Engineering Manager

Switchboard; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental & vision coverage for 1

21 days PTO + federal holidays

Unlimited sick leave

16 weeks parental leave

401(k) match with immediate vesting

Hybrid workplace in Washington, DC or

Relocation assistance

Remote work available for US-based

Job summary

Switchboard, a fast-growing civic tech company, is hiring an Engineering Manager in the Washington, DC area. You will lead an autonomous agile team, partner with product and design, and help engineers grow into technical leaders while keeping systems stable.

You will balance future product and architecture work with reliability, improve incident response, and collaborate across data and operations to staff the right people.

Qualifications

• 5+ years as an engineering manager, with a track record of developing engineers into leaders through partnership and delegation.
• Hands-on experience as a full stack engineer with depth to evaluate technical tradeoffs.
• Experience leading engineers with different areas of expertise and levels of experience.
• Experience jumping into a complex system you didn’t build and seeking understanding from day one.

Responsibilities

• Lead an autonomous agile team, setting clear expectations and holding it accountable without becoming the bottleneck.
• Partner with product and design from discovery through delivery, bringing a strong technical voice to scoping and prioritization.
• Grow engineers across a range of specialties and experience levels into technical leaders, delegating ownership and stretch opportunities deliberately.
• Balance sustained investment in future-facing product and architecture work with the reliability of existing systems.
• Improve how the team detects, triages, and resolves user-facing incidents, issues, and bugs, so customers get faster and more predictable responses.
• Understand our stack and systems deeply, and drive toward structures that become easier to maintain and change over time.
• Collaborate with product, design, data, and operations to staff the right people against the right work.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Full stack engineering

Python

JavaScript

Tools

Django

Next.js

Job description

Switchboard works with thousands of campaigns from school board to Senate and Presidential races, strengthening Democratic digital fundraising and organizing programs up and down the ballot. In addition to the automated messaging platform that we launched in 2021 through which organizations have sent billions of messages, over the last year we’ve continued to build out an integrated suite of tools, including an emailer, contribution platform, forms builder, and fundraising analytics dashboards, with the goal of bringing together coordination across outreach channels, powerful analytics, and an easy-to-use platform.

As an Engineering Manager, you’ll lead an autonomous agile team in close partnership with product and design. Your job is to multiply the team’s impact, not to carry it: you’ll grow engineers into leaders, delegate real ownership, and keep the team making steady progress on ambitious product work while the systems customers rely on stay stable and responsive.

Responsibilities Include:

• Lead an autonomous agile team, setting clear expectations and holding it accountable without becoming the bottleneck.
• Partner with product and design from discovery through delivery, bringing a strong technical voice to scoping and prioritization.
• Grow engineers across a range of specialties and experience levels into technical leaders, delegating ownership and stretch opportunities deliberately.
• Balance sustained investment in future-facing product and architecture work with the reliability of existing systems.
• Improve how the team detects, triages, and resolves user-facing incidents, issues, and bugs, so customers get faster and more predictable responses.
• Understand our stack and systems deeply, and drive toward structures that become easier to maintain and change over time.
• Collaborate with product, design, data, and operations to staff the right people against the right work.

Ideal Candidates have:

• 5+ years as an engineering manager, with a track record of developing engineers into leaders through partnership and delegation rather than shouldering execution yourself.
• Prior hands-on experience as a full stack engineer, with enough depth to evaluate technical tradeoffs credibly.
• Experience leading engineers with different areas of expertise and levels of experience.
• Experience jumping into a complex system you didn’t build and seeking understanding from day one.
• Nice to have: experience supporting a high-scale B2B product, continuously shipping small and large improvements while maintaining high stability.
• Nice to have: familiarity with Python and JavaScript (we use Django and Next.js).

Compensation

• $200k–$245k annual salary and an equity grant, depending on experience
• Switchboard covers 100% of health, dental, and vision coverage for employees and 80% for dependents
• 21 days of paid time off plus federal holidays
• Unlimited sick leave
• 16 weeks paid parental leave for parents of any gender, including adoptive parents
• 401(K) match with immediate vesting
• Two work mode options: Vibrant hybrid workplace in Washington D.C., with relocation assistance for candidates interested in working in-person, or full-time, remote work outside of D.C.

Diversity

We believe the best products and companies are built by diverse teams where everyone’s perspectives are heard and respected. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and experiences. Even if you’re not sure whether the role is a good fit, please apply!

Switchboard is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by federal or D.C. law.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities in the hiring process and on the job. If you need an accommodation at any point in the application or interview process, please note it in your application and we will follow up.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the US. Unfortunately we’re unable to sponsor work visas at this time.