Lead as a player–coach: Contribute code, perform design reviews and PRs, and guide technical strategy and decisions while supporting the growth and effectiveness of the team.
Partner deeply with Product: Collaborate closely with Product to gather requirements, clarify scope, and translate product vision into executable technical plans. Help shape solutions early rather than reacting late.
Drive execution and delivery: Own the engineering side of delivery by guiding sprint planning, standups, retrospectives, and prioritization — ensuring the team is constantly shipping and learning from each cycle.
Translate ambiguity into clarity: Take loosely defined problems and help the team break them down into clear, achievable work with well-understood tradeoffs and success criteria.
Provide technical direction: Make pragmatic system design and architectural decisions that balance speed, quality, and scalability.
Build lightweight process and rituals: Establish and evolve team workflows (planning, estimation, retros, incident follow-ups) that improve focus and predictability without unnecessary ceremony.
Support and grow engineers: Coach engineers on execution, communication, and ownership, helping develop careers both on the IC and Managerial tracks.
Model strong engineering culture: Set the tone for empathy, accountability, and collaborative problem-solving across engineering and cross-functional partners.

Bachelor’s degree in STEM preferred (additional experience in lieu of a degree is also accepted)
6+ years of professional software engineering experience, including recent hands-on backend work
2+ years of experience managing and developing Engineers
Experience working in product-driven environments with close Product partnership
Comfortable gathering requirements, asking clarifying questions, and shaping solutions collaboratively
Experience leading teams through agile delivery practices (planning, standups, retros)
Strong technical judgment with a bias toward pragmatic, shippable solutions
Able to balance near-term delivery with longer-term technical health
Clear communicator who builds trust across Engineering, Product, and Design
Thrives in early-stage or scaling environments where structure is evolving

Engineering Manager

Key skills