Engineering Manager

Slang AI • New York, NY

6d • $190,000 - $211,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Slang AI is hiring an Engineering Manager to lead one or two cross-functional delivery pods building voice AI products for restaurants, including real-time phone agents, integrations, and operator tools. The manager owns team health and delivery, including hiring, coaching, engineer development, predictable execution, and the reliability of systems used by restaurant customers. The role blends career conversations and 1:1s, planning with Product, design reviews, cross-team coordination, and attention to production issues. The team consists of roughly five to eight engineers across backend, platform, and applied AI, distributed across the US and Brazil. The manager partners with product managers, conversation designers, and customer-facing teams, participates in team ceremonies, and contributes to improving the organization’s execution practices. Daily production coding is not required, but the manager is expected to review designs and code and provide technical guidance. The role reports to engineering and product leaders and is hybrid in New York City, with three days per week in the office and regular collaboration across time zones.

The position emphasizes management as a craft, measured by team growth and reliable delivery. The manager will help shape hiring, leveling, and talent development practices for a distributed engineering organization, and foster a culture of trust, direct communication, psychological safety, and accountability. There is a potential growth path to Senior Engineering Manager, involving multiple teams, developing technical leads and managers, and owning operational objectives across the organization. The role also offers exposure to engineering strategy, team planning, and AI-augmented work practices.

Success includes developing engineers through clear growth plans and actionable feedback; addressing performance concerns fairly and promptly; making realistic commitments and surfacing delivery risks early; balancing features, reliability, on-call health, and technical debt; hiring and onboarding effectively; partnering with Product on scope and sequencing; building a connected, psychologically safe team across time zones; and setting expectations for responsible AI-assisted development while tracking its effects on quality and delivery.

Requirements

• At least 3 years managing software engineering teams, including direct reports, hiring, and performance management.
• At least 5 years of prior hands-on software engineering experience.
• Track record owning team delivery outcomes, including planning, estimation, prioritization, and predictable shipping in a fast-moving product environment.
• Experience hiring and developing engineers, creating career development plans, and handling underperformance clearly and thoughtfully.
• Strong technical judgment in backend or distributed systems, including ability to review designs, challenge trade-offs, and guide decisions.
• Experience managing distributed or remote teams, ideally across time zones or countries.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including delivering difficult messages about performance, priorities, or change with clarity and care.
• AI fluency, including active daily use of AI tools and a point of view on responsible adoption of AI-assisted development.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with conversational AI, real-time voice, telephony, or LLM-powered products.
• Experience at a startup or growth-stage company.
• Familiarity with Google Cloud Platform.
• Experience partnering closely with Product and Design in a pod or squad model.
• Interest in the restaurant and hospitality domain.

Responsibilities

• Lead one or two cross-functional engineering delivery pods building voice AI products for restaurants.
• Own the health and output of teams comprising roughly five to eight engineers across backend, platform, and applied AI.
• Hire, coach, develop, and manage engineers, including creating growth plans, providing feedback, and addressing underperformance.
• Establish and run a delivery rhythm that supports realistic planning, predictable shipping, and early identification of risks.
• Partner with Product on scope, sequencing, cycle planning, and business context for engineering work.
• Review designs and code, participate in architecture discussions, and guide technical decisions without becoming a bottleneck.
• Unblock cross-team dependencies and collaborate with product managers, conversation designers, and customer-facing teams.
• Balance feature delivery with reliability, technical debt, observability, and on-call readiness.
• Run effective hiring loops and onboard engineers so they can contribute promptly.
• Build team rituals and a psychologically safe, connected culture across time zones.
• Set expectations for responsible AI-assisted development and track the impact of AI tools on quality and delivery speed.
• Participate in team ceremonies and help improve the organization’s execution frameworks and talent practices.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity package.
• Health insurance.
• Dental insurance.
• Vision insurance.
• Professional development opportunities.
• Hybrid work from the New York City office, with some flexibility in hours to overlap with teammates in Brazil.
• Occasional travel to company offsites.

What This Job Offers

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