Senior Engineering Manager

About Us

We're living through a fundamental shift in how people discover, evaluate, and purchase products. The next generation doesn't respond to traditional marketing -- they build relationships with brands through authentic social interactions, seek recommendations from communities they trust, and expect personalized experiences that feel human, not corporate.

At Nectar Social, we're building the AI-native social operating system that enables this new era of commerce. We believe every social interaction should deepen the relationship between brands and their communities while creating genuine value for both sides.

Founded by ex-Meta product and engineering leaders, we've raised over $30M in total capital from investors including GV and True Ventures. We work with brands like Oura Health, Caraway, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Kosas, OLIPOP, and many more. We're building the future of social commerce -- where community, conversation, and commerce converge.

The Role

We're looking for an Engineering Manager who thinks like a product leader to own one of our core engineering teams. Our eng org includes multiple core teams with a strong product-facing focus, as well as an FDE team that moves fast across the full stack on high-priority initiatives. Your team will build products that ingest large volumes of social data, run AI agents on that data in real time, and deliver insights to customers through analytics and automation.

This isn't a pure people-management role. You'll be deeply involved in what gets built, not just how. You'll sit in customer calls, develop strong opinions about product direction, and partner with product and design as a true peer, not just an execution arm. At the same time, you'll grow engineers, drive technical quality, and help shape engineering culture as we scale from ~30 people into our next phase of growth.

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead and grow a team of engineers, providing regular feedback, career development, and mentorship

• Partner closely with product and design to define what gets built, not just how it gets built. Bring your own perspective on user problems, scope, and sequencing

• Sit in customer calls regularly to build direct intuition for how social and brand teams work and where the product falls short

• Own planning and delivery for your team's product area, balancing speed, quality, and impact

• Drive technical quality across your team's systems, ensuring reliability, performance, and sound architecture decisions

• Contribute to product strategy by identifying patterns across customer feedback, usage data, and engineering insight that product alone might miss

• Establish and refine engineering processes including sprint planning, on-call, incident response, and operational excellence

• Contribute to hiring by sourcing, interviewing, and closing strong engineering talent

What We're Looking For

• Experience managing a team of software engineers, with a track record of developing talent and building high-performing teams

• Strong product instincts. You form opinions about what should get built, push back on specs that don't make sense, and think in terms of customer outcomes, not just tickets

• Technical background strong enough to engage in architecture discussions, review designs, and make sound tradeoffs

• Experience working closely with product and design, ideally in environments where the lines between functions were blurry

• A bias toward action and comfort operating in a fast-moving startup environment with ambiguity and shifting priorities

• Clear, direct communication style and the ability to build trust across functions

• Interest in how AI is changing both the products we build and the way engineering teams work

Bonus Points

• Experience in B2B SaaS, social, commerce, or marketing technology where you developed deep domain understanding

• Previous experience in a product engineering culture where EMs were expected to contribute to product direction

• Familiarity with our stack: React, TypeScript, AWS, Pulumi, Postgres, ClickHouse, Turbopuffer

• Previous experience at an early-stage or rapidly scaling startup where you helped define engineering culture

• Experience building or managing teams that ship AI-powered product experiences

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation and early equity

• Health, vision, and dental benefits + 401(k) match

• Hybrid work schedule (4 days in office) with 3 flex remote days per quarter (available after 3 months)

• Comprehensive stipends: $1,000/month housing stipend for living near the office, $50/month mobile stipend, $50/month internet stipend for remote employees, and commuter benefits (train stipend or Palo Alto parking permit reimbursement)

• Free lunch in the heart of University Ave. in Palo Alto