Senior Engineering Manager

We're looking for an experienced engineering manager to join our fully remote and mission driven team.

Full-time · Remote

About Buffer

Buffer is a platform of social media products made for small businesses and creators. Our mission is to provide essential tools to help small businesses get off the ground and grow. Through exceptional customer service and uplifting content, we help companies believe they can succeed and do good along the way.

We’re a fully distributed team, and we’ve always aimed to do things a little differently at Buffer. Since the early days, we’ve had a focus on building one of the most unique and fulfilling workplaces by rethinking a lot of traditional practices. Our passion for making meaningful connections flows through everything we do.

Our team is made up of amazing individuals who hail from startups to the theatre from all over the world - we value diverse and non-traditional backgrounds and encourage all those who are interested in joining the journey to apply.

We're united by Buffer's values, and we celebrate our unique differences. We strive to create a diverse and inclusive work environment and are actively working on building a culture where underrepresented groups are truly welcomed and can flourish.

About the role

We are a dynamic, lean and fast moving engineering team focused on the consistent delivery of value to delight our customers. We care about the quality of our product and by working small with a continuous improvement mindset, we aim to leave our code well-tested and better than when we started.

We’re looking for an experienced engineering manager to lead one of our product engineering teams. You’ll be supporting a team of around 5 engineers working on building new features across the scope of our core product offering. You’ll initially be managing a single team, but this responsibility could expand to include a second team. You’ll partner closely with a product manager, and report to our Director of Engineering.

At Buffer, we value engineering managers who are able to craft a fulfilling work environment for each engineer and lead effective teams where folks do their best work. We believe that a human-centered leadership approach is key to a high-performing team.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering team(s) to deliver high-quality software in small iterations, continuously aiming to reduce cycle time and friction for your team.
• Have regular one-on-one meetings with engineers, where you will:
• Set expectations, provide regular feedback, and hold team members accountable
• Develop a strong two-way feedback loop where you share wider organizational context and build a deep understanding of each engineer and how they work
• Support engineers and help reach a resolution when issues arise
• Craft a fulfilling and engaging work experience through regular career growth and development conversations  
• You’ll work in close partnership with Product and Design to align on shared business outcomes that you are seeking to achieve.
• You’ll bring forward the feasibility of projects and ideas, and collaborate in lean ways to deliver business outcomes, validating assumptions along the way. 
• Maintain a strong and up-to-date understanding of the architectural challenges and opportunities that your team is facing when building and deploying software. Minimal time would be spent coding, but you will be expected to maintain context, ask informative questions, and assist the team in making strategic trade-offs.
• You will work closely with engineers in your team to ensure that your team delivers their work in a way that aligns with our technical strategy and engineering goals.
• Partner with other engineering managers to drive EPD (Engineering, Product, Design) wide initiatives that help us to level up as a team.
• Participate in hiring and onboarding of engineers.

Helpful skills and experience: 

•  You have experience leading and managing engineering teams.
• You have a history of holding your team(s) accountable for achieving their goals while operating with high levels of autonomy.
• You have a technical background and are passionate about delivering maintainable and well-tested software. Engineering managers at Buffer have typically worked as senior engineers during their career.
• You use your time effectively and efficiently, and ensure that your team does the same. You manage projects using your organizational skills to ensure that they are delivered optimally.
• You have experience working with data and making decisions that are centered on customer needs.
• You know how to work with a team to move fast, ship an MVP, and get early data and feedback
• You are capable of leading globally distributed team members who may have different skillsets to your own.
• You have a deep understanding of how software is built and deployed.
• Our frontend is built with React.js, and we have a service-orientated architecture with microservices built using Node.js, TypeScript, PHP, and GraphQL.
• All of our engineering teams are full-stack so an understanding of building both front-end and back-end applications, as well as knowledge of any server-side language and JavaScript, would be helpful.
• Able to work proficiently using English, as we work exclusively in this language.

Perks and Benefits

💰 Competitive salary: Our salary formula adjusts to your cost of living and experience. For this role, the range is $168,043 - $207,976 USD.

🏝 Work remotely: Live and work wherever you like!

🗓 4-Day workweeks: Our schedule is four workdays, with a flexible, meeting-free fifth day for overflow tasks or personal time as you see fit.

💪 Health insurance: We offer health insurance for all of our team members, international or US.

💻 Home office setup: Get a laptop + $500 to set up your home office!

👓 'Growth mindset' fund: Extra money for learning and development.

⛺️ Minimum vacation: At least 3 weeks/year!

💵 Savings plan match: With 3% company match

📈 Profit sharing: When the company does well, all team members share the profits!

🍼 Family leave: 16 weeks of family leave for all parents, fully paid

📚 Free books: Get a free Kindle and all the free books - digital, physical, and audio - you like, anytime.

⛱ Sabbaticals: Take a 6-week break, fully paid, after every 5 years with Buffer.

Our hiring process

Stage 1: Application: Apply to join the team through the form below. If you don't hear from us for the first week or two after submitting your application, don't be alarmed. :)

Step 2: Getting to know your: You'll chat about your background, experience, and achievements.

Step 3: Take home exercise and follow-up discussion: In this step of the process, you'll showcase your managerial skills and leadership mindset.

Step 4: Get to know our technologies and your background: You'll share how you've helped teams think through their technical decision making, made trade-offs, and prioritised technical requirements. This will not involve coding or white-boarding!

Step 5: Getting to know your PM partner: You'll chat with your PM partner and some team members to find out what it's like to be a member of the team.

Step 6: Exec Interview: You'll have the opportunity to meet with Joel, our CEO, and Maria, our Chief Product Officer, to talk about Buffer as a company and our values.

Apply for the job

Do you want to join our team? Then we'd love to hear about you!