Software Engineering Manager, Public Sector

Scale AI; Washington, St. Louis, New York, San Francisco (District of Columbia, MO, NY, CA); Hybrid; USD 194,400 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision coverage

Retirement benefits

Learning and development stipend

Generous PTO

Commuter stipend

Job summary

Scale AI is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Public Sector to lead a team of engineers delivering backend systems, distributed platforms, and ML tooling for federal customers. You will split time between technical planning and people management while ensuring security and performance requirements are met, and you will commute to the office three times per week.

You will recruit, mentor, and guide a 6–8 engineer team, collaborate cross‑functionally with product, security, and customer

Qualifications

• 5+ years of engineering experience post‑graduation.
• 2+ years in engineering management or leading a team.
• Experience scaling products at hyper‑growth startups.
• Excitement to work with AI technologies for public sector.
• Strong track record as an individual contributor and mentor.

Responsibilities

• Recruit a high‑performing engineering team.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship for engineers on Generative AI projects.
• Define, design, and execute strategic roadmaps with cross‑functional teams.
• Deliver scalable backend systems for Federal customers and ML infrastructure.
• Collaborate with product, security, and customer teams to meet compliance and performance needs.
• Engage with customers to understand requirements and deliver solutions.

Skills

5+ years engineering experience

2+ years engineering management

AI technologies enthusiasm

Strong communication

Mentoring teams

Experience scaling products

Job description

Software Engineering Manager, Public Sector

San Francisco, CA; St. Louis, MO; New York, NY; Washington, DC

Scale AI’s Public Sector business is growing quickly as government agencies adopt AI to support critical national security, defense, and public sector missions. We’re looking for a hands‑on Engineering Manager to lead a team of software engineers building core products and infrastructure for these customers.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in technical environments, enjoys managing teams while staying close to the code, and wants to work on meaningful problems that impact real‑world operations across the U.S. government. You’ll play a critical role in delivering backend systems, distributed platforms, and ML tooling used by our public sector partners—all while helping your team grow and execute.

You’ll split your time between technical planning and execution (50%) and people management and team development (50%), leading a team of 6–8 engineers. You’ll work cross‑functionally with product, security, and customer‑facing teams to ensure our engineering efforts meet complex federal compliance, security, and performance needs.

Must be able to commute to office three times per week

You will:

• Recruit a high‑performing engineering team.
• Drive engineering productivity. Provide guidance, mentorship, and technical leadership to a team of engineers working on Generative AI projects.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to define, design, and execute strategic roadmap.
• Navigate and deliver outcomes while navigating through complex public sector compliance requirements and frameworks.
• Design and implement scalable backend systems for Federal customers, leveraging Scale's modern and cloud‑native AI infrastructure.
• Develop distributed systems, data‑intensive applications, and machine learning infrastructure to enable real impact for mission owners.
• Build robust and reliable backend systems that can serve as standalone products, empowering customers to accelerate their own AI ambitions.
• Participate actively in customer engagements, working closely with stakeholders to understand requirements and deliver innovative solutions.
• Contribute to the platform roadmap and product strategy for Scale AI's Federal business, playing a key role in shaping the future direction of our offerings.
• Have or ability to obtain a TS/SCI clearance.

Ideally you’d have:

• 5+ years of full‑time engineering experience, post‑graduation.
• 2+ years of prior engineering management or equivalent experience and has managed an engineering team.
• Experience scaling products at hyper‑growth startups.
• Excitement to work with AI technologies and their applications for the public sector.
• Extremely strong track record as an individual contributor.
• Show a track record of mentoring and leading teams in successful projects.
• Possess excellent communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to translate complex technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders.

Nice to haves:

• TS/SCI Clearance.
• Deep technical knowledge of Software Development, willing to get deep into the weeds to solve problems alongside the team.
• Experience with AI platforms and technologies, including generative models and LLMs.
• Prior experience in government or government‑facing technology roles.
• Experience with cloud‑native technologies, full‑stack development, data engineering, and ML ops infrastructure.

Compensation and benefits

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position. The base salary range for this full‑time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York is: $216,000 - $270,000 USD.

The base salary range for this full‑time position in the location of Washington DC is: $194,400 - $243,000 USD.

The base salary range for this full‑time position in the location of St. Louis is: $162,400 - $203,000 USD.

You will also receive benefits including comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, generous PTO and a commuter stipend.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [e-mail]. We comply with the United States Department of Labor’s Pay Transparency provision.