Sr. Engineering Manager - Incentive Compensation Ops.

CaptivateIQ, Inc.; United States Virgin Islands; Remote; USD 186,000 - 249,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare coverage

Flexible time off

Professional development stipends

Annual performance bonuses

401(k) retirement (US only)

Apple hardware for work

Active ERGs

Job summary

CaptivateIQ is seeking an experienced engineering leader to drive the Incentive Compensation Operations surface into an AI-native future. You will guide the engineering team responsible for payouts, reporting, inquiries, and statements used by hundreds of organizations and thousands of users.

You will partner with Product, Design, Platform Engineering, and Customer Success to shape long-term strategy, ensure reliability at scale, and champion a culture of growth and ownership in a fast-paced

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience managing software engineers in a remote-first B2B SaaS or startup.
• 8+ years of full-time software development in product engineering or full-stack roles.
• Proven track record hiring and developing talent.
• Strong user focus with delivering high-quality features across the product lifecycle.
• Demonstrated depth in architecture and guiding senior engineers.
• Genuine enthusiasm for AI-native product development and AI-driven workflows.
• Excellent interpersonal and written communication in a remote setting.

Responsibilities

• Hire, inspire, and grow software engineers across levels, building leadership.
• Partner with product, design, CS, support, sales to set vision and roadmaps.
• Own delivery and outcomes of your team’s portfolio, ensuring performance and reliability at scale.
• Provide architectural guidance while avoiding hands-on coding for the principal scope.
• Drive AI-native transformation of incentive operations and automate workflows.
• Foster efficient engineering processes and cross-functional collaboration.
• Model CaptivateIQ values and contribute to the engineering leadership team.

Skills

People leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Communication

Software architecture

AI-native product mindset

Ownership & accountability

Job description

CaptivateIQ is transforming the way companies plan, manage, and optimize sales performance. We started by revolutionizing incentive compensation management, and now we're expanding our platform to solve broader sales planning challenges. Recognized by industry analysts like Forrester, Gartner and G2 and backed by top-tier investors, including Sequoia, ICONIQ, Accel, and Sapphire Ventures. We empower high-growth companies like Netflix, Figma, and Stripe with the flexibility and insights needed to drive revenue performance.

About This Role

You'll lead engineering for one of Captivate's most heavily used surfaces — Incentive Compensation Operations — and help redefine it as AI-native from the ground up.

Our Incentive Compensation Operations team makes sure administrators, participants, and stakeholders can understand and engage with their compensation plans on Captivate. We own the core day-to-day experience — payouts, reporting, inquiries, statements, and more — used by hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of people.

In this role, you'll lead the engineering team building these experiences, owning their delivery and the outcomes they drive for our customers and the business. You'll partner closely with Product, Design, Platform Engineering, other product teams, Customer Success, Support, and Sales.

A major focus of this role is leading the team to reenvision incentive compensation operations as AI-native — building agents that eliminate manual work, cut the time-to-resolution on plan and payout questions, and free admins from repetitive operational tasks to focus on higher-value work.

Remote: United States or Canada

Responsibilities

• Hire, inspire, and grow software engineers at every level — from junior to staff — creating a culture of growth that keeps strong engineers doing their best work and builds the next layer of engineering leadership.
• Partner with Product, Design, Customer Success, Support, Sales, and other cross-functional teams to set a clear vision, prioritize roadmaps, and shape a long-term strategy that creates value for customers and aligns with the broader organization.
• Own delivery, operational excellence, and outcomes of your team's portfolio, ensuring the critical, user-facing systems you're responsible for remain performant, reliable, and secure at scale.
• Provide technical leadership by setting architectural guardrails and guiding major technical decisions, without being a hands-on contributor.
• Drive the reimagining of incentive compensation operations as AI-native, championing the shift from manual workflows to agent-driven ones.
• Manage processes to help engineers work efficiently, effectively, and interface well with the rest of the company.
• Lead by example in demonstrating and upholding Captivate's core values.
• Contribute to the broader engineering leadership team, partnering with peer EMs on org-wide initiatives beyond your own team.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience managing software engineers, preferably in a remote-first B2B SaaS or startup environment.
• 8+ years of full time software development experience, preferably in product engineering or full stack roles.
• A demonstrated track record of hiring and developing talent, with real investment in helping engineers grow their careers.
• Strong user-focus with a track record of delivering high quality, impactful features across the full product lifecycle.
• Demonstrated technical depth — comfortable diving into complex architectural problems and guiding senior engineers toward sound decisions
• Genuine enthusiasm for AI-native product development, with experience — or a strong point of view — on using AI and agents to eliminate manual work and transform how users interact with complex systems.
• Exceptional interpersonal and written communication skills, with a proven ability to build trust with cross-functional partners in a remote-first environment.
• High ownership and a growth mindset — collaborative, humble, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Healthcare: 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision for all FTEs, with roughly 75% coverage for dependents
• Flexible Time Off: Flexible vacation days plus quarterly mental health days to ensure you have the space to recharge
• Annual Stipends: Dedicated funds for your professional development and caretaking needs
• Work Anniversary Bonuses: Annual bonuses to celebrate your milestones and contributions to the CaptivateIQ team that grow as your tenure does
• Retirement Savings (US-Only): A 401(k) plan to help you invest in and secure your future
• Premium Tools: The latest Apple hardware to empower you to do your best work
• Inclusive Community: Active Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that celebrate shared identities and support our DEI goals by fostering an environment where diverse talent thrives

Notice to Prospective Candidates

• Only emails from @captivateiq.com should be trusted
• We are aware of active recruitment scams using the CaptivateIQ name, in which individuals pose as our recruiters and post fake remote job openings and make fake job offers on the Internet. Please note, we will never do the following:
• Attempt to correspond with a candidate using a free web-based account, such as an email address that ends in @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc.
• Make an offer of employment without conducting multiple rounds of interviews face-to-face using secure video-conferencing technology
• Ask candidates to cash checks to buy equipment on behalf of CaptivateIQ
• Ask candidates to make a payment in order to be considered for a position
• Make early requests for candidates' personal information such as date of birth, passport details, credit card numbers, bank details and social security number, etc
• Please note that we'll only ask for more sensitive personal information in connection with background checks after an offer is made
• Participate in an on-call rotation to provide after-hours support, ensuring timely resolution of critical issues and maintaining system uptime

CaptivateIQ participates in E-Verify, web-based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

The OTE range in USD represents the minimum and maximum for this position across North America. For candidates in Toronto, Canada the range is $186,102 - $248,533. The OTE offered for this position will depend on numerous factors, including individual proficiency, anticipated performance, and the location of the selected candidate. Our OTE is just one component of CaptivateIQ's competitive total rewards package.