Senior Engineering Manager

Harnham; Tempe (AZ); Remote; USD 180,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work initially

Hybrid flexibility in Phoenix area

Equity opportunity

Job summary

Harnham in Tempe/Phoenix, AZ is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to lead the first senior software engineering team at an early-stage technology company. You will shape architecture, set engineering standards, and build a high-performing, scalable platform for real-time, automated operations.

This hands-on, player-coach role requires recruiting and mentoring engineers, partnering with product and operations, and guiding production readiness from prototype to production.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on software engineering capability.
• Expertise in system architecture and end-to-end platform design.
• Full-stack understanding across UI, services, data, cloud infra, and integrations.
• Commercial experience building and operating real-time applications.
• Reliability, monitoring, debugging, uptime management, incident response.

Responsibilities

• Architect and evolve the software platform across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and integrations.
• Write, review, test, and deploy production code.
• Evaluate existing systems and determine what should be retained, improved, or rebuilt.
• Establish engineering best practices, development workflows, and technical standards.
• Own platform reliability, monitoring, security, incident response, and operational excellence.
• Partner with product, operations, and end users to translate requirements into solutions.
• Drive technical decision-making across architecture, tooling, and build-versus-buy considerations.
• Recruit and mentor engineers while building a scalable engineering organisation.
• Collaborate with AI and automation specialists to integrate modern development approaches and intelligent capabilities.
• Lead the transition from early-stage product development to a robust production environment.

Job description

Senior Engineering Manager (Director of Engineering Title)

Location: Tempe/Phoenix, AZ (Remote initially with future hybrid flexibility)

Compensation: Up to $210,000 base salary + significant equity

This is a rare opportunity to join an early-stage technology company as its first senior software engineering leader. You will have the autonomy to shape architecture, define engineering standards, build a high-performing team, and influence the future direction of a platform that operates at the intersection of software, automation, real-time systems, and physical-world operations.

The Company

They are an innovative technology business developing software that supports remote operations, automation, and real-time decision-making in complex environments. Their platform combines live data, video, operational workflows, and intelligent automation to solve challenging real-world problems.

With a strong product vision and ambitious growth plans, they are investing heavily in engineering and looking for a technical leader who can turn that vision into a scalable, secure, and reliable platform. The environment is collaborative, mission-driven, and focused on delivering meaningful impact through technology.

The Role

As Director of Engineering, you will act as a hands-on technical leader and strategic people manager. This is a player-coach position suited to someone who enjoys building software while also developing teams and engineering culture.

Key responsibilities include:

• Architect and evolve the software platform across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and integrations
• Write, review, test, and deploy production code
• Evaluate existing systems and determine what should be retained, improved, or rebuilt
• Establish engineering best practices, development workflows, and technical standards
• Own platform reliability, monitoring, security, incident response, and operational excellence
• Partner closely with product, operations, and end users to translate requirements into solutions
• Drive technical decision-making across architecture, tooling, and build-versus-buy considerations
• Recruit and mentor engineers while building a scalable engineering organisation
• Collaborate with AI and automation specialists to integrate modern development approaches and intelligent capabilities
• Lead the transition from early-stage product development to a robust production environment

Your Skills & Experience

• Strong hands-on software engineering capability and current coding experience
• Expertise in system architecture and end-to-end platform design
• Full-stack technical understanding across user interfaces, services, data, cloud infrastructure, and integrations
• Commercial experience building and operating real-time applications
• Strong knowledge of reliability, monitoring, debugging, uptime management, and incident response
• Experience taking new products from concept to production
• Ability to establish engineering processes and technical standards from the ground up
• Experience hiring, coaching, and developing engineering talent
• Strong communication skills with the ability to work across technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Comfortable using AI-assisted development tools while maintaining high engineering quality standards
• Experience working in fast-paced, high-growth environments where ambiguity and ownership are key

Highly desirable experience includes autonomous systems, robotics, aerospace, connected devices, geospatial platforms, security technology, live video systems, gaming, simulation environments, AI-enabled products, or operationally critical software.

What They Offer

• Remote working initially with future hybrid flexibility in the Phoenix area
• Opportunity to define technology strategy, architecture, and engineering culture
• Direct influence on product direction and business growth
• Exposure to real-time systems, automation, AI, cloud technologies, video, and hardware integrations
• Clear opportunity to build and lead the engineering function as the company scales
• Collaborative leadership team and high degree of autonomy