Engineering Manager, Applied AI

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Engineering Manager, Applied AI based in Canada. This role combines hands-on engineering leadership, people management, and applied AI delivery across complex enterprise environments. You will lead a team of engineers while remaining closely involved in client engagements and the technical challenges they face. Your work will span architecture, AI agents, prompts, evaluations, production systems, and the practical decisions required to turn ambiguous problems into reliable solutions. You will coach engineers, maintain a high technical bar, and step into challenging client or production situations when needed. The role offers significant autonomy, exposure to diverse industries, and the opportunity to help shape engineering practices as the team and its AI capabilities continue to grow.

Manage engineers through senior level, providing direct, actionable feedback, coaching their execution, and supporting their progression toward technical leadership. Review architecture, agent designs, prompt strategies, and evaluation approaches across client engagements, challenging assumptions and maintaining strong technical standards. Step into complex technical and client situations, including production regressions and unclear requirements, and make timely decisions to keep engagements moving. Build strong engagement-level relationships with clients and stakeholders in partnership with product and client teams, ensuring projects are delivered successfully. Manage staffing and team transitions across engagements, anticipate capacity and delivery risks, and escalate cross-engagement conflicts when necessary. Support engineering hiring by interviewing candidates, calibrating against the required technical bar, closing candidates, and onboarding new team members. Contribute to engineering practices by identifying recurring patterns, sharing lessons across the wider team, and helping turn effective approaches into established practices. Remain close to hands-on engineering work and provide technical guidance where teams become blocked or require additional expertise. Requirements: 3+ years of experience managing software engineers, including demonstrated experience providing feedback, coaching, and developing people. 5+ years of software engineering experience with sufficient technical depth to review designs, challenge implementation approaches, and guide engineering decisions. Strong hands-on Python experience. Experience delivering production software in real client environments, ideally where requirements and constraints are complex or evolving. Strong interest in applied AI, including agents, evaluations, and multi-agent systems, with an understanding of where these approaches are reliable and where human oversight remains necessary. Familiarity with AI coding tools and modern AI-assisted engineering workflows. Strong technical judgment combined with the ability to communicate clearly with engineers, clients, and other stakeholders. High-trust, high-agency approach to leadership, with a willingness to challenge assumptions, surface problems early, and share learnings openly. Experience in consulting, professional services, or forward-deployed engineering environments is a plus. Experience building a team or engineering practice from the early stages is also beneficial. Benefits: Base salary of $285,000 USD plus competitive equity. 401(k) with a 4.5% employer match. Fully covered medical, dental, and vision premiums. Monthly wellness stipend. Citi Bike and pre-tax commuter benefits. 12 weeks of parental leave, with an optional four-week ramp-up period at 50% capacity. Hybrid work in New York City, with fully remote opportunities available to candidates in the US or Canada. Loft office in Soho with lunch and snacks. Opportunity to work on production AI systems across diverse enterprise industries and problem spaces.

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