Senior Engineering Manager, Customer Runtimes

Pantheon Systems, Inc; United States; On-site; USD 196,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity plan

Flexible time off

Medical insurance

Parental leave

In-office SF & Chicago

LinkedIn Learning access

Team events

Job summary

Pantheon Systems, Inc is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager for Customer Runtimes to lead and grow a large software engineering team focused on scalable infrastructure for Drupal, Wordpress, and Next.js sites.

You will guide architecture discussions, manage delivery of critical projects, and collaborate with cross-functional partners to align with Pantheon's engineering strategy. This remote-friendly role offers a competitive US-based salary and equity.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software development experience with Staff/Principal level expertise.
• 3+ years of direct people management experience with large global teams.
• Track record delivering multiple projects with customers/external communities.
• Experience driving cloud/infrastructure modernization across large fleets.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor the engineering team through organizational changes and ensure productivity and morale.
• Manage multiple critical projects with shifting priorities and ensure high-quality delivery.
• Define strategy and vision aligned with organizational objectives and advocate for team needs.
• Provide technical guidance in architecture discussions and code reviews to maintain high standards.
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure alignment on goals and roadmaps.
• Communicate clearly, both verbally and in writing, complex technical concepts to varied audiences.
• Translate high-level goals into actionable tasks with autonomy over allocation of work.

Skills

Leadership

People management

Cloud architecture

Kubernetes

Python / Go

Agile / Scrum

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes (K8s)

GKE / EKS

Job description

About Pantheon

Pantheon brings together exceptional builders who take ownership, drive meaningful impact, and shape what's next for the web. We power more than 300,000 websites globally for organizations including Google, Princeton, Salesloft, Clorox, and the United Nations. Every day, thousands of developers and marketers use our WebOps platform to build, iterate, and scale WordPress, Drupal, and Next.js sites that reach billions of people worldwide. As an employer, we operate with the same philosophy that drives our product: foundation and freedom. Pantheon is a vibrant, remote-forward team of experts who care deeply about their craft and results. Here, you take ownership of work that matters, contribute alongside exceptional people, and see the impact you create.

The Role

As the Senior Engineering Manager for Customer Runtimes, you will lead and manage a sizable team of talented software engineers focused on building the scaled infrastructure services that run the high-impact Drupal, Wordpress, and Next.js sites of our customers. The team is driving an exciting transformation of our most core customer infrastructure to expand our capabilities, leverage best of breed open source technologies, and significantly reduce toil. This critical role is responsible for the health and progress of our largest infrastructure footprint.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and Mentor: Guide the team through organizational changes, challenges, and uncertainties, maintaining productivity and morale. Drive the team's success with hands‑on coaching, guidance, and troubleshooting, as you are passionate about mentoring and developing engineering talent.
• Execution and Delivery: Manage multiple critical projects with shifting priorities and ensure the team adapts quickly to evolving processes to deliver high‑quality work, while considering potential oncall and operational burden.
• Strategy and Vision: Understand the organization’s objectives and direction, aligning the team’s priorities accordingly. You will advocate for changes that benefit the team and the broader organization.
• Technical Guidance: Lead architecture discussions, review critical code, provide constructive feedback, and contribute to technical discussions to maintain a high bar for technical excellence.
• Collaboration: Craft team and organizational goals, working with immediate team members and cross‑functional stakeholders (10‑20 individuals) to ensure alignment.
• Communication: Clear, confident communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts effectively both verbally and written.
• Direction: Provide clear direction to your team, translating high‑level goals into actionable tasks, providing feedback, and ensuring everyone is aligned. You will have autonomy within your team's scope to decide how to allocate work and solve problems while aligning with the overall engineering strategy.

What You’ll Bring to the Table

Experience

• 12+ years of experience in software development, with a solid foundation as a Staff or Principal engineer demonstrating deep technical expertise.
• 3+ years of direct people management experience, including large global teams, mentoring Staff engineers, and balancing multiple subteams.
• Track record of driving performance management and cultivating a high‑performance engineering culture, setting clear expectations, delivering candid feedback, and developing engineers at all levels through structured growth and calibration processes.
• Proven ability to deliver multiple simultaneous projects successfully, working directly with customers and external communities.
• Leading cloud and infrastructure modernization initiatives that span large critical fleets.
• AI‑native instincts: fluency with AI coding assistants and a point of view on how they change how teams work.
• Strong practitioner of Agile, Scrum, or other structured development methodologies.

Technical Acumen

• Direct experience designing platforms running cloud‑based applications at broad scale.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, scalable cloud architectures and cloud technologies, including orchestration services (e.g. Kubernetes/K8S, GCP GKE, AWS ECS/EKS), application services (e.g. Google Cloud Run, AWS Lambda), relational databases (e.g. MySQL, MariaDB, Cloud SQL), and application caches (e.g. Redis, Memcached).
• Production experience running and automating large Linux‑based fleets using both Infrastructure‑as‑Code tools like Terraform and dynamic provisioning systems.
• Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals, including data structures and algorithms.
• Working knowledge of Python, Golang, or other modern programming languages.

What We Offer

We have all the usual perks and benefits but what we can really offer you is a fantastic work environment powered by an amazing team.

• Industry competitive compensation and equity plan
• Flexible time off, sick days, and 13 paid holidays
• Comprehensive medical insurance including Health, Dental and Vision
• Paid parental leave (plus fertility, adoption and other family planning benefits)
• In‑office workspace (San Francisco & Chicago)
• Monthly allowance for wellness, reading and access to LinkedIn Learning for continued development
• Events and activities both team‑based and company wide that inspire, educate and cultivate

Pantheon is an equal opportunity employer and we welcome applications from all backgrounds regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, or any other classification protected by law. Pantheon complies with federal and local disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation due to a disability for any part of the interview process, please contact [e-mail]. Pursuant to local and federal regulations, Pantheon will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.

After an offer is made and accepted, E‑verify will be utilized to establish your identity and employment eligibility as required by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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The US base salary range for this position in the United States is $195,840 - $244,800 USD per year. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. At Pantheon, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

Visa Sponsorship is not available at this time.