Engineering Manager (Ground Software)

Menlo Ventures; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

True Anomaly in Denver seeks an Engineering Manager, Ground Software to lead engineers in shaping the future of our distributed, multi-faceted ground software systems. You will build a cross-functional team, define the technical roadmap, and champion strategic initiatives critical to the company.

This leadership position requires a strong technical background with significant software engineering experience, alongside the ability to influence and guide teams across functions. Join us to make a profound impact on operational software in space technology.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with 4+ years leading engineering teams.
• Track record of hiring and developing high-performing engineers.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams on shared product outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of talented engineers driving ground software system evolution.
• Build and define the technical roadmap for your product area.
• Champion strategic technical investments and drive organizational change.

Skills

Software engineering experience

Team leadership

Back-end systems (Elixir/OTP, or comparable)

Front-end systems (React/TypeScript)

Distributed systems integration

Excellent communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or aerospace engineering

Job description

Requirements

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with 4+ years building and leading engineering teams that ship production software
• Hands-on technical depth in either modern back-end systems (Elixir/OTP, or comparable concurrent/distributed runtimes such as Erlang, Go, or the JVM) or modern front-end systems (React/TypeScript), with enough working knowledge of the other side of the stack to make informed architectural decisions and lead cross-functional work credibly
• Track record of hiring and developing high-performing engineers in fast-moving environments
• Demonstrated ability to balance hands-on technical contribution with people leadership
• Experience leading cross-functional teams or coordinating closely across functional boundaries on shared product outcomes
• Strong understanding of distributed systems integration patterns (gRPC, REST, WebSockets) and API contract design
• Experience establishing or evolving engineering processes — sprint operating models, code review standards, testing strategy, incident response
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders and represent engineering's interests to senior leadership
• Eligible for DoD Secret or TS/SCI clearance
• (Desirable) Bachelor's degree in computer science, aerospace engineering, or a related discipline
• (Desirable) Direct experience with Elixir/OTP and the Phoenix framework, or with React/TypeScript at scale in production single-page applications
• (Desirable) Experience leading a team through a structural transition — functional to product-aligned, monolith to services, founding team to scaled organization
• (Desirable) Background in aerospace, defense, or other domains with mission-critical reliability requirements, classified work environments (SCIF), or operational software where the cost of a bug is measured in operator decisions
• (Desirable) Experience with real-time data systems, telemetry processing, command and control, or large-scale data visualization (Three.js, WebGL, or similar)
• (Desirable) Familiarity with cleared work environments and how security and accreditation constraints shape engineering workflows
• (Desirable) Active U.S. security clearance at any level
• To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State

What the job involves

• Software is the central nervous system for True Anomaly's engineering and product thesis
• Software bridges the gap between military objectives, theoretical astrodynamics and the human and autonomous control of spacecraft and ground systems in time and space
• True Anomaly is seeking an exceptional Engineering Manager, Ground Software to lead a team of talented engineers driving the direction and evolution of our distributed, multi-faceted ground software system
• This is a high-impact, strategic leadership role
• You’ll build and develop a cross-functional team of front-end, back-end, and full-stack engineers, define and drive the technical roadmap for your product area, lead cross-functional initiatives that span engineering, product, and operations, and establish the architectural and operating foundations that will scale our ground platform for years to come
• You’ll identify strategic technical investments, champion them across the organization, and lead their execution
• You won’t just ship features; you’ll shape the product direction, influence company objectives, and grow the engineers who will build the next generation of our platform
• When you see systemic issues affecting reliability, velocity, or quality, you’ll diagnose root causes, build consensus around solutions, and drive organizational change to address them
• You do not need to have experience building space ground systems or experience in aerospace
• You’ll lead high-priority initiatives with strategic importance to the company and a chance to fundamentally impact the outcome of future conflict (and the future of the company)
• Build, lead, and develop a cross-functional squad of front-end, back-end, and full-stack engineers who own a Mosaic product area end-to-end
• Own the squad’s delivery, quality, and team health, running sprint rituals that serve the work and protecting the team’s ability to focus
• Run effective 1:1s, give timely and specific feedback, and grow engineers along both technical and management career paths
• Stay close enough to the code to earn trust and make informed decisions, contributing directly when the situation calls for it
• Drive the technical roadmap for your product area, including the recurring judgment of whether a new capability belongs in the product or in the shared Mosaic platform layer
• Champion strategic technical investments — testing, observability, internal tooling, debt reduction — and make the case for the engineering time they require
• Partner with the Product Owner as the technical counterpart in defining scope, timelines, and trade-offs
• Coordinate cross-team work with other Ground Software squads on shared APIs, components, and platform capabilities
• Manage the squad’s relationship with Space Operations, the Simulation team, DevOps, and other stakeholders through structured channels
• Lead incident response when production issues affect operators, and drive blameless post-mortems that prevent recurrence
• Help define what a product-aligned squad looks like at Mosaic, establishing patterns that will shape future squads as the organization scales