Engineering Manager

Jobtailor; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor in Palo Alto seeks an experienced Engineering Leader to lead and grow a software engineering team, shaping product strategy with product and design. You’ll mentor engineers, drive execution, and ensure architectural excellence in a fast-moving startup.

You’ll participate in customer calls to gain intuition, balance speed and quality, and help hiring strong talent. AI awareness a plus.

Qualifications

• Experience managing a team of software engineers, with a track record of developing talent and building high-performing teams.
• Strong product instincts. You form opinions about what should get built, push back on specs that don't make sense, and think in terms of customer outcomes, not just tickets.
• Technical background strong enough to engage in architecture discussions, review designs, and make sound tradeoffs.
• Experience working closely with product and design, ideally in environments where the lines between functions were blurry.
• A bias toward action and comfort operating in a fast-moving startup environment with ambiguity and shifting priorities.
• Clear, direct communication style and the ability to build trust across functions.
• Interest in how AI is changing both the products we build and the way engineering teams work.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of engineers, providing regular feedback, career development, and mentorship.
• Partner closely with product and design to define what gets built, not just how it gets built. Bring your own perspective on user problems, scope, and sequencing.
• Sit in customer calls regularly to build direct intuition for how social and brand teams work and where the product falls short.
• Own planning and delivery for your team's product area, balancing speed, quality, and impact.
• Drive technical quality across your team's systems, ensuring reliability, performance, and sound architecture decisions.
• Contribute to product strategy by identifying patterns across customer feedback, usage data, and engineering insight that product alone might miss.
• Establish and refine engineering processes including sprint planning, on-call, incident response, and operational excellence.
• Contribute to hiring by sourcing, interviewing, and closing strong engineering talent.

Skills

Team Leadership

Product Strategy

Technical Architecture

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Agile Methodologies

Job description

• Lead and grow a team of engineers, providing regular feedback, career development, and mentorship
• Partner closely with product and design to define what gets built, not just how it gets built. Bring your own perspective on user problems, scope, and sequencing
• Sit in customer calls regularly to build direct intuition for how social and brand teams work and where the product falls short
• Own planning and delivery for your team's product area, balancing speed, quality, and impact
• Drive technical quality across your team's systems, ensuring reliability, performance, and sound architecture decisions
• Contribute to product strategy by identifying patterns across customer feedback, usage data, and engineering insight that product alone might miss
• Establish and refine engineering processes including sprint planning, on-call, incident response, and operational excellence
• Contribute to hiring by sourcing, interviewing, and closing strong engineering talent

Requirements

• Experience managing a team of software engineers, with a track record of developing talent and building high-performing teams
• Strong product instincts. You form opinions about what should get built, push back on specs that don't make sense, and think in terms of customer outcomes, not just tickets
• Technical background strong enough to engage in architecture discussions, review designs, and make sound tradeoffs
• Experience working closely with product and design, ideally in environments where the lines between functions were blurry
• A bias toward action and comfort operating in a fast-moving startup environment with ambiguity and shifting priorities
• Clear, direct communication style and the ability to build trust across functions
• Interest in how AI is changing both the products we build and the way engineering teams work

Core Competencies

Demonstrates strong leadership in managing and developing engineering teams while driving product strategy through collaboration with product and design. Possesses a technical background to engage in architectural discussions and ensure high-quality delivery in a fast-paced environment.

Highest-signal resume keywords

• Team Management
• Product Strategy
• Technical Architecture
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Agile Methodologies

Hard Skills

• Software Engineering
• Architecture Design
• Sprint Planning
• Incident Response
• Operational Excellence

Soft Skills

• Clear Communication
• Mentorship
• Trust Building
• Bias Toward Action

Industry Keywords

• Customer Outcomes
• AI Impact
• High-Performing Teams
• Startup Environment