Staff Engineering Manager (Distributed Systems)

TL;DR

Staff Engineering Manager (Distributed Systems): Leading and mentoring engineering teams to deliver innovative solutions for core freight movement operations with an accent on distributed systems architecture and technical strategy. Focus on driving technical vision, establishing engineering best practices, and translating railroad business requirements into scalable digital solutions.

Location: Remote within the contiguous 48 states of the United States. Occasional travel to Fort Worth, TX required.

Salary: $225,000 - $300,000

Company

One of the largest U.S. railroads transporting freight across 28 western states and 3 Canadian provinces.

What you will do

• Lead a team of 6-10 engineers, guiding end-to-end technical execution.
• Drive technical vision and strategy across distributed systems.
• Mentor junior and senior engineers to foster a culture of technical excellence.
• Own architecture for large-scale systems and make critical technical decisions.
• Translate railroad business requirements into scalable digital solutions.
• Establish engineering best practices, observability, and technical debt management.

Requirements

• Authorized to work in the US (H-1B transfers, TN, and STEM OPT candidates with 2+ years eligibility are welcome).
• Minimum of 9 years’ experience as a software engineer and/or manager.
• 6+ years of professional engineering and programming experience.
• Experience with distributed systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, API gateways, SQL/NoSQL, serverless).
• Proficiency with CI/CD pipelines, Git workflows, and DevOps practices.
• Experience leading multiple teams and delivering cross-organizational products.

Nice to have

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or a related field.
• Experience with public cloud providers (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Experience with event-driven architectures and serverless runtimes.
• Familiarity with frameworks like React, Angular, Node.js, or Spring Boot.

Culture & Benefits

• Industry-leading 401(k) and Railroad Retirement program.
• Comprehensive health care options (medical, dental, vision, mental health) for employees and dependents.
• HSA with employer contributions and no-cost life and disability insurance.
• Family support including parental leave, adoption, and surrogacy reimbursement.
• Annual bonus through the Incentive Compensation Program.
• Generous leave and time-off policies.