Engineering Manager, Travel

United States Digital Space LLC; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 170,623 - 213,279; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Remote work up to 4 weeks per year

Job summary

United States Digital Space LLC in San Francisco is seeking an engineering leader to build and guide a new full-stack team shaping a next-generation travel experience. The role blends hands-on leadership with strategic direction, balancing customer-focused product goals and technical excellence.

You will hire, mentor, and mature engineers, set the team’s mandate within Travel, and collaborate with cross-functional partners to deliver impact while fostering a culture of enablement and trust.

Qualifications

• Leadership experience building and scaling customer-facing products.
• Ability to defend product and UX tradeoffs beyond tech choices.
• Technical credibility at staff level and earned respect from engineers.
• Strong customer empathy and advocacy.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience coaching engineers across levels.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a new full-stack team owning a defined part of the travel experience.
• Grow the team through hiring and onboarding engineers.
• Define and sharpen the team's mandate within the Travel group.
• Set technical and product direction and tradeoffs.
• Ship high-quality, reliable travel product with solid foundation.
• Foster a people-centered culture on a brand-new team.
• Partner with Travel, Expenses, and Product to align scope and delivery.
• Provide coaching and career development for engineers at all levels.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Product sense

Staff-level technical bar

Customer empathy

Written and verbal communication

Coaching and mentorship

Job description

Where you’ll work

This role will be based in our San Francisco office. We are a hybrid environment that combines the energy and connections of being in the office with the benefits and flexibility of working from home. We currently require a minimum of three coordinated days in the office per week, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. As a perk, we also have up to four weeks per year of fully remote work!

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a new full-stack team owning a defined part of the company's next-generation travel experience, growing it through hiring and onboarding new engineers.
• Help define and continually sharpen the team's mandate within the broader Travel group — what it owns, where its boundaries sit, and where it should focus.
• Set the team's technical and product direction, making thoughtful tradeoffs about what to build, in what order, and why.
• Ship a high-quality, reliable, competitive travel product, balancing customer-facing feature velocity with a durable technical foundation.
• Foster a people-centered culture on a brand-new team — one built on enablement, trust, and context-sharing.
• Partner cross-functionally across Travel, Expenses, and Product to align on scope and delivery.
• Provide strong coaching, mentorship, and career development for engineers at all levels.
• Bring an AI-forward mindset to how the team builds and operates.

Requirements

• Track record of engineering leadership building and scaling customer-facing products, including hiring and growing teams.
• Strong product sense — the ability to make and defend product and UX tradeoffs, not just technical ones.
• A staff-engineer-level technical bar; able to operate at all levels and earn the technical respect of a strong engineering team.
• Strong customer empathy and advocacy.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Demonstrated coaching and mentorship of engineers across levels.

Bonus points

• Travel domain experience (e.g., online booking / travel management platforms such as Navan or similar).
• Experience standing up a new team or product area from scratch.

Compensation

The expected salary range for this role is $240,000 CAD - $300,000 CAD. However, the starting base pay will depend on a number of factors including the candidate’s location, skills, experience, market demands, and internal pay parity. Depending on the position offered, equity and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package.