Engineering Effectiveness Manager (opens in a new tab)

Justworks, Inc.; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 131,000 - 169,000; Full time

Job summary

Justworks, Inc. is seeking an Engineering Effectiveness Manager in New York City to drive cross-functional engineering initiatives, design structured learning programs, and improve execution through measurable dashboards and forums.

You will partner with recruiting and product teams, own major infrastructure enablement, and shape how engineering operates at scale in a hybrid work environment.

Qualifications

• Systems thinking to connect parts and simplify complex challenges.
• Execution focus to deliver initiatives with urgency and clarity.
• Ownership and accountability for end-to-end outcomes.
• Influence without formal authority across engineering, recruiting, product and people teams.
• Adaptability to shifting priorities and environments.
• Clear communication of progress, blockers, and decisions to varied audiences.
• Collaborative mindset to align stakeholders and move forward together.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-engineering program delivery, managing timelines, dependencies and outcomes.
• Design and operationalize learning and enablement programs for engineers and onboarding.
• Coordinate engineering-wide forums, rituals and demonstrations to maintain alignment.
• Drive process improvements to reduce friction and improve consistency.
• Build dashboards and metrics to give leadership visibility into progress and health.
• Partner with recruiting and people teams on engineering talent initiatives.
• Support PDLC development phase to ensure tooling and enablement for execution.
• Handle high-priority initiatives as priorities evolve.

Skills

Systems thinking

Execution focus

Ownership & accountability

Influence without authority

Adaptability

Communication & visibility

Collaboration

Tools

Jira

GitHub

CI/CD

Job description

At Justworks, you’ll enjoy a welcoming and casual environment, great benefits, wellness program offerings, company retreats, and the ability to interact with and learn from leaders in the startup community. We work hard and care about our most prized asset - our people.

We’re helping businesses get off the ground by enabling them to focus on running their business. We solve HR issues. We’re data-driven and never stop iterating. If you’d like to work in a supportive, entrepreneurial environment, are interested in building something meaningful and having fun while doing it, we’d love to hear from you.

We're united by shared goals and shared motivations at Justworks. These are best summed up in our company values, which are reflected in our product and in our team.

If this sounds like you, you’ll fit right in.

Who You Are

You are a systems thinker who owns and drives cross-functional engineering initiatives to completion You're comfortable managing ambiguity, removing blockers, and keeping distributed teams aligned on shared outcomes. You build clarity and momentum through intentional program design, structured communication, and learning programs that develop the organization while shipping results.

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Engineering Effectiveness, you'll own delivery program management across the engineering organization, from major infrastructure and platform initiatives to org-wide enablement and process improvements. You'll work flexibly across high-priority projects, coordinate learning and development programs that enable execution, and foster the practices and community that make engineering operate as a cohesive, high-functioning unit.

This role offers the opportunity to shape how engineering executes at scale, designing the systems, programs, and rhythms that help teams ship faster, develop their craft, and stay aligned on what matters most.

What You Will Work On

• Lead cross-engineering program delivery: Own execution of major engineering initiatives. Manage timelines, dependencies, stakeholder communications, and outcomes. Remove blockers and drive clarity when ambiguity threatens progress.
• Design and operationalize learning and enablement programs: Build structured programs for skill development, new-engineer onboarding, and emerging tech adoption. Partner with teams to identify capability gaps and design learning paths that directly support delivery. Measure participation and outcomes.
• Coordinate engineering-wide forums and rituals: Plan and facilitate forums that keep engineering aligned and energized: functional kickoffs, all-hands, internal demos, roundtables, technology blog, technical showcases. Ensure these rhythms support visibility and decision-making, not just information-sharing.
• Drive process and operational improvements: Identify bottlenecks in how work gets done. Partner with the team on operations infrastructure and with engineering leadership to implement changes that reduce friction and strengthen consistency.
• Build reporting and visibility mechanisms: Design dashboards, metrics frameworks, and communication channels that give engineering leadership and individual contributors clear sight lines into progress, health, and blockers.
• Partner with recruiting and people teams on engineering talent initiatives: Contribute to employer positioning, support technical hiring events and sourcing, and help shape onboarding and early-career development experiences.
• Support the Development phase of the Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC): Ensure teams have the tools, processes, and enablement needed for execution. Work with Pradnya on platform-specific operational support.
• Perform other related duties as assigned: Be ready to own high-priority initiatives and workstreams that emerge as engineering's priorities shift.

How You Will Do Your Work

As an Engineering Effectiveness Manager, your success depends on how you achieve results. In this role, your foundational knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal attributes are anchored in the following:

• Systems Thinking: You see how the parts connect and are motivated to simplify complex operational and execution challenges. You understand trade-offs and design solutions that work across silos.
• Execution Focus: You move with urgency and clarity. You drive initiatives to completion, make measurable progress every week, and adapt when plans change. You're comfortable saying "here's what done looks like" and holding the line.
• Ownership & Accountability: You take full responsibility for your work. You identify and remove blockers, elevate when needed, and don't wait for permission to improve things.
• Influence Without Authority: You build trust with peers and leaders across engineering, recruiting, product, and people teams. You coordinate complex efforts through relationship and clarity, not formal power.
• Adaptability: You stay steady in a changing environment. You learn quickly, find where you can add most value, and shift focus when priorities change. You're equally comfortable facilitating a meeting or diving into Jira to untangle a workflow.
• Communication & Visibility: You make complex work understandable. You communicate progress, blockers, and decisions clearly to audiences from ICs to executives. You ensure the organization sees how things fit together.
• Collaboration: You build trust with peers and leaders, balance input from many stakeholders, and move forward without consensus paralysis.

In addition, all Justworkers focus on aligning their behaviors to our core values known as COGIS. It stands for:

• Camaraderie - Day to day you can be seen working together toward a higher purpose. You like to have fun. You’re an active listener, treat people respectfully, and have a strong desire to know and help others.
• Openness - Your default is to be open. You're willing to share information, understand other perspectives, and consider new possibilities. You’re curious, ask open questions, and are receptive to thoughts and feedback from others.
• Grit - You demonstrate grit by having the courage to commit and persevere. You’re committed, earnest, and dive in to get the job done well with a positive attitude.
• Integrity - Simply put, do what you say and say what you'll do. You’re honest and forthright, have a strong moral compass, and strive to match your words with your actions while leading by example.
• Simplicity - Be like Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Qualifications

• 4–7 years of experience in program management, delivery, operations, or similar role in a technical environment
• Demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional initiatives and drive execution in matrix environments
• Experience designing and implementing learning and development programs or similar enablement efforts
• Strong organizational skills; able to juggle multiple priorities and projects simultaneously
• Excellent communication and presentation skills; comfort facilitating groups and representing work to leadership
• Experience with data-driven decision-making and defining/tracking metrics
• Familiarity with product development tools and processes (CI/CD, Jira, GitHub, etc.) preferred
• Demonstrated ability to influence and coordinate across silos without direct authority
• Ability to work in a hybrid environment with regular in-office presence (3 days/week)

The base wage range for this position based in our New York City Office is targeted at $131,000.00 to $169,000.00 per year.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-PF1

Actual compensation is based on multiple factors that are unique to each candidate, including and not limited to skill set, level of relevant experience, and specific work location. Salary ranges for positions based in other locations may differ based on the cost of labor in that location.

For more information about Justworks’ Total Reward Philosophy, including all of the perks and benefits we are proud to offer our team members, please visit Total Rewards @ Justworks .

Diversity At Justworks

Justworks is committed to maintaining a workplace where diversity of identity, culture, and life experience is the norm and is celebrated authentically and respected consistently. Diversity in our work, our people, and our product drives creativity and innovation, entrepreneurial leadership and integrity, competitiveness, and collaboration throughout our business and in the market. We