Expert Senior Manager, Engineering Excellence

Bain & Company; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 264,150 - 322,850; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with company contribution

Comprehensive health benefits

Generous paid time off

Job summary

Bain & Company seeks a seasoned full-stack developer to lead AI-driven software initiatives from their Palo Alto office. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years in development, particularly in micro-service API creation. Responsibilities include mentoring teams, executing full software lifecycles, and ensuring best practices in AI applications. This hybrid role, requiring presence at least 3 days/week, offers competitive compensation with a base salary of up to $293,500 in California, along with strong benefits and a performance bonus.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience with full-stack development.
• Experience in an engineering role at a start-up or tech company.
• 6+ years of experience with micro-service API development.

Responsibilities

• Drive AI-assisted improvements across various domains.
• Mentor developers to enhance productivity using AI tools.
• Translate business requirements into technical specifications.

Skills

Full-stack development

Micro-service API development

AI tools

Python proficiency

Interpersonal skills

Education

Bachelor’s in Computer Science or related field

Master’s in Computer Science or related field

Tools

RESTful APIs

FastAPI

Automated testing frameworks

Job description

WHO YOU'LL WORK WITH

Bain’s Vector leads the firm’s software development efforts and defines engineering standards for Bain globally.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Drive client improvements in AI‑assisted or AI‑led maturity across people, process, and technology.
• Mentor and coach developers to improve productivity through adoption of AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, etc.).
• Lead in designing, developing, and documenting AI applications aligned to business outcomes.
• Develop prompt engineering strategies, implement retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, and optimize model inference latency and cost.
• Develop and champion modern software development best practices and concepts to technical audience and business stakeholders.
• Lead cross‑functional teams to develop and deploy production‑quality code for clients.
• Lead full software development life cycle execution including architecture design, writing documentation and unit/integration tests, identifying issues and resolution, writing clean code, conducting code reviews, and mentoring other engineers.

Provide technical guidance to external clients and internal stakeholders in Bain (80%)

• Drive AI‑led or AI‑assisted transformation to improve productivity and quality across the PDLC.
• Explore new innovations in AI and software development to further improve productivity and modularity.
• Mentor and coach engineering teams on technology stack best practices and operational models to raise their software engineering capabilities.
• Lead ideation processes, alongside consulting and client colleagues, to bring innovative solutions to problems.
• Drive engagements that help to understand current state of clients’ architecture, micro‑services, build processes, and security needs.
• Lead in a collaborative manner with clients’ technical teams to define technical approaches to implementing designed solutions, including new product architecture, data flows and integration strategies, and build processes.

Scope, architect, design, develop, build, and release robust and scalable applications (20%)

• Translate business requirements into technical requirements and implementation details
  • Lead development of complex systems that are extensible, easy to understand, and self‑maintaining.
  • Design integrations with third‑party systems to enable use cases that power business solutions.
• Work closely with product and design to create modern AI systems
  • Architect and design end‑to‑end AI agent systems, including reasoning loops, planning mechanisms, and tool orchestration frameworks.
  • Develop and optimize LLM‑powered applications using advanced prompting, structured outputs, and model routing strategies.
  • Design and implement multi‑agent architectures (planner, executor, verifier, critic patterns).
  • Architect and build scalable retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) pipelines with optimized embedding and retrieval strategies.

ABOUT YOU

• Bachelor’s in Computer Science or a related technical field; or equivalent work experience.
• Experience in an engineering role at a start‑up or fast‑growing tech company, with a strong track record of increasing mastery and responsibility.
• 10+ years of experience with full‑stack development.
• 6+ years of experience with micro‑service API development (e.g., RESTful, GraphQL, gRPC) with frameworks (e.g. FastAPI, Swagger, OpenAPI, etc.).
• 4+ years of experience in consulting.
• 2+ years of experience leading or managing development teams.
• 1+ years of experience with AI tools (Cursor, Claude Code, etc.).
• Strong knowledge in development best practices (automated testing frameworks, CI/CD, etc.).
• Strong computer science fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, automated testing, object‑oriented programming, performance complexity, and implications of computer architecture on software performance.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Deep understanding of large language models (LLMs) and transformer architectures.
• Strong knowledge of prompt engineering, structured prompting, and reasoning control techniques.
• Experience designing and deploying retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) systems.
• Ability to evaluate model performance beyond accuracy (reasoning quality, hallucination rate, task success).
• Understanding of tokenization, context window limits, and cost optimization strategies.
• Strong Python proficiency for AI development.

Ideal candidates will also have experience in

• Master’s in computer science or a related technical field.
• Experience working with or providing services to enterprise customers (Fortune 500, Global 1000).
• Experience working on public cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and associated deep understanding of failover, high‑availability, and high scalability.
• Ability to explain and discuss technical concepts and methodologies with colleagues and clients from other disciplines.
• This role follows a hybrid model, requiring in‑office presence at least 3 days per week, either at a client location or at your Bain home office.
• Travel is required (~25%).

U.S. COMPENSATION INFORMATION

Compensation for this role includes base salary, annual discretionary performance bonus, 401(k) plan with an annual employer contribution based on years of service, and Bain’s best‑in‑class benefits package.

In Atlanta, Boston, Texas, and Chicago the good‑faith, reasonable annualized full‑time salary for this role is $258,425.

In California, New York, Washington, DC, and Washington State, the good‑faith, reasonable annualized full‑time salary for this role is $293,500.

Placement within these ranges will vary based on factors such as experience, education, training, and skill level.

Compensation also includes discretionary annual performance bonus, and Bain’s comprehensive benefits—including full premium coverage for medical, dental, and vision, generous paid time off, and more.

We offer a 4.5% 401(k) company contribution, which increases after 3 years of service and is 100% vested upon start date.

Bain & Company’s comprehensive benefits and wellness program helps employees achieve personal independence, protection, and stability in the areas most important to you and your family.

Bain pays 100% individual employee premiums for medical, dental and vision programs, offering one of the most comprehensive medical plans for employees without impacting your paycheck.

Generous paid time off, including parental leave, sick leave and paid holidays.

Fully vested 401(k) company contribution, paid life and long‑term disability insurance.