Senior Engineering Manager

About the role

This owns the full lifecycle of complex digital products delivered to global enterprise clients, ensuring that technical excellence directly drives business outcomes. You will act as the ultimate technical authority and delivery owner, responsible for both the architecture and the execution of high-stakes initiatives. This role demands deep hands-on involvement where you will jump into critical codebases to unblock teams and validate technical decisions. You will lead cross-functional engineering teams while maintaining the technical depth to review, challenge, and override proposals that impact system integrity. The position requires defending hard trade-offs between speed, quality, and scalability in front of senior client stakeholders. You will translate ambiguous business objectives into clear engineering strategies and ensure they are executed without compromise. Ultimately, you are the single point of accountability for the technical health, on-time delivery, and client trust in your portfolio of accounts.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define and enforce rigorous engineering standards, code quality practices, and performance-driven delivery cadences across multiple client engagements.

Architect and oversee cloud-native, microservices, and API-first system designs while maintaining sufficient hands-on depth to audit and challenge technical proposals.

Conduct deep-dive code reviews and technical validations across core stacks such as Java, Python, and Node.js to prevent architectural drift and critical blockers.

Drive the modernization of legacy systems through strategic adoption of cloud-native patterns, infrastructure scalability, and resilient API ecosystems.

Lead, mentor, and grow a distributed engineering organization of 8 to 15 engineers, identifying underperformance early and fostering a culture of ownership and high-stakes delivery.

Own the full Software Development Life Cycle for complex programs, from meticulous planning and capacity management to rapid incident response and structured retrospection.

Proactively identify, surface, and neutralize technical and delivery risks, ensuring that clients are never surprised by delays, failures, or architectural shortfalls.

Manage capacity, velocity, and budgets across parallel workstreams, optimizing resource allocation without sacrificing product quality or engineering morale.

Act as the primary C-level technical interlocutor, communicating honestly and directly with CTOs and VPs of Engineering to build and sustain client trust.

Translate abstract business goals into concrete technical roadmaps and priorities, and reverse this process by aligning engineering outcomes with strategic client objectives.

Identify and propose high-impact technical opportunities by deeply understanding client roadmaps and demonstrating how technology can unlock additional business value.

Govern architectural decision-making at scale, ensuring that choices around microservices, data platforms, and integration patterns support long-term maintainability.

Champion operational excellence by refining incident management, observability, and feedback loops to improve reliability and delivery predictability.

Build and sustain collaborative partnerships with international teams, leveraging clear communication and technical leadership to navigate complex digital transformation programs.

Continuously assess and optimize delivery performance, using data and insights to streamline workflows, reduce bottlenecks, and improve outcomes across accounts.

Requirements

You bring 7 or more years of professional software engineering experience with a proven track record of designing and building scalable, production-grade systems.

You have accumulated 3 or more years of experience as an Engineering Manager or Tech Lead Manager, successfully guiding distributed teams through high-pressure delivery cycles.

You possess deep, hands-on expertise in at least one core engineering stack, specifically Java, Python, or Node.js, and you are capable of conducting detailed, line-by-line code reviews.

You have solid, practical experience in cloud-native architecture, microservices design, and robust API-first development practices.

You are experienced in managing senior-level stakeholders, including C-level executives and Vice Presidents, within consulting or digital transformation environments.

You communicate fluently in English, both in writing and verbally, enabling you to manage complex international client relationships with clarity and confidence.

You demonstrate a strong commitment to ownership, accountability, and transparency, even when navigating ambiguous or high-stakes situations.

You are comfortable making hard pragmatic trade-offs between technical debt, delivery speed, and long-term scalability, and you can defend these decisions to senior leadership.

Nice to have

You have direct delivery experience with Amazon Web Services and/or Microsoft Azure, understanding how these platforms influence architecture and operations.

You have exposure to data platform strategies, AI or machine learning product delivery, or advanced DevSecOps practices that enhance product reliability and security.

You bring a background in large-scale Enterprise Digital Transformation programs, where cross-functional alignment and executive communication are critical.

Practical notes

This is a contract role with remote engagement from Santiago de Chile.

The position requires availability for meetings across time zones and occasional travel as dictated by client needs.

No specific visa requirements are outlined, but the contractor must be legally able to work in Chile under contract terms.

There are no published deadlines for submission, but early application is encouraged given the high-stakes nature of the role.