Engineering Manager

Cadstrom • Montreal, QC

17d • Hybrid

About The Position

We're seeking an experienced Engineering Manager to lead one of the development teams driving Cadstrom's mission to make bug- and revision-free circuits a reality. We move fast — the product is shipping, customers are live, and every week matters. You'll be responsible for the health, velocity, and craft of a team of 7–15 developers spanning full-stack, frontend, backend, and platform work — making sure they're aimed at the right problems, set up to succeed, and growing as engineers.

This is a people-first leadership role with a strong technical voice. You won't be expected to ship code, but you will be expected to engage deeply in architecture reviews, push back on shaky designs, and help your team make sound technical bets. If you've shipped web services at scale, have opinions about what good service architecture looks like, and find genuine satisfaction in building high-performance engineering teams, we want to talk to you.

This is a high-ownership role. We're looking for a leader who treats Cadstrom's outcome as their own, brings real intensity to the work, and helps the team do the same — sustainably.

WHAT ARE WE DOING?
We are accelerating the world's hardware ingenuity by blending generative AI, ML, and novel deterministic approaches to electronics simulation and validation. We're providing our enthusiastic customers intelligent and automated access to the most advanced validation tools to eliminate respins – helping engineers of all levels deliver their designs faster, cheaper, and with less waste.

WHO ARE WE?
We are a small team of innovators who are passionate about fundamentally improving how electrical engineers deliver electronics with higher confidence. We are backed by Bison Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, and the Allen Institute for AI's Incubator. Our distinguished founders are responsible for creating the largest product development firm in the US, and building Azure Quantum (and more!) at Microsoft. We know you'll be in good company.

Requirements

• 3+ years of direct people-management experience leading software engineering teams of at least 5 engineers, with proven success scaling teams.
• Track record of leading teams that span full-stack web development — frontend, backend, and/or platform — and a clear understanding of how to allocate work across that surface area.
• Hands-on background as a software engineer earlier in your career, with experience shipping production web services on a major cloud (e.g. AWS).
• Knowledge of service architecture: API design, service boundaries, observability, reliability, deployment practices, and the operational realities of running web services in production.
• Demonstrated success building a high-performance team culture — including how you've raised the bar on code quality, technical rigor, and team velocity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication — able to clearly convey trade-offs, expectations, and decisions to engineers, peers, and leadership.
• Experience hiring strong engineering candidates at all levels and running a thoughtful interview process.

Nice To Haves

• Experience managing a team that included frontend (React or similar) and Node.js/TypeScript backend engineers.
• Familiarity with AI/ML systems — what it takes to ship them, evaluate them, and operate them in production.
• Experience working in a high-growth startup environment where team structure and priorities shift frequently.
• Familiarity with the realities of supporting enterprise customers (SLAs, SOC2 compliance).
• Experience working with cross-functional partners in complex technical domains (hardware, EDA, scientific computing, etc.).
• Background contributing to or operating engineering organizations of 30+ engineers — bringing patterns and instincts from larger teams without forcing process the team doesn't need.
• People-first leader. You get genuine satisfaction from seeing engineers grow, and you measure your success through your team's success.
• High-trust, high-candor. You give direct feedback with care, and you build the kind of psychological safety where engineers tell you when something is off.
• Strong technical voice without ego. You can hold your own in a design review and push back where it matters — but you don't need to be the smartest person in the room.
• Bias to action with high ownership. You don't wait for perfect information; you make calls with what you have and adjust - treating Cadstrom’s outcome as your own.
• Strategic thinker. You balance shipping today's roadmap with investing in the team's long-term capability.
• Calm in ambiguity. Startups change fast; you can create clarity for your team when the picture is fuzzy.
• Self-aware and coachable. You actively seek feedback on your own management and grow from it.
• Embraces the ethos of "We, not I."
• Excited about building a world-class engineering team, comfortable with the pace and ambiguity of a startup, and energized by applying your craft to electrical engineering problems.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of 8–15 engineers spanning full-stack, frontend, backend, and platform work — owning the team's delivery, quality, and morale.
• Build a high-performance engineering culture rooted in ownership, craft, candid feedback, and shared accountability. Set the bar for what "good" looks like and hold the team to it.
• Make sure the team is used effectively — match people to problems thoughtfully, remove blockers quickly, and protect focus so engineers can do their best work.
• Drive operational excellence in how the team plans, ships, and supports its software: sprint/iteration rhythm, code review standards, on-call practices, incident response, and post-mortem discipline.
• Provide strong technical guidance during architecture reviews, design discussions, and trade-off conversations — even though you won't be writing code yourself. Push back where it matters and unblock when the team is stuck.
• Partner cross-functionally with Operations, AI/ML, electrical engineering domain experts, and other engineering leaders to align roadmap, dependencies, and customer commitments.
• Grow the team — recruit, interview, onboard, and retain engineers. Coach engineers across the spectrum from new hires to staff-level ICs, and develop the next generation of tech leads.
• Run performance management with care and clarity — set expectations, give regular feedback, deliver reviews, and make tough calls when the team's standards aren't being met.
• Adapt to evolving project needs and take on various roles as required in a startup environment — including reshaping team structure as the company grows.

Benefits

• Early Stage Equity Package
• Impact
• Care
• Leading benefits - we invest deeply in the health and wellbeing of our team with leading startup benefits, 0% copay across the board, and a $2k/year HSA.
• World-Class Backers

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed