Senior Engineering Manager, Platform

Athena; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Athena is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager, Platform to lead the team responsible for Athena's business‑critical platform systems across sales, partnerships, retention, AI operations, billing, and workflow automation.

You will define technical direction, develop engineers and managers, and partner with Product, Operations, Data, Finance, Legal, Sales, and Athena AI to balance near‑term needs with long‑term architecture and reliability.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, incl. 4+ years leading engineering teams.
• Experience guiding architecture in platform or enterprise systems.
• Proven track record delivering cross-functional programs from definition to launch.
• Strong people management and coaching skills.
• Ability to align engineering decisions with business outcomes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Comfort in fast-moving, high-expectation environments.
• Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the Platform Engineering team: coach and develop engineers and managers.
• Set platform strategy and technical direction for shared business platforms.
• Drive execution across critical initiatives with clear milestones.
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Operations, Sales, Finance, Legal, Data, and AI.
• Build reusable systems for workflow orchestration, case management, reporting, and integrations.
• Improve engineering excellence through design reviews, testing, release practices, monitoring.
• Own operational reliability with better alerting and incident handling.
• Measure impact by linking work to sales, retention, and reliability metrics.
• Communicate progress and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership experience

Technical depth

Platform experience

People management

Execution

Product and business judgment

Operational excellence

Communication

Adaptability

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

HubSpot

Stripe

Google Workspace

DocuSign

SSO

Job description

About Athena

Athena (athena.com) pairs world-class leaders with elite executive assistants. It’s where some of the most powerful partnerships in the world get built.

Our clients are founders, executives, and leaders whose ambition exceeds their time. Athena is the first company to build a human-in-the-loop executive support system, combining trained Executive Assistants with market-leading AI to help them stay organized, follow through on priorities, and operate at their highest level.

Athena is one of the largest companies in this category, with 3,000+ clients and over $100M in annual run rate. Our clients include Uber, Shopify, and Goldman Sachs.

We are fully global, working across time zones and cultures. Joining Athena means creating something that fundamentally changes how people live and work and brings extraordinary achievement within reach.

Who We’re Looking For

We’re looking for people who take their work seriously and want to get better at it.

You should be thoughtful in how you approach problems, willing to take ownership, and able to follow through without constant direction. You ask questions when something doesn’t make sense, and you care about getting the details right.

You should be comfortable working with people who have high expectations and limited time. That means being clear, responsive, and reliable.

We’re also looking for people who are interested in how this role is changing. The way work gets done is in flux between people, systems, and AI. We want people who are curious about that and willing to adapt as technology evolves.

You don’t need to know everything on day one, but you should be able to learn quickly and apply what you learn.

Role Overview

The Senior Engineering Manager, Platform will lead the team responsible for Athena's business-critical platform systems across sales, partnership operations, retention, Athena AI operations, billing, and internal workflow automation.

This leader will define technical direction, develop engineers and managers, and partner closely with Product, Operations, Data, Finance, Legal, Sales, and Athena AI. The role requires the judgment to balance near‑term business needs with long‑term platform architecture, reliability, and maintainability.

The team is building systems such as the Ops Platform, partnership case management and intervention workflows, AI-assisted document generation, onboarding and offboarding automation, shared identity and SSO, sales enablement tools, billing and referral integrations, and stronger monitoring and operational foundations.

What You Will Do

• Lead and grow the Platform Engineering team: Manage, coach, and develop engineers and engineering managers; set clear expectations for ownership, technical quality, execution, and collaboration.

• Set platform strategy and technical direction: Define the architecture and roadmap for shared business platforms, workflow systems, integrations, APIs, permissions, and automation capabilities.

• Drive execution across critical initiatives: Translate ambiguous business problems into clear technical plans, milestones, ownership, and measurable outcomes.

• Partner cross-functionally: Work closely with Product, Operations, Sales, Finance, Legal, Data, and Athena AI to design practical systems that reflect real workflows, controls, and edge cases.

• Build reusable systems: Reduce one‑off solutions by creating common platform capabilities for workflow orchestration, case management, reporting, role‑based access, document generation, and third‑party integrations.

• Improve engineering excellence: Strengthen design reviews, testing, release practices, monitoring, incident response, documentation, and production readiness.

• Own operational reliability: Improve alerting coverage, reduce production issue resolution time, and ensure the team learns from incidents and recurring support patterns.

• Measure impact: Ensure platform work is connected to business metrics such as sales conversion, workflow completion, intervention success, operational effort, retention, and system reliability.

• Communicate clearly: Provide concise updates on progress, tradeoffs, risks, and decisions to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Leadership experience: 8+ years of software engineering experience, including 4+ years managing engineering teams and at least 2 years leading senior engineers, managers, or multiple workstreams.

• Technical depth: Strong background in backend, full‑stack, platform, infrastructure, or enterprise application engineering, with the ability to guide architecture and make sound technical tradeoffs.

• Platform experience: Experience building and operating business‑critical platforms involving APIs, integrations, workflow orchestration, stateful business processes, permissions, and complex data models.

• People management: Demonstrated success hiring, coaching, developing, and retaining strong engineers and managers, including effective performance and career management.

• Execution: Track record of delivering complex, cross‑functional programs from problem definition through launch, adoption, and iteration.

• Product and business judgment: Ability to understand operational problems, challenge requirements constructively, prioritize based on impact, and connect engineering decisions to business outcomes.

• Operational excellence: Experience improving reliability, observability, incident response, testing, release processes, and engineering productivity.

• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical decisions, risks, and tradeoffs to senior stakeholders.

• Adaptability: Comfort operating in a fast‑moving environment with evolving priorities, incomplete information, and high expectations.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading internal platforms, operations systems, CRM‑adjacent products, case management, billing, or enterprise workflow products.

• Experience with AI‑powered products, LLM integrations, agent systems, or AI‑assisted workflow automation.

• Experience with authentication, authorization, SSO, role‑based access control, and privacy‑sensitive workflows.

• Experience integrating systems such as HubSpot, Stripe, Google Workspace, DocuSign, or similar SaaS platforms.

• Experience with workflow engines, state machines, event‑driven architecture, analytics, and reporting on operational lifecycle data.

• Experience in a high‑growth, globally distributed, or startup environment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

At Athena, we are deeply committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace environment. We provide equal employment opportunities to all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. We strive to create an environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and talents.