Sr. Engineering Manager

San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time
Compensation: $415K–$450K base (flexible for exceptional candidates) + equity

About the Company

Our client is an AI company building document-intelligence software that turns complex, unstructured documents into reliable, structured data for the tax and accounting industry. Recently acquired by a larger information-services company, they pair startup speed and ownership with enterprise scale, shipping products used daily by major accounting firms. We’re representing them on a confidential basis and can share more about the team once we connect.

The Role

This is a hands-on player-coach role leading one of the client’s core engineering teams. You’d manage a team of 4–7 senior, staff, and principal-level engineers (scaling toward 10–12 over the coming year) while staying an active technical contributor, reporting directly to the company’s technical founder.

What you’ll be doing

• Directly manage 4–7 engineers at the staff and principal level while continuing to write code, review designs, and debug hard problems week to week
• Ship customer-facing, eval-driven AI products that convert unstructured documents into trustworthy structured data for enterprise customers
• Grow engineers through direct feedback and coaching, and develop future leaders on the team
• Own hiring, onboarding, and team scaling as the org grows
• Tie engineering decisions to real business outcomes, partnering closely with product and customer-facing teams

Tech stack: Python, TypeScript, cloud infrastructure, document AI, agentic and retrieval-based systems

Requirements

• 10–20 years of software engineering experience, spanning individual-contributor work and a clear progression into formal leadership
• Formal engineering management experience (Tech Lead Manager, Senior Tech Lead Manager, or Director of Engineering) with 2 to 10 direct reports
• Currently and genuinely hands-on in code: still shipping production software regularly, reviewing designs and PRs, and debugging alongside senior engineers
• A track record building or leading external, customer-facing products at fast-moving, product-focused technology companies
• Backend, backend-infrastructure, or backend-generalist depth (full-stack with a backend lean is welcome)
• Strong people leadership: clear expectations, direct feedback, coaching on technical and product judgment, early handling of performance issues, and a record of growing engineers

Nice to Haves

• Experience hiring, onboarding, and scaling an engineering team, including managing staff- and principal-level engineers
• Exposure to ML/AI systems such as agentic or retrieval-based systems, document AI, or eval-driven development

Why Join

• Player-coach leadership with real technical ownership, not a pure people-management seat
• Startup pace and end-to-end ownership backed by the scale and stability of a large parent company
• Highly competitive compensation, including a meaningful equity/RSU component
• Direct line to the technical founder in a hands-on, collaborative, high-octane team

Details

• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Work policy: On-site, 5 days per week
• Compensation: $415K–$450K + equity
• Visa sponsorship: No new sponsorship; open to visa transfers (e.g. OPT, H-1B transfers); TN accepted
• Employment type: Full-time