Engineer Manager (People & Delivery Leader)

Summary 

We’re looking for an Engineering Manager who leads people, delivery, and team health across multiple product development teams. This role is focused on building high-performing teams, creating a culture of continuous improvement, and ensuring predictable delivery of high-quality software. You bring a strong background in technology, even if you haven’t personally been a career software engineer. Your strength is in coaching, organizing, sequencing work, and removing friction—not being the deepest technical expert in the room. 

You will partner closely with Product, a Principal Engineer, and the VP of Engineering to create a smooth, sustainable, AI-enabled development environment. You help teams adopt modern practices, improve cycle time, and shift toward rapid, iterative delivery. You ensure clarity, unblock teams quickly, and turn ambiguity into action. 

Key Responsibilities 

People Leadership & Team Health 

• Coach engineers on ownership, collaboration, communication, and growth. 
• Conduct regular 1:1s focused on development, clarity, and wellbeing. 
• Create a psychologically safe, high-trust culture where engineers thrive. 
• Grow team capability through coaching, structured feedback, and strong engineering practices. 

Delivery & Execution Ownership 

• Own end-to-end delivery for your teams: planning, execution, and ensuring work ships reliably. 
• Build predictable team rhythms (planning, standups, reviews, retros). 
• Ensure the right work is prioritized, scoped realistically, and sequenced effectively. 
• Surface risks early, propose mitigation options, and maintain alignment with Product and VP Engineering. 
• Continuously reduce cycle time and eliminate systemic blockers. 

Partnership With Product 

• Translate product objectives and business goals into clear engineering plans. 
• Maintain strong alignment on priorities, trade-offs, and scope. 
• Ensure engineers understand the why, not just the what. 
• Help Product maintain a healthy backlog and realistic expectations. 

Partnership With Principal Engineers 

• Lean on Principals for deep technical decisions and long-term architectural direction. 
• Ensure teams follow shared architectural patterns, coding practices, and team agreements. 
• Provide delivery and context signals to help Principals make sound technical decisions. 
• Reinforce Principal-led architectural patterns inside each team’s workflows. 

Developer Experience & Team Efficiency 

• Own developer experience within your teams: tooling, process, friction points, and quality of life. 
• Identify and remove systemic blockers — slow CI, unclear processes, brittle testing, etc. 
• Collaborate with Principal Engineers to ensure technical standards and patterns remain clear, adopted, and healthy. 
• Champion continuous learning so teams adopt new engineering patterns and practices as they emerge. 

Light Technical Contribution (Player-Coach) 

• Participate in code reviews to reinforce good engineering practices (language agnostic). 
• Jump in hands-on for small, high-leverage IC contributions when needed to unblock delivery. 
• Validate technical trade-offs at a high level, while deferring deep architectural design to Principals. 

Release & Operational Coordination 

• Ensure definition of done includes release documentation completed by the Release Manager. 
• Partner with Release & Ops to make sure deployments are safe, supportable, and high quality. 
• Support follow-through on incidents with systemic improvements instead of reactive patches. 

Leadership & Communication 

• Provide clear, proactive updates to VP Engineering and Product. 
• Advocate for your teams and ensure engineers have the context they need. 
• Communicate risks and technical health issues early and directly. 
• Represent engineering in cross-functional discussions with confidence and clarity. 

Requirements 

Background & Experience 

Required 

• Strong background in technology, software delivery, or engineering-adjacent fields. 
• Experience leading or coordinating engineering work (team lead, TPM, EM, Sr Engineer, etc.). 
• Ability to understand system designs, ask the right technical questions, and partner effectively with Principal Engineers. 
• Strong delivery and project leadership experience. 

Preferred 

• Prior experience as a software engineer (any language). 
• Familiarity with Ruby on Rails or modern web application architecture. 
• Experience working with AWS or similar cloud platforms. 

Success Measures (12-Month View) 

The Engineering Manager is successful if: 

Predictable Delivery 

• Commitments are met with transparency and few surprises. 
• Roadmap stays healthy and achievable. 

Quality & Reliability 

• Incidents and regressions decline. 
• Fixes address systemic causes, not just symptoms. 

Developer Experience 

• Cycle time and lead time improve. 
• Engineers report reduced friction in daily work. 
• Teams adopt shared engineering patterns consistently. 

People & Growth 

• Engineers show clear progression and increasing autonomy. 
• Team health and engagement remain strong. 
• Regrettable attrition is low. 

Cross-Functional Trust 

• Product, Release, and Principal Engineers see the EM as a reliable, proactive operator who brings clarity, consistency, and accountability. 

⭐ Collaboration & RACI 

Roadmap & Priorities 

• Product: Responsible 
• Engineering Manager: Accountable 
• Principal Engineer: Consulted 
• VP Engineering: Informed 

Architecture & Technical Direction 

• Principal Engineer: Responsible & Accountable 
• Engineering Manager: Consulted 
• VP Engineering: Consulted / Informed 

Delivery & Execution 

• Engineering Manager: Responsible & Accountable 
• Engineers: Responsible 
• Product, Principal Engineer: Consulted 

Release Documentation 

• Release Manager: Responsible & Accountable 
• Engineering Manager: Accountable (ensures completion) 
• Engineers, Product, Principal Engineer: Consulted 

Developer Experience 

• Engineering Manager: Responsible & Accountable 
• Principal Engineer, Engineers: Consulted 
• VP Engineering: Informed 

Perks, Benefits & Culture You’ll Love:

Wellness, Your Way
From an on-site gym and yoga room to flexible work options (select roles), we believe your well-being fuels your brilliance.

Unplug for the Holidays
A fully paid holiday week off at Christmas—because rest isn’t a luxury, it’s essential.

Culture That Celebrates You
Champion spotlights, legendary milestone awards at 10, 15, and 20 years, and community service hours that let you give back with heart.

Open, Honest & Human
Quarterly Town Halls keep our communication transparent—and real.

Vibes & Good Times
Think team cookouts, fun treats, and social events that actually make you want to show up.

Solid Benefits, Real Support

At StrongMind, we offer a competitive total compensation package, informed by market data and aligned with our size, stage, industry, and location.  Medical, dental, vision, Unlimited PTO, and voluntary benefits—we take care of the people who make the magic happen.

Your Voice Matters
We’re constantly evolving, and that includes how we support, celebrate, and invest in our people.

Additional Info:

We welcome all qualified candidates eligible to work in the United States.  At this time, we are unable to sponsor visas.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and provide consideration to all applicants regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender, national origin, age, veteran status, marital status, or disability protected by law.

Environmental Conditions: Collaborative open environment, office environment