Engineering Manager AI

DEUNA; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

DEUNA is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead our AI/ML engineering team responsible for the intelligent systems behind payment routing optimization and AI-powered digital workforce products. You will mentor engineers, influence architectural decisions, and align the team with product and leadership goals.

This hands-on management role requires depth in ML systems and backend services, with the ability to guide complex technical discussions and drive delivery at scale.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering, including 2-3+ years in a people management role leading engineers.
• Experience building and shipping backend and/or ML systems at scale, ideally with exposure to fintech, payments, or another regulated, latency-sensitive domain.
• Hands-on familiarity with modern AI/ML systems: model training and serving, LLM-powered workflows (agents, RAG, orchestration), or similar — enough to have a real technical conversation with your team and challenge their thinking when needed.

Responsibilities

• Lead an ML/AI engineering team of 7–8 engineers and own delivery for the group — scoping, costing, sequencing initiatives.
• Guide architecture decisions, review technical approaches, and unblock engineers to maintain velocity and quality.
• Hire, develop, and retain engineering talent while balancing individual growth with delivery pressure.

Skills

People management

Backend development

ML systems

Tools

Model training & serving

LLM workflows

Job description

About DEUNA

DEUNA is a rapidly growing startup revolutionizing global commerce with ATHIA, our AI-powered orchestration and payments platform that helps large enterprises boost approval rates, reduce costs, and unlock new revenue. Built by the team behind DEUNA—the fastest-growing Commerce OS in Latin America—ATHIA combines payment intelligence, checkout optimization, and data orchestration in one powerful solution.

About DEUNA

DEUNA is a rapidly growing startup revolutionizing global commerce with ATHIA, our AI-powered orchestration and payments platform that helps large enterprises boost approval rates, reduce costs, and unlock new revenue. Built by the team behind DEUNA—the fastest-growing Commerce OS in Latin America—ATHIA combines payment intelligence, checkout optimization, and data orchestration in one powerful solution.

With deep integrations across 300+ PSPs and alternative payment methods, and over 20% of Mexico’s digital economy running through our platform, we simplify global payments through a single integration and centralized reconciliation.

We are a rapidly growing startup expanding into the U.S. to meet the urgent needs of large retailers, marketplaces, airlines, and QSRs. Join us to shape the future of payments! Visit https://www.deuna.com/ to learn more about us!

About The Role

DEUNA is looking for an Engineering Manager to lead our AI/ML engineering team — the group building the intelligent systems behind payment routing optimization, authorization rate improvement, and our AI-powered digital workforce products. You will manage a team of engineers (currently :7-8) spanning ML, backend, and platform work, while staying close enough to the technical details to guide architecture decisions, unblock your team, and represent the group's roadmap to product and leadership.

This is a hands‑on management role: you won't be writing production code day-to-day, but you need enough depth in ML systems, backend services, and AI/LLM workflows to make good calls on architecture, review technical approaches, and coach engineers through hard problems. You'll own delivery for the team — scoping, costing, and sequencing initiatives — while building a low-tech-debt, high-quality engineering culture.

Who You Are

• 8+ years in software engineering, including 2-3+ years in a people management role leading engineers.
• You have significant experience building and shipping backend and/or ML systems at scale, ideally with exposure to fintech, payments, or another regulated, latency-sensitive domain.
• You've managed engineers before, hiring, developing, and retaining a team, and you know how to balance people development with delivery pressure.
• You have hands‑on familiarity with modern AI/ML systems: model training and serving, LLM‑powered workflows (agents, RAG, orchestration), or similar — enough to have a real technical conversation with your team and challenge their thinking when needed.
• Practical exposure to LLM‑based systems in production (agents, RAG