Manager, Engineering - Brands Team

iSpot; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 169,000 - 219,000; Full time

Job summary

iSpot in Bellevue, WA is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the Brands Team responsible for ingesting, processing, and organizing massive media data streams. You will own end-to-end data lifecycle, from ingestion to content catalog, with accountability for software quality, frontend, and the ad catalog.

You will translate platform strategy into well-scoped sprints, coach engineers, and Champion AI-assisted development.

Qualifications

• Proven track record managing high-performing engineering teams delivering production-grade, distributed software at scale.
• Deep domain expertise in big data architectures — high-throughput ingestion, media metadata systems, or comparable large-scale data platforms.
• Experience embedding AI/ML into production workflows for automated tagging, identification, or content classification.
• Architectural fluency across backend data systems and the frontend technologies used to build internal tools.
• Experience defining and enforcing quality gates (automated testing frameworks, release criteria) and driving RCA-based operational improvement.
• Strong sprint-planning discipline that balances feature velocity with infrastructure stability and data integrity.
• Experience building structured, multi-dimensional growth plans for engineers and reducing single-person coverage risk across a team.
• Excellent cross-functional communication with Product, Data Science, and Operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy for upgrading and refactoring ingestion and cataloging systems to improve throughput, latency, and reduce debt.
• Embed ML/AI into content cataloging to automate identification, metadata extraction, and fingerprinting at scale.
• Ensure accuracy and reliability of large ad datasets, collaborating to evolve platform capabilities for complex attribution modeling.
• Own onboarding and maintenance of large third-party data sources (ACR, set-top-box, streaming, panel signals).
• Own architecture and usability of internal-facing tools and dashboards for internal power users.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Big data architectures

AI/ML in production

Backend/frontend architecture

Quality gates & testing

Sprint planning

Cross-functional communication

Mentoring engineers

Job description

Immigration / Work Authorization Notice: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States. iSpot is not able to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa for this position at this time.

iSpot competes for the best talent. Our compensation packages consist of salary and equity in one of Seattle’s hottest start-ups, as well as other standard benefits. Most importantly, we provide a really interesting working experience, and the chance to contribute to the success of something great.

What You’ll Be Part Of:

We are seeking an Engineering Manager to lead our high-scale Brands Team — the mission-critical systems that ingest, process, and organize massive streams of media data. You will own the end-to-end data lifecycle, from ingestion of raw broadcast/digital signals to the management of a robust Content Catalog, with explicit accountability for software quality, the frontend, and the ad catalog. Your objective is to ensure our platform provides a highly accurate, performant, "source-of-truth" foundation for all downstream measurement and attribution products. Delivering committed projects on the timelines we commit to is the single most important measure of success in this role.

Responsibilities:

Platform & Data

• Lead the strategy for upgrading and refactoring ingestion and cataloging systems to improve throughput, reduce latency, and pay down technical debt.
• Embed machine learning and AI into the content cataloging workflow to automate creative identification, metadata extraction, and fingerprinting at scale.
• Ensure the accuracy and reliability of massive ad datasets, partnering cross-functionally to evolve platform capabilities in support of complex attribution modeling.
• Own onboarding and maintenance of large third-party data sources (ACR, set-top-box, streaming, panel signals), including migration and cutover work when providers change.
• Own the architecture and usability of internal-facing tools and dashboards for internal power users, even though the team's focus is backend-heavy.

Lifecycle & Quality

• Own the pipeline from design through release and post-release stability, including active monitoring to catch anything that diverges from expectation.
• Define and enforce quality standards as the final authority on release readiness, tracked via defect density, test coverage, and production uptime. Ensure unit, integration, and regression testing are natively embedded in CI/CD.
• Lead root-cause analysis on production incidents and coach the team in doing their own. Document risks as they're identified, maintain contingency plans, and flag slippage the moment it becomes visible.
• Ensure 24/7 availability of the ad catalog and ingestion engines, and own outage resolution whenever your team is involved.

Team & Delivery

• Translate platform strategy into well-scoped sprints, balancing new feature delivery against maintenance of "always-on" systems. Own the team's daily operating cadence — standup, backlog triage, and continuous sprint tracking.
• When something ambiguous or hard lands on the team, take a position and drive it rather than escalating for direction. Bring decisions upward with a recommendation attached.
• Coach and mentor engineers, set written development goals per direct report (behavioral, leadership, execution, technical), and identify areas of the system held by only one person — closing those gaps through deliberate work assignment and pairing.
• Find leaders within the team and lean on them; distributing leadership builds resilience and growth paths for others.
• Champion AI-assisted development practices across the team, holding the same quality and review bar that applies to all shipped code.
• Own the cost of development work within your team's scope, and monitor contribution balance sprint over sprint, intervening early when imbalance shows up.
• Surface technology and operational improvements with a scope attached, not just an unscoped suggestion.

Qualifications and Education Requirements:

• Proven track record managing high-performing engineering teams delivering production-grade, distributed software at scale, with a history of hitting committed delivery timelines.
• Deep domain expertise in big data architectures — high-throughput ingestion, media metadata systems, or comparable large-scale data platforms.
• Experience embedding AI/ML into production workflows for automated tagging, identification, or content classification.
• Architectural fluency across both backend data systems and the frontend technologies used to build internal tools.
• Experience defining and enforcing quality gates (automated testing frameworks, release criteria) and driving RCA-based operational improvement.
• Strong sprint-planning discipline that balances feature velocity with infrastructure stability and data integrity.
• Experience building structured, multi-dimensional growth plans for engineers and reducing single-person coverage risk across a team.
• Excellent cross-functional communication with Product, Data Science, and Operations.

Preferred Skills:

• Ad tech, media measurement, or audience measurement platform experience
• Familiarity with publisher-side or sell-side measurement — audience delivery, reach and frequency, cross-platform de-duplication
• Exposure to ACR, set-top-box, panel, or streaming census data sources
• Experience managing engineering work tied to enterprise partner SLAs and contractual delivery dates

Experience managing engineering work tied to enterprise partner SLAs and contractual delivery dates

Target cash compensation range: $168,529 – $219,091 USD Annually

We are committed to providing competitive, market-informed compensation. The cash compensation above includes base salary, variable commission for employees in eligible roles, and annual bonus targets for eligible roles. In addition to cash compensation, all full time iSpotters are eligible to participate in iSpot’s equity plan to receive stock options. Non-exempt roles will also be eligible for (pre-approved) overtime pay. Individual compensation packages are influenced by different factors unique to each candidate, including their skills, experience, qualifications and other job-related reasons.

For more information on total rewards package, go HERE.

Hybrid & Flexible Workplace Policy

iSpot supports a hybrid and flexible workplace. Depending on location and work responsibilities, employees may be designated as full-time or part-time office-based or a fully remote employee. A hybrid work schedule indicates that you work in the office some days and work from home other days. The best hybrid workplaces allow for flexibility while also encouraging consistency.

Those local or living in surrounding areas to one of our offices (Bellevue, WA or New York, NY) will work a hybrid schedule, coming into their local office 1-3 days a week. While those in a role, not office-based and located further away from our offices, will work a fully remote schedule. If you have questions regarding exact details of our hybrid & flexible workplace policy, please let your recruiter know and they will discuss with you further.

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