[Hiring] Software Engineering Manager @Spellbook

Role Description

We are looking for a people-first, technical Engineering Manager to join our engineering team. As part of your role, you’ll lead technical projects from inception to launch, working with cross-functional stakeholders to proactively prioritize and solve common pain points for our customers. You will help to support the strategic technical direction of Spellbook’s product and key features by defining the technical vision for the teams you manage and stepping in to build alignment within your teams on complex issues that align to Engineering’s OKRs. You are comfortable scoping complex tasks, coordinating a team towards solving them, and unblocking others along the way, often being the glue that just gets things done. In addition, you will manage a team of up to 8 software engineers across various projects tied to Spellbook’s key pillars, providing coaching and mentorship and effective performance management to uphold technical quality and best practices.

We’re a small team of developers with a sophisticated and modern tech stack. An ideal candidate would have experience in some of the following: OpenAI and other large language models (LLMs), ReactJS, Node, Typescript, Mongo, Docker, AWS, or CDK.

Responsibilities

• Identify opportunities to make impactful enhancements to lawyer workflows.
• Coach and mentor other software engineers to support career growth and product development.
• Complete annual performance reviews for direct reports and arrange 1:1s to check in on progress.
• Design, architect, and implement new features in the Spellbook application.
• Contribute to the technical direction of the Engineering team by defining technical vision.
• Oversee technical projects from start to finish, engaging with key stakeholders.
• Scope complex tasks, coordinate a team towards solving these problems, and unblock challenges.
• Use the latest large language models (LLMs) to add and improve application functionality.
• Collaborate with the product management team on changes to our React application.
• Add and improve application functionality by enhancing our Express and tRPC-based API.
• Improve the performance and reliability of existing functionality and address user feedback.
• Support with hiring against current headcount plan and effectively onboard new team members.
• Act as a multiplier on the team, doing the ‘glue work’ that keeps things running smoothly.
• Contribute to the creation and maintenance of engineering documentation and training materials.
• Support in establishing and implementing Engineering best practices and workflows.
• Build and maintain application infrastructure in Amazon Web Services (AWS) with AWS CDK.
• Conduct code reviews and provide constructive feedback to team members.
• Support with other responsibilities and projects as required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Software Development.
• Exceptional communication skills; able to explain and advocate ideas to a diverse audience.
• Ability to take a product feature from a vague idea to a production-ready feature.
• Demonstrated effective project management skills managing multiple projects and priorities.
• Self-starter and problem-solver motivated by curiosity and a desire to help others succeed.
• Team player motivated to help Spellbook succeed.
• Proactive in taking responsibility and fixing issues.
• Experience in providing mentorship and coaching.
• Experience setting technical direction and sharing expertise from an engineering perspective.
• Firm grasp of the fundamentals of software development and computer engineering.
• Ability to break down complex customer requirements into clear, achievable plans.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with TypeScript.
• Experience with Javascript build tooling such as Vite, esbuild, and swc.
• Experience in small startup environments.
• Experience designing and building infrastructure on AWS in CDK.
• Proven experience driving new and innovative product features from concept to production.
• Demonstrated ability working with LLMs, improving prompts, and orchestrating agents.

Benefits

• Embrace autonomy and accountability in a flexible work environment.
• Access to company-paid group benefits for you and your family, with $1,000 towards mental health support.
• Disconnect during our holiday closure and take advantage of generous time off policies.
• Enjoy monthly paid meals, an annual wellness allowance, and parental leave top-ups.
• Receive competitive stock option grants as a pivotal early employee.