Manager, Engineering, Data Products

Zoro•Chicago, IL

3h•$127,100 - $211,900•Hybrid

About The Position

Zoro.com is hiring an engineering manager in its data domain to lead software and data engineers working across one to two data product teams. The organization is evolving toward data-focused software engineering and is reinventing engineering practices with AI. This is a hands-on management role: managers are expected to remain active in the codebase each week while coaching engineers and supporting their technical and professional growth. The engineers work within product teams led jointly by a tech lead and product manager, who set direction and priorities. The manager focuses on enabling engineers to make sound technical decisions, improving the quality of shipped work, supporting production operations, and developing team members. Influence relies heavily on partnership with people outside the reporting line; the manager does not own the product backlog. The role calls for practical use of AI-assisted engineering to assess designs, identify underspecified requirements, explore unfamiliar code, and help engineers apply AI thoughtfully in their work, reviews, and learning. Zoro values ownership, simple systems, reliable operations, clear communication, thoughtful feedback, and honest capacity management. The position follows a hybrid work model, with team members expected to work onsite at least two days per week at the Chicago headquarters.

Requirements

At least 7 years of software engineering experience, including at least 2 years directly managing software engineers.
Direct people-management experience covering hiring, performance management, and career development.
Background building, shipping, and operating production software systems.
Weekly hands-on technical involvement, such as reading code, reviewing pull requests, prototyping, or contributing directly, and willingness to continue as a manager.
Current technical depth sufficient to participate in design reviews and evaluate technical tradeoffs.
Understanding of modular design, APIs, testing, error handling, and maintainability.
Working knowledge of relational data concepts, including schemas, keys, transactions, and data integrity.
Experience owning systems through deployment, monitoring, incident response, and maintenance.
Demonstrated ability to influence peers and stakeholders who do not report to the role.
Active use of AI beyond code completion and sound judgment in evaluating AI-generated output.
Experience managing software engineers who build production backend services, APIs, internal platforms, or distributed applications.
Experience leading engineers embedded in product teams they do not report into, with a practical approach to making that partnership productive.
Technical depth to review designs, identify missed questions, and recognize approaches unlikely to succeed in production.
Experience establishing healthy on-call practices and treating operations as part of engineering.
Track record of developing engineers, including promotions, increased scope, or demonstrated growth.
Hiring experience, including calibrating a hiring bar and closing candidates.
Comfort with data systems such as pipelines, analytical platforms, data modeling, event-driven architectures, or large-scale data movement.
Practical experience using AI in their own work and considered opinions about its uses, limitations, and output quality.
Ability to set limits or defer stakeholder requests without damaging relationships.
Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Ability to give direct feedback, build a team that performs without constant supervision, and exercise sound judgment about decisions, delegation, escalation, delivery speed, and long-term system health.
Ability to explain technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders clearly and partner effectively with tech leads and product managers.

Responsibilities

Manage, coach, and grow software engineers embedded across one to two data product teams.
Partner with each team's tech lead and product manager to help engineers make sound technical decisions.
Maintain engineering standards for design quality, interface and contract design, testing, observability, and operational readiness without owning the product backlog.
Own delivery predictability, on-call health, and platform operations for the team.
Run hiring, performance management, compensation, and calibration for engineers.
Create individual development plans aligned with the team's technical roadmap and address skill gaps before they create delivery risks.
Escalate and resolve priority conflicts when product-team demands exceed sustainable engineering capacity.
Drive adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices and share effective practices across the data organization.
Participate in design reviews and technical tradeoff discussions while staying sufficiently involved with the systems to offer informed input.
Clearly represent the team's work and constraints to stakeholders outside engineering.

Benefits

Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance coverage starting on the first day of employment.
Maternity support programs and nursing benefits.
Up to 14 weeks of paid leave for birth parents and up to 4 weeks for non-birth parents.
Adoption assistance program.
Six free sessions annually with a licensed therapist and Wellhub portal membership.
At least 18 paid time off days annually for full-time employees and six company holidays per year.
6% company contribution to a 401(k) retirement savings plan each pay period, with no employee contribution required.
Tuition reimbursement, student loan refinancing, and access to financial counseling, education, and tools.
Charitable gift matching for eligible educational, cultural, community health, and human service organizations.
Employee discounts and admission to various civic and cultural institutions around Chicago.
Office perks including a coffee bar, beer on tap, unlimited snacks, an onsite gym, and city skyline views.
Zoro Incentive Plan (ZIP), designed to reward strong performance; total compensation is described as highly competitive.