# Engineering Manager
**Company:** [PermitFlow](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/permitflow)
PermitFlow is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead a high-performing team building core infrastructure for an applied AI platform revolutionizing construction permitting across 20,000+ jurisdictions. This builder-leader role combines technical depth with people leadership in a fast-scaling startup backed by top-tier investors, where you'll own end-to-end roadmap execution, system architecture decisions, and team development while directly impacting housing and infrastructure project timelines.
**Role:** Engineering Manager
**Seniority:** Manager
**Locations:** New York City, NY
**Salary:** 180000–250000 USD
[Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/permitflow/aa994de3-23b8-4999-9b26-1a6618b2e342)
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/permitflow/engineering-manager-aa994de3
---
## Responsibilities

- Lead and Scale High-Performing Engineering Teams: Build and grow engineering teams while raising the bar for ownership, quality, and execution velocity. Establish clear performance expectations, implement feedback mechanisms, and create a culture of technical excellence and accountability. Play a key role in hiring, interviewing, and developing engineers to become future technical leaders within the organization.
- Define Technical Direction and Architecture: Own strategic technical decisions across system architecture, scalability, reliability, and long-term infrastructure evolution. Establish patterns and best practices for distributed systems, ensuring systems remain maintainable and performant as they scale across thousands of jurisdictions. Stay deeply engaged with codebase decisions to maintain high technical standards.
- Drive End-to-End Roadmap Execution: Translate ambiguous real-world permitting workflows and regulatory complexity into structured technical roadmaps. Manage planning from technical definition through delivery, monitoring production performance and ensuring consistent user value delivery. Balance short-term execution with long-term infrastructure investments.
- Build Strong Engineering Culture: Establish clear expectations and career development paths through regular 1:1s, constructive feedback loops, and mentorship. Foster a culture of ownership where engineers understand the impact of their work on real construction projects and jurisdictional processes. Create psychological safety while maintaining high technical standards.
- Improve System Reliability and Observability: Lead initiatives to enhance system reliability, observability, performance monitoring, and engineering efficiency. Implement logging, tracing, and alerting strategies for infrastructure serving critical permitting workflows. Establish SLOs and incident response processes to maintain service excellence across high-volume, geographically distributed systems.
- Partner with Cross-Functional Leadership: Work closely with product, design, and executive leadership to understand complex regulatory environments and translate business needs into scalable technical solutions. Communicate technical tradeoffs clearly to non-technical stakeholders. Bridge engineering capabilities with customer needs across the construction industry.
- Deliver Infrastructure at Scale: Own delivery of critical permitting infrastructure and AI workflow automation systems that support thousands of construction projects annually. Ensure systems reliably process complex, multi-jurisdictional permitting requirements. Drive technical rigor in deployment, testing, and production reliability.
- Drive Engineering Efficiency and Best Practices: Establish engineering standards for code quality, testing, deployment, and operational excellence. Implement CI/CD improvements and developer tooling that accelerate team velocity. Balance technical debt management with feature velocity to sustain long-term productivity.

## Requirements

### education

- {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Formal education in computer science, software engineering, or equivalent technical discipline. Foundation in algorithms, data structures, and computer science fundamentals."}
- {"name":"Self-Directed Technical Learning","description":"Demonstrated commitment to continuous learning in distributed systems, architecture patterns, and emerging technologies. Active participation in technical communities or open-source projects. Ability to quickly master new domains and technical challenges."}

### technical

- {"name":"System Design and Distributed Systems","description":"Demonstrated expertise designing and building scalable web services, distributed systems, and microservices architectures. Experience optimizing systems for high throughput, low latency, and reliability at scale. Understanding of database design, caching strategies, message queues, and trade-offs in system architecture decisions."}
- {"name":"Backend Infrastructure and APIs","description":"Strong background building robust REST or GraphQL APIs, implementing proper error handling, rate limiting, and versioning strategies. Experience with infrastructure-as-code, monitoring, logging, and observability tools. Familiarity with deployment pipelines, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and production operations."}
- {"name":"Code Review and Technical Assessment","description":"Deep proficiency in code review practices, architectural evaluation, and technical interviewing. Ability to mentor engineers through architecture decisions and maintain high code quality standards. Comfortable assessing technical candidates and evaluating engineering quality across domains."}
- {"name":"AI and Workflow Automation (Preferred)","description":"Experience with AI agent systems, LLMs, or intelligent automation workflows. Knowledge of how to integrate AI capabilities into production systems and manage uncertainty in AI-driven features. Understanding of building systems that interact with external APIs and regulatory databases."}
- {"name":"Regulated Systems and Enterprise Infrastructure (Preferred)","description":"Background working with compliance-heavy systems, government infrastructure, or regulated industries (healthcare, finance, legal tech, etc.). Understanding of audit trails, data governance, and systems handling sensitive data. Experience building software in multi-jurisdictional or fragmented regulatory environments."}

### experience

- {"name":"5+ Years Software Engineering Experience","description":"Extensive background building production software systems, with proven ability to design complex features and navigate technical tradeoffs. Experience shipping customer-facing or infrastructure products at scale."}
- {"name":"1+ Year Engineering Leadership or Team Lead Experience","description":"Prior experience managing engineers, building teams, or leading technical projects. Demonstrated ability to grow others, establish technical culture, and balance hands-on technical work with team leadership. Experience navigating people and organizational dynamics."}
- {"name":"Startup or High-Growth Environment Experience","description":"Background working in fast-scaling companies (Series A-C) or high-growth environments where priorities shift rapidly, resources are constrained, and ambiguity is high. Experience building systems and teams under uncertainty and managing rapid scaling challenges."}
- {"name":"Leading Through Ambiguity","description":"Proven ability to translate unclear requirements and complex real-world problems into structured execution plans. Experience working across multiple stakeholder groups with competing priorities. Comfortable with incomplete information and iterative problem-solving."}
- {"name":"Cross-Functional Collaboration at Scale","description":"Experience partnering effectively with product, design, operations, and executive teams. Strong communication skills explaining technical decisions to non-technical audiences. Track record of unblocking teams and driving alignment across functions."}

## Skills

### required

- {"name":"System Design and Architecture","description":"Ability to design scalable, maintainable systems with clear separation of concerns. Experience with distributed system patterns, eventual consistency, and handling failure modes. Understanding database design, caching, queuing, and architectural trade-offs."}
- {"name":"Backend Development and APIs","description":"Proficiency building production services, REST APIs, and backend systems. Knowledge of authentication, authorization, error handling, and rate limiting. Experience with multiple programming languages and frameworks."}
- {"name":"Engineering Leadership and Team Development","description":"Ability to build, hire, and develop high-performing engineering teams. Experience providing feedback, setting clear expectations, and creating career development paths. Skills in conflict resolution and creating inclusive technical cultures."}
- {"name":"Technical Communication and Decision-Making","description":"Ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders. Skill in facilitating architectural discussions, weighing trade-offs, and building consensus on technical decisions. Strong written and presentation communication."}
- {"name":"Production Operations and Reliability","description":"Experience designing systems for high availability, implementing monitoring/alerting, and managing incidents. Understanding SLOs, error budgets, and reliability engineering principles. Comfort with on-call rotations and production troubleshooting."}
- {"name":"Roadmap Execution and Prioritization","description":"Proven ability to define clear technical roadmaps aligned with business goals. Experience managing multiple competing priorities, making trade-off decisions, and adapting plans based on new information. Strong project management and delivery execution."}

### preferred

- {"name":"AI and LLM Integration","description":"Experience integrating large language models or AI agents into production systems. Understanding of prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and managing AI model performance and uncertainty in production environments."}
- {"name":"Workflow Automation and Business Process Engineering","description":"Background building workflow automation systems, BPM platforms, or business logic orchestration. Experience designing systems for complex, multi-step business processes and regulatory compliance."}
- {"name":"Construction Tech or Government Tech","description":"Prior experience in construction technology, GovTech, or regulated/compliance-heavy industries. Understanding of construction workflows, permitting challenges, or government systems provides valuable domain context."}
- {"name":"Multi-Jurisdictional and Localization Systems","description":"Experience building systems that serve multiple regions, jurisdictions, or regulatory frameworks with significant variation. Background with data localization, compliance fragmentation, or systems serving fragmented markets."}
- {"name":"Open Source and Community Building","description":"Active contribution to open-source projects or technical communities. Experience building developer communities or fostering open-source adoption. Demonstrates commitment to advancing engineering practices broadly."}
- {"name":"Infrastructure as Code and DevOps","description":"Experience with IaC tools (Terraform, CloudFormation), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and modern deployment practices. Understanding of observability platforms, logging solutions, and infrastructure monitoring."}

## Tech stack

### tools

- {"name":"Docker & Kubernetes","description":"Containerization and orchestration for deploying scalable permitting services and AI workflows across geographic regions."}
- {"name":"CI/CD Pipeline (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins)","description":"Continuous integration and deployment automation ensuring rapid, reliable releases of permitting and compliance features."}
- {"name":"Terraform or CloudFormation","description":"Infrastructure-as-Code for managing cloud resources, scaling, and disaster recovery across AWS, GCP, or Azure."}
- {"name":"Prometheus & Grafana","description":"Metrics collection and visualization for monitoring system performance, reliability, and SLOs across permitting infrastructure."}
- {"name":"ELK Stack or Datadog","description":"Centralized logging and observability for troubleshooting distributed systems and regulatory compliance audit trails."}
- {"name":"Git","description":"Version control for source code management, code review workflows, and team collaboration practices."}

### others

- {"name":"LLM and AI Agent Frameworks","description":"Integration with OpenAI APIs, Anthropic, or LangChain for building intelligent automation agents. Experience with prompt engineering and AI workflow orchestration for permitting tasks."}
- {"name":"Workflow Orchestration (Airflow, Temporal, or custom agents)","description":"Systems for coordinating multi-step permitting processes across jurisdictions with different requirements. State machine patterns for complex regulatory workflows."}
- {"name":"API Integration and Webhooks","description":"Building connectors to external permitting systems, jurisdiction databases, and GIS data sources. Managing webhook-based event streams for status updates."}
- {"name":"Graph Databases or Knowledge Graphs (Optional)","description":"Representing complex regulatory relationships, jurisdiction hierarchies, and regulatory dependencies. Modeling permitting workflows as connected systems."}

### databases

- {"name":"PostgreSQL","description":"Primary relational database for transactional consistency, storing jurisdiction rules, permits, projects, and regulatory data. Proven ACID guarantees for compliance workflows."}
- {"name":"Redis","description":"In-memory caching and session management for high-throughput API performance. Real-time data for active permits and workflow state."}
- {"name":"Elasticsearch or Solr","description":"Full-text search and indexing for permit history, jurisdiction regulations, and regulatory documentation across fragmented sources."}
- {"name":"S3 or Cloud Storage","description":"Scalable document storage for permit applications, regulatory documents, and compliance artifacts across thousands of jurisdictions."}

### languages

- {"name":"Python","description":"Primary backend language for AI agent development, workflow automation, and data processing pipelines used in permitting systems."}
- {"name":"TypeScript/JavaScript","description":"Frontend and API development for user-facing permitting interfaces and real-time collaboration features. Node.js backend services for API layer."}
- {"name":"Java","description":"Potential backend services for high-throughput processing and enterprise integration systems. Strong typing for reliability-critical permitting workflows."}
- {"name":"Go","description":"Infrastructure tooling, microservices, and performance-critical systems. Deployment and containerization tools across distributed environments."}

### frameworks

- {"name":"FastAPI or Django","description":"Python web frameworks for building robust REST APIs and backend services handling permitting workflows and regulatory data."}
- {"name":"React or Vue.js","description":"Frontend frameworks for building responsive, real-time user interfaces for construction project managers and permitting officials."}
- {"name":"PostgreSQL with SQLAlchemy","description":"ORM for database layer abstractions, enabling complex queries across jurisdiction and project data while maintaining reliability."}
- {"name":"gRPC","description":"High-performance inter-service communication for AI agents and backend microservices coordinating across distributed permitting workflows."}

## Benefits

### benefits

- {"name":"100% Company-Paid Health Coverage","description":"Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance fully covered by PermitFlow for employees. Includes healthcare Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to support family healthcare costs with pre-tax dollars."}
- {"name":"401(k) Retirement Savings Plan","description":"Tax-advantaged retirement savings program to support long-term financial planning. Eligible employees can contribute pre-tax earnings toward retirement with company retirement plan management."}
- {"name":"Unlimited Paid Time Off","description":"Flexible paid time off policy with unlimited vacation days, recognizing that trust and results matter more than hours. Supports work-life balance and recovery in a fast-paced scaling environment."}
- {"name":"Paid Family Leave","description":"Comprehensive paid family leave to support major life events including childbirth, adoption, and family care situations. Ensures employees can focus on family needs without financial stress during important transitions."}
- {"name":"Home Office and Equipment Stipend","description":"Financial support for remote work setup including monitors, keyboards, ergonomic furniture, and other equipment. Empowers employees to create productive home office environments regardless of remote or office location."}
- {"name":"Daily In-Office Meals","description":"Complimentary lunch and dinner provided daily at the San Francisco office. Supports team bonding, eliminates meal planning stress for office-based days, and creates community space for collaboration."}
- {"name":"Commuter Benefits","description":"Pre-tax transit and parking benefits for employees commuting to San Francisco headquarters. Reduces transportation costs while supporting sustainable commuting options."}
- {"name":"Meaningful Equity Ownership","description":"Significant equity grants for management-level positions in a high-growth Series B company with backing from top-tier investors including Accel, Kleiner Perkins, and Y Combinator. Opportunity to participate in company upside as PermitFlow scales construction tech infrastructure."}

## Compensation

- **max:** 280000
- **min:** 180000
- **currency:** USD
- **stockOptions:** true

## Interview process

### steps

## Full description
PermitFlow is redefining how America builds. We’re an applied AI company serving the nation’s builders, tackling one of the largest information challenges in the economy: understanding _what can be built, where, and how_. Our AI agent workforce helps the fastest-growing construction companies navigate everything from permitting and licensing to inspections and project closeouts – accelerating housing, clean-energy, and infrastructure development across the country.

Despite being a $1.6T industry, construction still suffers from massive delays, wasted capital, and lost opportunity. PermitFlow has already delivered unprecedented speed, accuracy, and visibility to over $20B in development, helping contractors reduce compliance time, de-risk projects, and scale with confidence.

As the U.S. enters a new capex supercycle across data centers, factories, housing, and renewables, joining PermitFlow means building the AI infrastructure at the core of every construction project driving the next wave of reindustrialization.

We’ve raised over $90M, most recently completing our [Series B,](https://www.permitflow.com/blog/permitflow-series-b) from top-tier investors including Accel, [Kleiner Perkins](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7401703305569275904/), Initialized, Y Combinator, Felicis, and Altos Ventures, with backing from leaders at OpenAI, Google, Procore, ServiceTitan, Zillow, PlanGrid, and Uber.

## Building the AI Infrastructure for Construction

* Construction remains one of the largest real-world systems still operating on fragmented, manual infrastructure.
* Every project in the U.S. moves through permitting and pre-construction workflows spread across \~20,000 jurisdictions - each with inconsistent rules, systems, and levels of digitization.
* This creates one of the largest bottlenecks in the physical economy, delaying housing and infrastructure projects and costing billions in lost time and capital every year.
* PermitFlow is rebuilding this layer from the ground up - using modern software and AI systems to automate permitting end-to-end.
* We are still early, and the core systems are actively being defined.
* This is one of those rare moments where engineering decisions directly shape an emerging category.

## Role Overview

* We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead and scale a high-performing engineering team building the core infrastructure behind PermitFlow.
* This is a builder-leader role. You will own both people leadership and technical execution in a fast-moving environment where systems are complex, ambiguous, and deeply connected to real-world outcomes.
* You will report directly to our VP of Engineering. Our VP strongly values hands-on technical leadership - the best-fit EMs here are deeply technical, strong communicators, and comfortable staying close to architecture, system design, and the codebase to make high-quality technical decisions.
* You will be expected to drive your own roadmap end-to-end from technical direction and execution planning through delivery and customer impact - ensuring what your team builds consistently performs in production and delivers real value to users.

## What You’ll Do

You will operate across systems, people, and execution at scale:

* Lead and grow a high-performing engineering team, raising the bar for ownership, quality, and execution speed
* Build strong engineering culture through clear expectations, 1:1s, feedback loops, and career development
* Define technical direction across architecture, scalability, reliability, and long-term system evolution
* Own roadmap planning and execution from definition through delivery and customer impact
* Partner closely with product, design, and leadership to translate ambiguous real-world problems into scalable systems
* Drive delivery of critical infrastructure used across thousands of jurisdictions
* Improve system reliability, observability, performance, and engineering efficiency
* Play a key role in hiring and developing engineers and future leaders

## What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for strong technical leaders who thrive in high-ownership, high-ambiguity environments.

* 5+ years in software engineering, including 1+ year in engineering leadership
* Experience building and scaling engineering teams in startup or high-growth environments
* Strong system design and architecture fundamentals (scalable web or distributed systems)
* Ability to lead through ambiguity and turn unclear problems into structured execution
* Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical stakeholders
* High standards for engineering quality, reliability, and performance
* Deep technical fluency - comfortable engaging with code review, architecture, and tradeoffs
* Bonus: experience in workflow-heavy, enterprise SaaS, or infrastructure products
* Bonus: exposure to complex regulated environments (construction, logistics, government systems, etc.)

## Why This Role Matters

This is not a maintenance role - it is a systems-building role at the foundation of a category being created in real time.

PermitFlow sits at the intersection of:

* fragmented real-world regulatory infrastructure
* high-friction physical economy workflows
* emerging AI systems capable of automating end-to-end complexity

The systems built here directly impact how quickly housing and infrastructure projects move from idea to execution.

This role offers rare leverage: your decisions will shape both the engineering organization and the core product surface area at an early but rapidly scaling company.

## What We Offer

* Competitive salary and meaningful equity in a high-growth company
* 100% company-paid base medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees + healthcare FSA
* 401(k) savings plan
* Unlimited PTO and paid family leave
* Home office & equipment stipend
* Daily in-office lunch and dinner provided
* Commuter benefits (pre-tax transit and parking)

If you want to build complex systems connecting software to real-world infrastructure and help define a category from the ground up, we’d love to talk.

[Inside PermitFlow: The Team Transforming Construction Permitting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbxs%5FTzlTTo)

_PermitFlow provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or family status, as protected by applicable law._

  
_We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities. All employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs._