Senior Engineering Manager

About the Position

We're modernizing how engineering works at The Princeton Review, and we need a Senior Engineering Manager to help lead that change from the inside. Our Director of Engineering currently has roughly 15 engineers reporting to him directly, too many for anyone to coach, develop, or unlock effectively.

We're looking for someone who has personally operated inside and helped build a modern engineering organization: real CI/CD, AI tools that make engineers faster without making them worse, engineers who own their work from conception through production support, tight collaboration with product, and ceremonies that actually drive continuous improvement rather than checking a box. You'll bring that operating model here, partner with the Director of Engineering and VP of Engineering to rebuild the org around it, and coach engineers to build those muscles themselves.

Career Path: Engineering | Career Level: Senior | Career Option: People Manager

Reporting Structure:

This position reports to the VP Engineering.
This position will initially manage up to 8 engineers with a mandate to help stand up the org's first layer of engineering management over the next two quarters.

What You'll Do

Technical Leadership
Contribute hands-on to code, architecture, and technical design while leading your team (target 40/60 IC/management split, adjusting as the team matures)
Help design and implement modern engineering practices: CI/CD, automated testing, code review, feature flagging, and static code analysis
Champion effective, responsible adoption of AI-assisted development. Tools that raise the ceiling on engineer output and code quality, not shortcuts that create new technical debt
Team Development & Change Management
Build and develop a high-performing team through effective coaching, feedback, and career development, including engineers new to modern SDLC practices
Support the implementation of clear expectations, ceremonies, and standards. Bring engineers along with the "why," not top-down mandates
As part of a small engineering leadership team, foster a culture of psychological safety, collaboration, and continuous learning
Mentor engineers as they move from reactive, deadline-driven delivery to sustainable ownership of their systems end to end
Delivery & Collaboration
Support your reports delivery from conception through production support while meeting quarterly deadlines
Build software that's scalable and maintainable by design, and delightful for the people using it
Partner with Product and Design to translate business goals into clear technical plans and ensure consistent execution
Communicate effectively across technical and non-technical audiences, ensuring alignment and managing dependencies
Drive measurable improvements in engineering KPIs

Who You Are

You have 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with 3+ years of people management experience leading engineering teams
You have led or been a driving force on a team operating with real CI/CD, automated testing, and short release cycles. You know what "great" looks like because you've built it, not just read about it
You can demonstrate a history of results in some or all of the following domains:
C# .NET
React
Cloud native systems design
Modern CI/CD tool chains / Platform Engineering
You have hands-on experience using AI-assisted development tools as part of a disciplined engineering practice
You are a change agent with a track record of driving process improvements in CI/CD, testing, quality assurance, or other SDLC process toolchains
You balance strategic thinking with tactical execution. The ability to zoom out to see the org-level picture while diving into technical details when needed
You excel at developing others, including coaching experienced engineers helping them grow their technical and professional capabilities
You communicate with clarity and empathy, adapting your style to your audience and building trust across diverse stakeholders
You demonstrate sound judgment balancing tradeoffs between scope, quality, speed, and long-term technical health
You model collaborative, inclusive leadership that creates psychological safety and empowers team members to do their best work
You take ownership and accountability for both individual and team outcomes, addressing challenges proactively and with integrity

Competencies

Modern SDLC Ownership — Operates and teaches a full-lifecycle model: engineers own design, build, test, deploy, and support for what they ship.
Change Leadership — Drives organizational change through transparency and incremental wins rather than top-down mandates; brings people along rather than around them.
AI-Augmented Engineering — Uses AI tooling to raise engineering quality and velocity, with the judgment to know where it helps and where it introduces risk.
Develops Others — Builds the capabilities and skills of engineers by increasing their effectiveness in current roles and accelerating their potential for new ones; provides feedback and creates growth assignments.
Cross-Functional Collaboration — Works cooperatively with Product, Design, and other engineering leaders, leveraging each other's skills and knowledge in pursuit of a shared roadmap.
Advanced Technical Expertise — Demonstrates depth of knowledge across multiple substantive areas of software systems, programming languages, and technical components.