Engineering Manager

Aurelian; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive Medical, Dental, & V

401(k)

Unlimited PTO

Company-wide offsites

Equipment stipend

Relocation assistance

Daily delivered lunches (on us)

Office in Seattle

Start-up Equity

Job summary

Aurelian in Seattle is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead a small pod of engineers. This is a hands-on, player-coach role where you’ll write code weekly, set technical direction, and mentor the team.

You’ll stay close to the codebase while growing the team’s capabilities, participate in hiring, and engage with customers at dispatch centers to guide what your team builds next. The path leads to a fuller EM role with broader responsibilities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering with leadership experience.
• Wants to grow into management—lead a team and own a path to EM.
• Strong, capable engineer who can land in a codebase fast and ship.
• High ownership and pragmatic urgency; drive to completion.
• Clear communicator who explains technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders.
• Customer empathy: enjoys understanding how people use software.

Responsibilities

• Lead a pod of 3–4 engineers, own technical direction and code reviews.
• Stay hands-on with coding, debugging, and production issues.
• Mentor and grow engineers on your team; plan growth and performance.
• Involve yourself in hiring for your team and scaling the group.
• Work with customers (dispatchers/PSAP admins) to inform product work.
• Grow into a fuller Engineering Manager scope with more leadership.

Skills

Leadership

Growth mindset

Hands-on engineer

Ownership

Communication

Customer empathy

Job description

About Aurelian

Aurelian builds AI tools that help 911 centers handle more with less, so telecommunicators can stay focused on what matters most and communities get the response they need.

About Aurelian

Aurelian builds AI tools that help 911 centers handle more with less, so telecommunicators can stay focused on what matters most and communities get the response they need. AVA is a conversational AI agent that answers non-emergency calls; the agent routes, triages, and resolves the calls without any human intervention. By handling administrative calls like noise complaints, lost dogs, and parking inquiries, AVA eliminates hold times and lets call-takers focus their energy on actual emergencies. CORA supports call-takers on the calls that matter most. CORA is an on-screen assistant that delivers real-time SOP checklists, smart reminders, and contextual guidance as an emergency call unfolds, so dispatchers stay calm, consistent, and confident when every second counts. When AVA detects an emergency mid-call, it transfers the caller to a telecommunicator and passes along the caller details, location, incident type, and key statements directly into CORA. The call-taker never starts from scratch. The problem we’re solving is serious. The average emergency communications center is 30% understaffed nationwide. Staffing shortages drive burnout and attrition, which makes the shortage worse. Meanwhile, 60‑80% of the calls coming in aren’t even emergencies at all. Aurelian addresses both sides of that equation: AVA reduces unnecessary call volume, and CORA makes every emergency call more manageable for the people handling it. Aurelian is live in centers across the country, answering thousands of non-emergency calls every day, and is backed by New Enterprise Associates and Y Combinator. Aurelian is growing rapidly; we are hiring people who want to help scale this work and make a real difference in public safety infrastructure for communities across the country.

Why Join Us

We're hiring an Engineering Manager to lead a small pod and own a key surface area of the product. This is a hands‑on, player‑coach role on a path to a full EM seat. You’ll write code every week, set technical direction, mentor your pod, and help with hiring. This role is for the engineer who already leads without the title—you mentor other engineers, you drive projects that need coordination across people, you're who teammates go to before they go to their manager. You want your next chapter to be about growing a team, without having to put the keyboard down on day one. If that’s you, we want to talk.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead a small pod. 3‑4 engineers in your surface area. Own technical direction and code review. As the team grows, you’ll pick up 1:1s, growth plans, and performance work.
• Stay hands‑on. Ship code, review code, debug production issues. You should never get more than a few days away from the codebase.
• Develop the engineers around you. Pair, mentor, coach. Help the engineers on your pod grow toward bigger scope and impact.
• Be involved in hiring for your team. Help us bring in the next engineers on your pod.
• Work directly with customers. Our users are 9‑1‑1 dispatchers and PSAP administrators. You’ll visit dispatch centers, watch how they use the product, and use that context to drive what your team builds next.
• Grow into a full EM seat. As we scale, you’ll move into a fuller Engineering Manager scope - more reports, less code, more strategy.

Who We’re Looking For

• Leadership spike. 5+ years of software engineering. You’ve already led on your team - formally or informally. You’ve mentored other engineers, owned a project that needed coordination across people, or driven a change that didn’t have a clear owner.
• Wants to grow into management. You want the management path - growing other engineers, running a team, eventually owning a full EM seat.
• Strong, capable engineer. You can land in our codebase fast and ship. You read code well, reason about architecture, and care about the craft.
• High ownership and pragmatic urgency. You see a problem, figure out the right thing to build, and drive it to completion. You take responsibility for outcomes, not just your code.
• Clear communicator. You can explain a technical decision to a non‑technical stakeholder. You write design docs other people actually read.
• Customer empathy. You genuinely like understanding how people use software. You’re energized by customer conversations, not drained by them.

To learn more about what it’s like to work at Aurelian, visit our About Us page and follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date!

For Full‑Time roles, Aurelian offers a variety of benefits, including:

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance
• 401(k)
• Unlimited PTO
• Company‑wide offsites
• Equipment stipend
• Relocation assistance
• Daily delivered lunches (on us)
• Office in Seattle
• Start‑up Equity

Compensation Range: $170K - $250K