Manager of Software Engineering

Fivetran; Michigan; On-site; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Fivetran in Michigan is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Data Application Platform team. You’ll lead engineers responsible for core systems that support data movement, including scheduling and workflow management, application security, and database systems.

You’ll guide team execution and career development, partner with technical leads on architectural strategy, and help the team deliver critical initiatives reliably. This is a hands‑on leadership role.

Qualifications

• Experience leading software engineering teams and shipping production systems.
• Strong collaboration with product managers and stakeholders.
• Solid engineering judgment for architecture and tradeoffs.
• Familiarity with data platforms or data engineering concepts.
• Experience building scalable and secure systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in distributed teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and Grow the Team: Hire, onboard, coach, and develop software engineers, while providing day‑to‑day support and managing performance.
• Own Team Delivery: Plan and prioritize the team’s work, and guide execution to deliver high‑quality software predictably.
• Set Technical Direction: Guide architecture and evolution of scheduling, workflow management, security, and database systems.
• Drive Cross‑Team Alignment: Coordinate shared technical work across platform and engineering groups.
• Shape the Roadmap: Translate customer needs and security requirements into a clear, well‑sequenced roadmap.
• Raise the Engineering Bar: Foster code quality, design docs, and durable engineering practices.

Skills

Leadership

Team growth

Delivery execution

Communication

Architecture

Tools

Postgres

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

GCP

Bazel

BuildKite

Job description

• Fivetran and dbt Labs build data pipelines that power the modern data stack for thousands of companies
• As Engineering Manager for the Data Application Platform team, you’ll lead the engineers responsible for core systems that support data movement, including scheduling and workflow management, application security, and database systems. You’ll guide team execution and career development, partner with technical leads on architectural strategy, and help the team deliver critical initiatives reliably
• This is a hands‑on leadership role. You’ll focus on growing people, building a healthy delivery process, and shaping technical direction, while staying close to the code and architecture so you can make sound technical decisions and earn the trust of a senior engineering team
• Lead and Grow the Team: Hire, onboard, coach, and develop software engineers, while providing day‑to‑day support and managing performance
• Own Team Delivery: Plan and prioritize the team’s work, and guide execution to deliver high‑quality software predictably
• Set Technical Direction: Partner with senior and staff engineers to guide the architecture and evolution of Fivetran’s scheduling, workflow management, application security, and database systems, focusing on reliability, scalability, and security
• Drive Cross‑Team Alignment: Work with leaders across Fivetran’s platform and engineering organization to coordinate shared technical work and ensure core systems integrate effectively
• Shape the Roadmap: Partner with product and engineering stakeholders to translate customer needs, security requirements, and operational feedback into clear priorities and a well‑sequenced roadmap
• Raise the Engineering Bar: Build a culture of design docs, thoughtful code review, and durable engineering, enabling the team to ship quickly while maintaining quality
• Technologies You’ll Use
• Java (JVM, JIT, GC tuning, thread management), JUnit
• Postgres Database
• Claude Code
• Docker and Kubernetes
• AWS, GCP
• Bazel, BuildKite
• Observability tools

Understand Core Platform Domains: Familiarity with areas such as SQL, application security, and platform scalability, along with a strong grasp of clean code, modularity, testability, and backward compatibility

Bring Strong Engineering Judgment: A solid engineering foundation—you’ve built and shipped production software and can engage credibly with senior engineers on architecture and technical tradeoffs

Communicate and Collaborate Effectively: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience working in distributed, asynchronous teams and explaining complex tradeoffs to engineers, product managers, and other stakeholders

Lead Across Teams: Demonstrated experience driving cross-team technical initiatives and influencing engineering direction

Deliver Through Ambiguity: A track record of taking high‑impact problems from definition through execution

Lead Engineering Teams: Experience managing software engineering teams, including hiring, coaching, and performance management, with a track record of shipping production systems

Experience with data platforms or data engineering systems, along with an understanding of application security principles