Manager, Software Engineer (AI)
About The Position
Vestwell is hiring an Engineering Manager to lead its AI Engineering organization and build and scale the team responsible for delivering AI-powered products and enterprise capabilities. The role combines technical leadership and people management, partnering with Product, Design, Data, Security, and business stakeholders to define strategy, deliver roadmaps, and build reliable, production-grade AI solutions. The manager is expected to balance execution with long-term architecture, mentor engineers, and advance engineering quality while delivering measurable business value. The role is based in Vestwell’s New York office and is part of its hybrid in-office operation. Vestwell uses a modern Agile approach in which cross-functional squads make bottom-up decisions about priorities, technical choices, and daily processes. The expected base salary range is $195,000–$205,000, with eligibility for the Company Bonus Pool and new-hire equity. Salary bands may vary based on the location where the role is hired. Vestwell describes its benefits as including comprehensive health benefits, generous time off, an Employee Wellbeing Committee, a hybrid work model, and a competitive 401(k) plan.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or a related technical field.
- At least 8 years of professional software engineering experience, including at least 3 years leading engineering teams.
- Proven experience building, delivering, and operating production software systems at scale.
- Experience leading engineering teams responsible for AI/ML-enabled products or platforms.
- Strong hands-on experience developing production applications in Python.
- Deep understanding of modern AI and machine learning concepts, including LLMs, RAG, AI agents, and model orchestration frameworks.
- Experience integrating AI services using leading LLM providers and modern AI frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, or similar technologies.
- Experience designing cloud-native applications using AWS, Docker, and modern deployment and CI/CD practices.
- Experience with relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL, and distributed application architectures.
- Strong understanding of software engineering best practices, including testing, observability, security, code review, and operational excellence.
- Demonstrated ability to recruit, mentor, and develop high-performing engineering teams.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Experience working in Agile development environments using tools such as GitHub, Jira, and Jenkins or equivalents.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in financial technology or regulated industries.
- Startup or high-growth company experience.
- Experience building and scaling AI platforms used across multiple products or business functions.
- Experience leading engineering organizations through rapid growth or organizational change.
Responsibilities
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of AI software engineers, fostering technical excellence, ownership, and continuous learning.
- Establish priorities, manage delivery, and ensure predictable, high-quality engineering outcomes.
- Define technical architecture and engineering direction for AI platforms, services, and enterprise applications.
- Partner with Product, Design, Data Science, Security, and business stakeholders to translate business objectives into scalable technical solutions.
- Architect, build, and oversee production-grade AI services focused on reliability, scalability, observability, and operational excellence.
- Guide implementation of AI capabilities, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI agents, orchestration frameworks, and integrations with leading LLM providers.
- Establish best practices for software development, testing, deployment, code quality, and operational support.
- Remain technically engaged through architecture reviews, engineer mentoring, technical decisions, and complex implementations as appropriate.
- Recruit, coach, and develop engineering talent and help shape the long-term growth of the AI Engineering organization.
Benefits
- Comprehensive health benefits.
- Generous time off.
- Employee Wellbeing Committee.
- Hybrid work model with access to collaborative offices.
- Competitive 401(k) plan.
- Eligibility to participate in the Company Bonus Pool.
- Eligibility to receive new-hire equity in the Company.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
