Engineering Manager

PermitFlow; New York, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity in high-growth company

Medical coverage (employee)

401(k) savings plan

Unlimited PTO

Home office stipend

Lunch & dinner provided

Commuter benefits

Job summary

PermitFlow is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead and scale a high-performing engineering team that builds the core infrastructure powering permitting and related workflows. You will own both people leadership and technical execution in a fast-moving environment, reporting to the VP of Engineering and driving end-to-end roadmap from direction to delivery.

The role requires 5+ years in software engineering, 1+ year in leadership, and a track record of building scalable teams in startup or

Qualifications

• 5+ years in software engineering, including 1+ year in engineering leadership.
• Experience building and scaling engineering teams in startup or high-growth environments.
• Strong system design and architecture fundamentals (scalable web or distributed systems).
• Ability to lead through ambiguity and turn unclear problems into structured execution.
• Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a high-performing engineering team, raising the bar for ownership, quality, and execution speed.
• Define technical direction across architecture, scalability, reliability, and long-term system evolution.
• Own roadmap planning and execution from definition through delivery and customer impact.
• Partner with product, design, and leadership to translate ambiguous real-world problems into scalable systems.
• Drive delivery of critical infrastructure used across thousands of jurisdictions.
• Improve system reliability, observability, performance, and engineering efficiency.
• Play a key role in hiring and developing engineers and future leaders.

Skills

Software engineering

Engineering leadership

System design

Communication

Ambiguity handling

Job description

PermitFlow is redefining how America builds. We’re an applied AI company serving the nation’s builders, tackling one of the largest information challenges in the economy: understanding what can be built, where, and how. Our AI agent workforce helps the fastest-growing construction companies navigate everything from permitting and licensing to inspections and project closeouts – accelerating housing, clean-energy, and infrastructure development across the country.

Despite being a $1.6T industry, construction still suffers from massive delays, wasted capital, and lost opportunity. PermitFlow has already delivered unprecedented speed, accuracy, and visibility to over $20B in development, helping contractors reduce compliance time, de-risk projects, and scale with confidence.

As the U.S. enters a new capex supercycle across data centers, factories, housing, and renewables, joining PermitFlow means building the AI infrastructure at the core of every construction project driving the next wave of reindustrialization.

We’ve raised over $90M, most recently completing our Series B, from top-tier investors including Accel, Kleiner Perkins, Initialized, Y Combinator, Felicis, and Altos Ventures, with backing from leaders at OpenAI, Google, Procore, ServiceTitan, Zillow, PlanGrid, and Uber.

Building the AI Infrastructure for Construction

• Construction remains one of the largest real-world systems still operating on fragmented, manual infrastructure.

• Every project in the U.S. moves through permitting and pre-construction workflows spread across ~20,000 jurisdictions - each with inconsistent rules, systems, and levels of digitization.

• This creates one of the largest bottlenecks in the physical economy, delaying housing and infrastructure projects and costing billions in lost time and capital every year.

• PermitFlow is rebuilding this layer from the ground up - using modern software and AI systems to automate permitting end-to-end.

• We are still early, and the core systems are actively being defined.

• This is one of those rare moments where engineering decisions directly shape an emerging category.

Role Overview

• We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead and scale a high-performing engineering team building the core infrastructure behind PermitFlow.

• This is a builder-leader role. You will own both people leadership and technical execution in a fast-moving environment where systems are complex, ambiguous, and deeply connected to real-world outcomes.

• You will report directly to our VP of Engineering. Our VP strongly values hands-on technical leadership - the best-fit EMs here are deeply technical, strong communicators, and comfortable staying close to architecture, system design, and the codebase to make high-quality technical decisions.

• You will be expected to drive your own roadmap end-to-end from technical direction and execution planning through delivery and customer impact - ensuring what your team builds consistently performs in production and delivers real value to users.

What You’ll Do

You will operate across systems, people, and execution at scale:

• Lead and grow a high-performing engineering team, raising the bar for ownership, quality, and execution speed

• Build strong engineering culture through clear expectations, 1:1s, feedback loops, and career development

• Define technical direction across architecture, scalability, reliability, and long-term system evolution

• Own roadmap planning and execution from definition through delivery and customer impact

• Partner closely with product, design, and leadership to translate ambiguous real-world problems into scalable systems

• Drive delivery of critical infrastructure used across thousands of jurisdictions

• Improve system reliability, observability, performance, and engineering efficiency

• Play a key role in hiring and developing engineers and future leaders

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for strong technical leaders who thrive in high-ownership, high-ambiguity environments.

• 5+ years in software engineering, including 1+ year in engineering leadership

• Experience building and scaling engineering teams in startup or high-growth environments

• Strong system design and architecture fundamentals (scalable web or distributed systems)

• Ability to lead through ambiguity and turn unclear problems into structured execution

• Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical stakeholders

• High standards for engineering quality, reliability, and performance

• Deep technical fluency - comfortable engaging with code review, architecture, and tradeoffs

• Bonus: experience in workflow-heavy, enterprise SaaS, or infrastructure products

• Bonus: exposure to complex regulated environments (construction, logistics, government systems, etc.)

Why This Role Matters

This is not a maintenance role - it is a systems-building role at the foundation of a category being created in real time.

PermitFlow sits at the intersection of:

• fragmented real-world regulatory infrastructure

• high-friction physical economy workflows

• emerging AI systems capable of automating end-to-end complexity

The systems built here directly impact how quickly housing and infrastructure projects move from idea to execution.

This role offers rare leverage: your decisions will shape both the engineering organization and the core product surface area at an early but rapidly scaling company.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity in a high-growth company

• 100% company-paid base medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees + healthcare FSA

• 401(k) savings plan

• Unlimited PTO and paid family leave

• Home office & equipment stipend

• Daily in-office lunch and dinner provided

• Commuter benefits (pre-tax transit and parking)

If you want to build complex systems connecting software to real-world infrastructure and help define a category from the ground up, we’d love to talk.

Inside PermitFlow: The Team Transforming Construction Permitting

PermitFlow provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or family status, as protected by applicable law.

We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities. All employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs.