Software Engineering Manager (Mission Operations)

Sift; United States; On-site; USD 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Free lunch, snacks, & coffee

Top-tier health insurance: Medical, VI

Dental

Job summary

Sift is seeking a hands-on Software Engineering Manager to lead the Mission Ops squad, building systems and tools for monitoring health, alerts, root-cause analysis and issue resolution across fleets and machines.

You will own technical scope for the squad’s UI, APIs and backend while partnering with Product and GTM to shape a roadmap, deliver high-velocity, reliable campaigns, and elevate engineering processes through AI-driven practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, STEM, or a related field.
• 7+ years in software engineering with 2+ years in people management.
• Experience building real-time monitoring, alerting, or incident management systems; familiarity with time-series data and observability tools.
• Experience in Aerospace, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Defense or Energy.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a high-performing engineering team within the Mission Ops squad.
• Define a technical roadmap in collaboration with Product and Go-To-Market teams.
• Ensure delivery of high-velocity, reliable software for launch campaigns and live operations.
• Refine engineering processes, rituals, and AI-driven development practices.
• Contribute hands-on architecture and coding across frontend, APIs and backend services.

Skills

Leadership

Strategy

Execution

Process Excellence

Hands-on Development

Mentorship

AI Initiatives

Observability Tools

Real-time Monitoring

Aerospace Domain Knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, STEM, or a related field

Tools

Go

Rust

Python

React

TypeScript

ECharts

gRPC

PostgreSQL

Protobuf

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

Grafana

Prometheus

Argo CD

Terragrunt

Linux

GitHub Actions

Job description

• We are looking for a hands-on Software Engineering Manager to lead our Mission Ops squad. Mission Ops builds the systems and tools our customers use to monitor the health and operations of their machines and fleets, get alerted when a machine enters a critical state, start root-cause analysis and track issues through resolution
• You will own technical scope for the squad’s user interfaces, APIs and backend systems
• Our software must deliver best-in-class performance, scalability and reliability through the most demanding launch campaigns and live operations
• Many of our customers run space operations on Sift today, using it to develop and operate rockets, satellites, and orbital laboratory and storage hardware in low Earth orbit and geostationary orbit. In addition to aerospace, we serve other key sectors, such as biomedical tech, energy, transportation and construction
• This role will report directly to the VP of Engineering and is ideal for someone who loves working on the cutting edge of science and technology
• Leadership: Manage and build a team of high-performing engineers, provide mentorship and guidance to accelerate their growth
• Strategy: Collaborate with our Product and Go-To-Market teams to define a technical roadmap shaped by how customers monitor and operate their fleets
• Execution: Ensure the team delivers best-in-class results at high velocity while meeting the reliability bar that launch and live operations demand
• Process Excellence: Establish and refine engineering processes, agile rituals and use of AI to accelerate development and expand our core capabilities
• Hands-on Contribution: Actively engage the architecture and codebase across frontend, APIs and backend services, contribute to high-impact features and help resolve critical technical challenges
• You’ll have the opportunity to help evolve and scale our platform because we’re still in the early stages of building the product. Relevant technologies include:
• Web frontend & backend: ECharts, Go, gRPC, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, Radix, React, Redux, and TypeScript
• Data: Arrow, DataFusion, Flink, Parquet, and Rust
• Infrastructure: Argo CD, AWS, Docker, GitHub Actions, Grafana, Kubernetes, Kustomize, Linux, Prometheus, and Terragrunt

Benefits

• Unlimited PTO
• Free lunch, snacks, & coffee
• Top-tier health insurance: Medical, Vision, & Dental

• Leadership: Proven ability to guide teams through ambiguity and a track record of being a “force multiplier” for engineering talent
• Software Development: Strong experience with distributed systems and web applications using Go, Rust, or Python, and with modern frontends built in React and TypeScript
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, STEM, or a related field
• Experience: 7+ years in software engineering with 2+ years in a people management role
• Operations Expertise: Experience building real-time monitoring, alerting, or incident management systems. Familiarity with time-series data and event-driven architectures. Expertise in observability tools such as Grafana or Prometheus
• Experience in Aerospace, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Defense or Energy
• Experience building mission control, ground systems, or fleet operations software
• Experience in leading AI-first teams and AI initiatives
• Experience designing alerting, anomaly detection, or root-cause analysis workflows for operators