Engineering Manager

Tailscale

3d • $206,000 - $257,000 • Remote

About The Position

Tailscale is seeking a full-time Software Engineering Manager to join its growing, fully distributed team. The role provides guidance, mentorship, and career development for software engineers and contributes to the Product organization, working across Engineering, Product Management, and Design. Teams operate in Pods of 2–4 engineers, a Product Manager, and a Designer; each Engineering Manager handles 2–3 Pods. Pods work across the codebase to implement features, address shortcomings, and respond to customer requests.

The manager provides technical direction when needed and develops the technical leadership capabilities of their reports. They also help grow the organization through interviewing and recruiting, shaping engineering culture, and developing processes. As an early-stage remote company, Tailscale seeks someone who can help move the product forward, think on their feet, collaborate with highly technical teams, and work comfortably asynchronously.

The role includes leading engineers responsible for a critical production service, with operational responsibilities such as monitoring, alerting, and on-call. It also involves cross-functional delivery, planning from immediate tactical needs through long-term strategy, and fostering a positive, inclusive environment with psychological well-being and constructive feedback.

Requirements

• Substantial experience as an engineering people manager; the organization is not yet positioned to train and support someone new to management.
• Demonstrated experience managing and mentoring engineering teams, including performance evaluations, career development, and fostering a collaborative work environment.
• Experience building and operating production services with high availability and performance targets.
• Expertise managing on-call rotations and incident response.
• Strong technical ability to independently evaluate complex technical tradeoffs in design discussions while drawing on team experts for design and implementation.
• Experience developing in Go.
• Ability to give and receive constructive feedback and work independently.
• Flexibility to adapt to the dynamic nature of a startup.

Responsibilities

• Provide guidance, mentorship, and career development for a team of software engineers.
• Contribute to the Product organization in collaboration with Engineering, Product Management, and Design.
• Provide technical direction on projects and develop the technical leadership capabilities of engineers.
• Interview and recruit engineers, help develop engineering culture, and establish processes as the organization grows.
• Achieve significant business outcomes through cross-functional collaboration with product managers, data scientists, and designers.
• Help the team improve performance and work quality, and make major design decisions.
• Hire, nurture, and oversee a team of engineers while fostering psychological well-being, diversity, and inclusion.
• Lead a team responsible for managing a critical production service, including monitoring, alerting, and on-call operations.
• Moderate design discussions, manage healthy conflict, and cultivate a culture of candid and kind feedback.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams on complex projects spanning multiple technical domains.
• Drive planning across immediate tactical needs and long-term strategic direction.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package including base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits.
• Health, vision, and dental coverage for employees and their families, with no waiting period.
• Employer retirement contributions matched dollar-for-dollar up to an annual employer contribution equal to 0.75% of eligible compensation.
• Annual company retreat, team off-sites, and supported team travel for in-person collaboration.
• $1,500 USD annually for professional development, plus access to mentorship, coaching, and internal promotion opportunities.
• Flexible paid time off.
• Company-owned laptop choice (Mac or PC), monthly home internet reimbursement, and $500 USD for workstation customization.
• Paid parental leave top-ups: 20 weeks for birthing parents and 16 weeks for non-birthing parents.
• Flexible work arrangements and access to a corporate co-working program.

What This Job Offers

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