Founding Engineering Manager

We are seeking a Founding Engineering Manager to lead and expand our remote-first engineering team, which includes Core Backend, Frontend, and Forward Deployed Engineers. This role is a "player-coach" position for a technically skilled, hands-on leader.

This is not solely a management role focused on processes. We expect you to have a senior-level engineering background and lead by example. The role offers the opportunity to engage in technical work to unblock the team, automate processes, and earn their technical respect.

Your main mission is to enhance the team's performance. You will be responsible for their well-being, delivery, and career growth. You will act as the "glue" connecting our Core, Frontend, and Forward Deployed functions, ensuring cohesive operation. Given our global team and customer base, occasional schedule flexibility is required.

You will report directly to the CTO, taking full ownership of the day-to-day execution of the engineering roadmap. You will play a key role in defining and refining that roadmap, as well as forecasting and planning future resource needs to achieve our goals.

Key Responsibilities:
- Be a Player-Coach: Lead by example, getting hands-on with technical work to unblock your team and guide high-level discussions.
- Own the team’s health and delivery: Run a lightweight, organized, and pragmatic async-first process to ensure high-quality code is shipped at a rapid, predictable pace while managing career growth.
- Be a Forward-Planner & Hiring Manager: Partner with the CTO to define the roadmap and resource needs, serving as the primary owner for attracting and closing exceptional talent.
- Be a "Distraction Shield": Protect your team’s focus by absorbing external chaos and translating it into clear, calm, actionable priorities.
- Be the "Glue": Ensure the FDE’s feedback, the Frontend’s needs, and the Core team’s work are all perfectly aligned.
- Champion productivity: Drive the team’s adoption of AI and automation to multiply their throughput.

Success Metrics:
- In the first month, get up to speed on our technical stack and product, meet with each engineer to understand their strengths and working styles, and run your first 2 iterations end to end.
- Within the first 3 months, ship your first big feature alongside the team, take full ownership of day-to-day engineering execution and delivery, and successfully hire and onboard 2 exceptional team members.
- Within the first 6 months, be the "glue" connecting Core, Frontend, and Forward Deployed functions, partner with founders and product on strategic roadmap planning, and have hired and onboarded 5 exceptional team members across engineering, FDE, frontend, and UX functions.

Why You’ll Love Working With Us:
- Foundational Impact: Be one of the first managers, directly shaping the product, technology, and culture of an early-stage company.
- Mission-Driven Work: Contribute directly to our mission of helping companies build and ship trusted software faster.
- Cutting-Edge Technology: Work with modern technologies like Go, Kubernetes, cloud-native tools, and explore applications of AI.
- Remote-First: We are a distributed team, offering flexibility to work from anywhere.
- Competitive Salary, Equity, and Benefits: We offer a competitive compensation package, including meaningful equity.