Senior Engineering Manager

Obviant•Tampa, FL

1d•Remote

About The Position

Obviant is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to lead either their data engineering team or their product/web application team. The role involves owning the team end-to-end, setting technical direction, managing delivery cadence, growing engineers, and maintaining code proximity to ensure credibility. The company emphasizes exceptionally high standards, as their customers rely on their data for critical defense acquisition and investment decisions. The ideal candidate will combine technical excellence with leadership skills to multiply team output. This position requires a leader who can set the technical bar, manage engineering standards, and foster a culture of quality. They will be responsible for the growth and development of engineers on their team, providing direct feedback and managing performance. The role also involves making difficult decisions regarding underperformance and leading hiring efforts to expand the team while maintaining high standards. Effective communication with leadership and peers is crucial for keeping stakeholders informed and managing risks. Team operations and delivery are key, with a focus on fostering a culture of ownership and accountability over rigid processes. The manager will ensure team rituals are effective, improve estimation and predictability, and run productive retrospectives. They will also manage meaningful health and delivery metrics, avoiding the temptation to game them. Product and business alignment is essential, requiring partnership with Product, Design, and Go-to-Market teams (for product engineering) or analysts, AI/ML, and data consumers (for data engineering). The manager must translate business goals into engineering outcomes and effectively communicate the team's contribution to the business. They should be able to push back constructively, maintain team focus amidst shifting priorities, and avoid creating silos.

Requirements

7+ years of engineering experience
Substantial time leading and growing engineering teams
Real technical depth: ability to reason through system design, spot failure modes, and prioritize for shipping.
Track record of owning team delivery: planning, estimation, and reliable execution.
Experience holding the line on performance, scalability, and technical debt.
Direct experience with hard management aspects: delivering hard feedback, working with struggling performers, running exits.
Strong communication skills in all directions: pushing back on leadership, explaining technical work to non-technical audiences, coaching engineers, over-communicating.
Comfortable with high autonomy and accountability in a fast-moving, early-stage environment.
Comfortable in ambiguity and proactive in seeking direction.

Nice To Haves

Experience building complex data or AI systems (large-scale ingestion, pipeline orchestration, schema evolution, entity resolution).
Experience managing fast-moving web application teams.
Background in government, defense tech, or another regulated environment.
An active TS/SCI clearance, or eligibility to obtain one.
Experience owning platform-level infrastructure from initial design through scaling it across multiple teams.

Responsibilities

Set technical direction with senior engineers, guiding the team through design tradeoffs, architecture decisions, and implementation quality.
Own and enforce engineering standards and the quality bar for the team.
Mentor, review, and build a culture where quality is the default.
Step into tactical roles to unblock the team or achieve business-critical outcomes.
Develop engineers deliberately with growth plans, direct feedback, and clear leveling conversations.
Deliver hard feedback with candor and empathy.
Diagnose underperformance early, coach honestly, and handle exits with dignity.
Hire and expand the team while maintaining the hiring bar.
Manage up by keeping leadership and peers informed of team direction and risks.
Foster a culture of ownership, high accountability, and zero excuses.
Ensure team rituals are honest, co-created with the team, and effective.
Run retrospectives that lead to implemented and lasting improvements.
Manage a small set of meaningful health and delivery metrics, guarding against gaming them.
Partner with Product, Design, GtM, analysts, AI/ML, and data consumers to align with customer needs.
Translate mission and business goals into clear engineering outcomes.
Push back with conviction, clarity, and a willingness to change one's mind.
Keep the team focused and healthy when priorities shift.