Senior Engineering Manager, Ground Software

True Anomaly•Denver, CO

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

Space is a warfighting domain. True Anomaly seeks those with the talent and ambition to build the technology that secures it. OUR MISSION True Anomaly delivers decisive capabilities for space superiority. We build autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, mission software, and space-based interceptors — enabling the U.S. and its Allies to secure the space environment and counter threats from the ultimate high ground. OUR VALUES Be the offset. We create asymmetric advantages with creativity and ingenuity. What would it take? We challenge assumptions to deliver ambitious results. It’s the people. Our team is our competitive advantage and we are better together. YOUR MISSION Software is the central nervous system for True Anomaly's engineering and product thesis. Software bridges the gap between military objectives, theoretical astrodynamics and the human and autonomous control of spacecraft and ground systems in time and space. True Anomaly is seeking an exceptional Senior Engineering Manager, Ground Software to lead a team of talented engineers driving the direction and evolution of our distributed, multi-faceted ground software system. This is a high-impact, strategic leadership role. You'll build and develop a cross-functional team of front-end, back-end, and full-stack engineers, define and drive the technical roadmap for your product area, lead cross-functional initiatives that span engineering, product, and operations, and establish the architectural and operating foundations that will scale our ground platform for years to come. You'll identify strategic technical investments, champion them across the organization, and lead their execution. You won't just ship features; you'll shape the product direction, influence company objectives, and grow the engineers who will build the next generation of our platform. When you see systemic issues affecting reliability, velocity, or quality, you'll diagnose root causes, build consensus around solutions, and drive organizational change to address them. You do not need to have experience building space ground systems or experience in aerospace. You'll lead high-priority initiatives with strategic importance to the company and a chance to fundamentally impact the outcome of future conflict (and the future of the company), all while enjoying world-class benefits including platinum healthcare, flexible work hours/location, highly competitive compensation and a generous stock options package.

Requirements

7+ years of software engineering experience, with 4+ years building and leading engineering teams that ship production software
Hands-on technical depth in either modern back-end systems (Elixir/OTP, or comparable concurrent/distributed runtimes such as Erlang, Go, or the JVM) or modern front-end systems (React/TypeScript), with enough working knowledge of the other side of the stack to make informed architectural decisions and lead cross-functional work credibly
Track record of hiring and developing high-performing engineers in fast-moving environments
Demonstrated ability to balance hands-on technical contribution with people leadership
Experience leading cross-functional teams or coordinating closely across functional boundaries on shared product outcomes
Strong understanding of distributed systems integration patterns (gRPC, REST, WebSockets) and API contract design
Experience establishing or evolving engineering processes — sprint operating models, code review standards, testing strategy, incident response
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders and represent engineering's interests to senior leadership
Eligible for DoD Secret or TS/SCI clearance

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in computer science, aerospace engineering, or a related discipline
Direct experience with Elixir/OTP and the Phoenix framework, or with React/TypeScript at scale in production single-page applications
Experience leading a team through a structural transition — functional to product-aligned, monolith to services, founding team to scaled organization
Background in aerospace, defense, or other domains with mission-critical reliability requirements, classified work environments (SCIF), or operational software where the cost of a bug is measured in operator decisions
Experience with real-time data systems, telemetry processing, command and control, or large-scale data visualization (Three.js, WebGL, or similar)
Familiarity with cleared work environments and how security and accreditation constraints shape engineering workflows
Active U.S. security clearance at any level

Responsibilities

Build, lead, and develop a cross-functional squad of front-end, back-end, and full-stack engineers who own a Mosaic product area end-to-end
Own the squad's delivery, quality, and team health, running sprint rituals that serve the work and protecting the team's ability to focus
Run effective 1:1s, give timely and specific feedback, and grow engineers along both technical and management career paths
Stay close enough to the code to earn trust and make informed decisions, contributing directly when the situation calls for it
Drive the technical roadmap for your product area, including the recurring judgment of whether a new capability belongs in the product or in the shared Mosaic platform layer
Champion strategic technical investments — testing, observability, internal tooling, debt reduction — and make the case for the engineering time they require
Partner with the Product Owner as the technical counterpart in defining scope, timelines, and trade-offs
Coordinate cross-team work with other Ground Software squads on shared APIs, components, and platform capabilities
Manage the squad's relationship with Space Operations, the Simulation team, DevOps, and other stakeholders through structured channels
Lead incident response when production issues affect operators, and drive blameless post-mortems that prevent recurrence
Help define what a product-aligned squad looks like at Mosaic, establishing patterns that will shape future squads as the organization scales