Role : Engineering Manager - SaaS & Voice AI

About the Role :

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead a team of 4 - 6 engineers working across our SaaS product and Voice AI platform.

This is a hands-on working manager role - not a pure people-management position and not a hands-off strategic role. You will be expected to balance three responsibilities :

40% Technical Leadership :

- Architecture reviews, design decisions, engineering quality standards, release discipline, and cross-functional technical strategy.

30% People Leadership :

- 1 : 1s, career development, hiring, performance management, team calibration, coaching, and protecting team focus.

30% Hands-on Engineering :

- Continue contributing to code, particularly on complex technical problems, prototypes, integrations, technical spikes, and team unblocking.

Key Responsibilities :

1. Own Engineering Delivery :

- Lead the engineering team and take ownership of end-to-end delivery.

- Break down initiatives into executable technical tasks and sequence work effectively.

- Remove technical and execution blockers.

- Ensure projects are delivered against committed timelines without compromising engineering quality or team sustainability.

- Proactively communicate risks, dependencies, and changes in priorities.

2. Set the Technical Bar :

- Lead architecture and technical design discussions across the product stack.

- Establish and maintain standards for code quality, testing, observability, reliability, and production readiness.

- Drive effective code review practices and engineering discipline.

- Promote strong development, testing, deployment, and release practices.

- Identify technical risks and scalability challenges before they become production issues.

3. Grow and Develop the Team :

- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 4 - 6 engineers.

- Conduct regular and meaningful 1 : 1 discussions.

- Provide clear, timely, and constructive feedback.

- Support engineers in defining and achieving their career-development goals.

- Manage performance effectively and handle difficult conversations when required.

- Participate in hiring, onboarding, talent assessment, and team development.

- Build a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning.

4. Contribute Technically :

- Remain hands-on and contribute directly to engineering work.

- Design and review architecture across web applications, backend services, and AI/Voice integrations.

- Write code for complex or high-impact problems.

- Develop prototypes and technical spikes where required.

- Support the team in troubleshooting and resolving challenging technical issues.

- Help engineers move forward when they are blocked on critical technical problems.

5. Partner with the CTO :

- Work closely with the CTO to translate product and business priorities into technical plans.

- Provide technical recommendations and highlight key trade-offs early.

- Align engineering priorities with product and business objectives.

- Take ownership of execution and ensure follow-through on technical initiatives.

- Communicate technical challenges, risks, and opportunities effectively to leadership.

6. Build the Engineering Operating Rhythm :

- Establish effective engineering processes that enable the team to scale.

- Drive sprint planning, retrospectives, release planning, and technical reviews.

- Establish an effective release cadence.

- Drive incident reviews and continuous improvement.

- Strengthen engineering practices around production support, on-call, monitoring, and reliability.

- Ensure processes add value rather than becoming unnecessary administrative activities.

Required Skills & Experience :

- 1.5 - 6+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 1 - 2 years in a Lead Engineer, Tech Lead, Engineering Manager, or similar engineering leadership role.

- Strong programming skills with depth in at least two of the following technologies : Node.js, Python, React.

- Comfortable working with and reviewing code in the third technology.

- Strong understanding of software architecture, system design, scalability, performance, and reliability.

- Ability to assess technical designs, identify critical assumptions, and anticipate potential system or scalability issues.

- Demonstrated experience conducting 1 : 1s, providing performance feedback, coaching, and developing engineers.

- Experience owning engineering delivery and working toward committed timelines.

- Ability to communicate technical trade-offs, risks, and delivery challenges clearly and transparently.

- Ability to work across multiple product areas, including SaaS and Voice AI, without requiring deep specialization in both from day one.

- Strong communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and stakeholder-management skills.

Good to Have :

- Working knowledge of Go.

- Experience with real-time or voice systems, including WebRTC, streaming pipelines, or similar technologies.

- Experience with LLM, ASR, and TTS integrations.

- Previous experience working in a startup or early-stage technology environment.

- Experience as a founding engineer, early engineering leader, or first Engineering Manager.

- Track record of hiring engineers and developing them into strong technical or people leaders.

- Experience with observability, on-call, production support, incident management, and incident reviews.

- Experience establishing engineering practices and processes within a growing organization.

Candidate Profile :

We are looking for an engineering leader who genuinely enjoys both technology and people leadership.

You should be someone who can :

- Think strategically about architecture while remaining close to the technology.

- Lead and develop engineers while maintaining strong technical credibility.

- Take ownership of delivery and commitments.

- Make pragmatic technical decisions in a fast-moving environment.

- Step into complex technical problems when required.

- Build engineering processes and culture as the organization grows.

This is a hands-on Engineering Manager role. Candidates looking to move completely away from coding and technical contribution may not be the right fit for this position.

Key Skills :

- Engineering Management, Technical Leadership, Software Architecture, System Design, Node.js, Python, React, Go, SaaS, Voice AI, WebRTC, LLM, ASR, TTS, Backend Development, Code Review, Agile, Team Management, People Development, Observability, On-call, Incident Management