties directly to SoFi’s mission of helping members get their money right. By upgrading to modern portfolios and simplifying the onboarding process, we made it easier for members to start investing with confidence. The changes also supported long-term retention by aligning the experience with what today’s investors expect. Seeing members engage more with their accounts and take advantage of these new options was the most rewarding part of the launch. It was proof that thoughtful technical work can directly improve people’s financial lives.
You started on the Invest team and earlier in the year made the transition to the SoFi Bank team. What sparked that move?
Leon: When the Bank team began forming a new group called PathFinder to build out the MultiAccount experience, which will support opening both joint and individual accounts, I saw a great opportunity to make an impact. Having led the initiative to open new Invest accounts, I felt I could bring valuable experience while also learning more about the broader SoFi business. The work around account opening and closing was familiar territory, but in a new context, which made the challenge exciting.
The idea of family banking also resonated with me on a personal level. As a SoFi member who’s recently married, with my wife also holding an individual account, the ability to have both joint and individual accounts in one ecosystem felt like it would really help us in managing our finances. Seeing Designers’ early concepts for what multi-banking could become made it even more exciting to join the Bank team and help shape that experience.
While the front end is still built in Flutter, the backend tech stack was a shift. Coming from working with REST endpoints in Invest to a GraphQL-based BFF in Bank, that brought a bit of a learning curve and also an opportunity to expand my technical skills. The internal mobility process at SoFi was smooth and straightforward, and talking to a few Bank engineers before making the move gave me confidence in the decision.
What’s next for you on the SoFi Bank team?
Leon: On the Bank team, my primary focus has been building out the account opening and account closing experiences for our members. I’ve had exposure to the BFF layer, which is built on GraphQL, and occasionally help out with generating Dart code using Rust. This work ensures that front-end and back-end logic stay tightly aligned, helping account workflows remain reliable, consistent, and responsive for members. I’m looking forward to our long-term family banking vision which will allow members to manage multiple accounts inside of the SoFi app.
From redesigning the member onboarding experience to building new features for family banking, Leon applies his expertise as a Frontend Software Engineer to create seamless financial experiences.
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