Engineering Manager, Platform

About the role

Norm Ai creates agentic legal software for institutions managing over $30 trillion in assets. As an Engineering Manager for the Platform team, you will guide the development of the shared infrastructure that supports our proprietary legal engineering tools. You will own the technical leadership of the platform that underpins our core product offerings. This role requires you to balance hands-on engineering contribution with strategic people and process management. You will ensure that the platform evolves in lockstep with the rapidly expanding needs of our engineering organization. Your decisions will directly influence the velocity and reliability of the software built by our teams. You are expected to foster an environment where rigorous engineering standards meet aggressive product delivery. This position is critical for unifying our technical direction and enabling scalable, maintainable systems.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Recruit, mentor, and retain engineering talent while managing performance reviews and compensation.
• Provide direct coaching to help engineers advance their professional growth and technical mastery.
• Define team goals and prioritize workstreams based on business objectives and technical requirements.
• Align individual engineer strengths and career interests with specific project assignments to maximize engagement.
• Manage the end-to-end hiring process, including conducting interviews and training staff to maintain hiring standards.
• Oversee team operations, including delivery schedules, code quality standards, and post-project retrospectives to drive continuous improvement.
• Integrate AI tools into the software development lifecycle to increase team output and reduce manual overhead.
• Contribute to hands-on engineering tasks when necessary to ensure project milestones are met and technical debt is managed.
• Identify opportunities to unify technical approaches and consolidate shared systems to reduce complexity and maintenance burden.
• Design and maintain the architectural guardrails that allow our platform to scale securely and efficiently.
• Partner closely with product and legal domain experts to translate business requirements into robust technical specifications.
• Establish metrics and monitoring frameworks to measure the health and performance of our core platform services.
• Lead incident response efforts and ensure that operational reliability standards are consistently met or exceeded.
• Mentor senior engineers to become effective tech leads who can own complex components with minimal supervision.

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in an engineering management role leading teams of software engineers.
• Demonstrated history of developing and leading high-performing engineering teams that delivered significant business outcomes.
• Technical proficiency in modern software development practices and system design to effectively guide senior engineers.
• Ability to execute effectively within rapid-growth, fast-paced environments while maintaining focus on long-term goals.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to manage cross-functional stakeholders and align conflicting priorities.
• Experience working within compliance-heavy or regulated industries, understanding the implications for technology decisions.
• Fluency in AI usage for daily problem-solving, task optimization, and to leverage AI as a force multiplier for the team.
• Willingness to engage in hands-on coding and debugging sessions to unblock engineering efforts or validate technical approaches.
• Commitment to maintaining a high standard of code quality, testing, and documentation across the platform team.
• Ability to travel within the New York City metropolitan area as needed for business operations and team collaboration.

Nice to have

• Background in building cloud infrastructure, platform services, or shared-service systems that enable multiple product teams.
• Experience with AI/ML workloads, specifically LLM-based applications or data-heavy products that require careful engineering.
• Previous experience in a startup environment where agility and ownership were essential for navigating ambiguity.
• Familiarity with legal technology or financial services domains, providing context for the problems our software solves.
• Experience managing budgets and planning resource allocation to optimize team efficiency and project outcomes.

Skills & tools

• AI-native development workflows utilizing modern tooling to enhance productivity and code quality.
• Cloud infrastructure management across major providers to ensure scalability and cost-efficiency.
• System design principles to build resilient, maintainable, and performant software architectures.
• Team leadership and performance management practices to foster growth and accountability.
• Cross-functional stakeholder management to coordinate efforts between engineering, product, and business teams.
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language and understanding of software development lifecycle best practices.
• Experience with version control systems, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing frameworks.
• Knowledge of containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret data and translate insights into actionable engineering improvements.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills to articulate technical concepts to diverse audiences.

Practical notes

• This role follows a hybrid work model, requiring 3 to 4 days per week in the office to facilitate collaboration and team cohesion.
• Benefits include a 401(k) with company match and comprehensive health, dental, vision, hospital, and accident insurance.
• Relocation reimbursement is available for those moving to the New York City area to support successful onboarding.
• Candidates must be prepared to discuss specific examples of how they use AI in their current workflows during the interview process to demonstrate practical competency.
• The compensation range reflects the market rate for this position in the New York City area and includes both base salary and equity components.
• This position is exempt and classified as a Manager level according to standard employment classifications.
• The successful candidate is expected to start as soon as possible to ensure continuity in platform development and team leadership.
• All offers are contingent upon the completion of standard background checks and verification of employment eligibility documentation.