Engineering Manager, Messaging & Applications Teams

CareMessage

27d•$199,000 - $199,000•Remote

About The Position

CareMessage is a social enterprise and the largest patient engagement platform for low-income populations in the United States. We deliver personalized health education and care coordination through text messaging — reaching patients where they already are, in the language they speak, at the moments that matter most. Unlike technology built for large health systems and adapted down, CareMessage is designed from the ground up for organizations serving low-income, historically marginalized communities. Why Join Us in Leveraging Technology to Improve Health Equity Many of us have had the experience of doing good work or building great products, but wondering if it is truly making an impact. At CareMessage, our mission is clear: improve health equity for low-income populations across the United States. Every role here connects directly to that purpose. We care deeply about the communities we serve, and we also hold a high standard for performance, collaboration, and integrity. Our ideal team members: Deliver meaningful, measurable results Invest in their teammates and build trust Seek feedback and continually grow Stay steady and solutions-oriented in ambiguity Lead with integrity and responsibility Communicate with clarity and empathy If you are motivated by impact, energized by collaboration, and ready to do some of the most meaningful work of your career, we encourage you to apply. If this sounds like you, we would love to meet you.

Requirements

Proven Track Record: At least 5 years of successful experience as an Engineering Manager over product/application engineering, in two or more early-to-growth-stage remote startup environments.
Strategic Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead and drive the delivery of long-term technical projects across multiple teams, driving measurable outcomes.
Technical Proficiency: Strong technical acumen with a deep understanding of building and operating customer-facing web applications (web frameworks, relational databases, APIs, cloud infrastructure).
Modern & AI-Assisted Engineering: A track record of adopting modern development practices and leveraging AI-assisted tooling (e.g., AI coding assistants and LLM-based workflows) to raise engineering velocity and quality, with the judgment to apply them responsibly in a healthcare/PHI context. You actively coach your teams to fold these tools into their day-to-day work.
Hands-on Experience: The ability to get hands-on with the codebase when needed. (This is predominantly a management position; however, you should be able to dig in to help debug issues, review technical work, and unblock the team.)
Collaborative Expertise: Exceptional collaboration and influencing skills, working effectively cross-departmentally to craft optimal solutions while navigating multiple constraints.
Situational Awareness: The ability to discern when to dive into technical details and when to maintain a higher-level perspective when working with Engineers, Product, and Design.
Cultural Advocate: A commitment to cultivating both individual growth and a high-performance engineering culture that attracts top talent.
Mentorship: A growth-oriented mindset with the capability to guide others on their development journey.
Communication Skills: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, especially in a fully remote environment.
Autonomous Prioritization: Proficiency in identifying and managing priorities independently across two teams, ensuring an efficient workflow.
Diversity and Inclusion: Dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion within teams, especially given our global team composition.
This role requires the candidate to reside within the United States of America.
Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Experience managing teams that operate high-volume messaging/communications systems and/or customer-facing SaaS web applications.
Experience working in a Healthcare technology environment and the requisite Security and Compliance requirements (HIPAA/PHI); familiarity with messaging compliance (TCPA, opt-in/opt-out, carrier/10DLC) is a plus.
Experience introducing or scaling agentic development workflows on a team, with attention to code quality, security, and compliance.
Experience with our Tech Stack: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript/TypeScript/React, Postgres, GCP, Twilio (SMS/voice), Metabase.
Background in TDD engineering environments.
Experience leading teams through reliability, performance, and on-call/incident-response improvements.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership: You are excited about and comfortable taking responsibility for understanding and defending the investments and decisions your team is making (challenging, redirecting, and supporting them cross-functionally), and demonstrating a personal understanding of our organizational objectives and how the work you are directing is the most valuable investment to help achieve them within your scope of ownership.
Directly oversee and guide the Messaging and Applications teams (engineers, a team lead, and QA across the two teams), providing consistent, constructive feedback and conducting performance reviews to foster professional growth.
You know the difference between good and great performance and how to get that from your team members, including when to challenge, redirect, and manage up and/or out.
You know when and how to advocate for new team members or missing skillsets that would help the department accomplish more.
Actively participate in the recruitment, interviewing, and retention of top-tier engineering talent, and collaborate with other people managers to nurture team engagement and company culture.
Champion the adoption of modern, AI-assisted engineering practices across both teams by evaluating new tools, setting responsible-use guardrails (especially around PHI), and continuously raising the bar on productivity and quality.
Working with engineering and product leadership, refine and execute the technical strategy for a reliable, compliant, and scalable core product.
Manage shared ownership and coordination between the two teams, given that they work within the same core web application and codebase.
Remain close to the solutions and, when necessary, play a hands-on role: communicating via prototypes or vibe-coded example applications, helping unblock the team, and reviewing technical work.
Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends and advocate for best practices in the department; review and collaborate with engineers on technical specifications to ensure excellence in execution.
Work closely with Product and Design to conceptualize and define impactful solutions, often through Product Requirements Documents (PRDs).
Skillfully lead and facilitate team rituals such as Kickoffs, Retrospectives, and Tech Debt Reviews, and collaborate cross-functionally to understand estimates and prioritize the backlog, making pragmatic trade-offs.
Develop processes, tools, and systems that enhance the department's overall effectiveness.
Contribute to the team by participating in the On-Call (PagerDuty) rotation.

Benefits

Paid parental leave for biological and adopted children
18 paid company holidays, including a one week mid-year and one week end-of-year break
9 wellness days to be used for self-care- or anything that comes up in life
15 days of PTO
1-month (20 working days) paid sabbatical after the 4-year anniversary, and every 4 years thereafter
Generous medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their families
Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts
Short & long-term disability insurance
$100 per employee yearly wellness budget, with flexibility to spend on physical, emotional, and mental wellness resources
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