Engineering Manager (AI)

TL;DR

Engineering Manager (AI): Leading a core engineering team to build an AI-native social operating system for commerce with an accent on real-time social data ingestion and AI agent deployment. Focus on balancing technical quality with product strategy and growing high-performing engineering talent.

Location: On-site in Palo Alto, California

Salary: $240K – $320K + Equity + Bonus

Company

An AI-native social operating system for commerce founded by ex-Meta product and engineering leaders.

What you will do

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers, providing regular feedback and driving career development.
• Partner with product and design to define product direction, scope, and sequencing.
• Engage directly in customer calls to build intuition for user problems and product gaps.
• Own the planning and delivery of the team's product area, balancing speed and architectural quality.
• Drive technical excellence, ensuring system reliability, performance, and sound design decisions.
• Establish engineering processes including sprint planning, on-call rotations, and incident response.

Requirements

• Proven experience managing software engineering teams and developing talent.
• Strong product instincts with a focus on customer outcomes rather than just ticket completion.
• Technical background sufficient to lead architecture discussions and make design tradeoffs.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving startup environment with high ambiguity.
• Clear, direct communication style and ability to build trust across functions.
• Must be based in or able to work on-site in Palo Alto.

Nice to have

• Experience in B2B SaaS, social commerce, or marketing technology.
• Background in a product engineering culture where EMs heavily influence product direction.
• Familiarity with React, TypeScript, AWS, Pulumi, Postgres, ClickHouse, or Turbopuffer.
• Experience scaling early-stage startups and defining engineering culture.
• Experience shipping AI-powered product experiences.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive compensation with early-stage equity.
• Comprehensive health, vision, and dental benefits.
• 401(k) matching.
• Free lunch provided in the heart of Palo Alto.
• Exposure to cutting-edge AI tooling in a collaborative and ambitious team environment.