Engineering Manager, Data / AI

Brightside is a company focused on improving the financial health of working families through innovative solutions. The Engineering Manager for Data / AI will lead a high-impact team to build AI-driven systems and enhance productivity through intelligent automation, while also fostering a culture of engineering excellence and collaboration.

Responsibilities:

• Lead, hire, and develop a high-performing Client Intelligence engineering team
• Drive clarity, accountability, and predictable delivery across multiple initiatives
• Foster a culture of ownership, engineering excellence, and continuous improvement
• Coach engineers through hands-on guidance, feedback, and career development
• Design and build AI agents and workflows that automate complex processes and improve productivity
• Identify bottlenecks and deploy AI-driven solutions to reduce manual work
• Establish best practices for agent orchestration, tool integration, prompt design, evaluation, and observability
• Promote adoption of modern AI engineering practices across the organization
• Own technical direction for client intelligence systems, AI workflows, and supporting data architecture
• Design scalable, maintainable, and observable systems across Python services, data pipelines, and agent-based architectures
• Set and uphold high standards for development, testing, and operational excellence
• Balance speed and rigor to enable rapid, reliable delivery
• Contribute to code in Python, TypeScript, and backend systems
• Build and scale production-grade AI services and workflows
• Review code, improve quality, and troubleshoot complex technical issues
• Rapidly prototype and evolve solutions into stable production systems
• Partner with data teams on data lake strategy, modeling, governance, and reliability
• Ensure clean, well-structured data supports AI workflows and product experiences
• Maintain strong architectural discipline around shared data assets
• Translate ambiguous business goals into clear engineering plans with cross-functional partners
• Communicate tradeoffs, risks, and priorities effectively
• Align engineering execution with product strategy and business impact

Requirements:

• 8+ years building and scaling production software systems
• 2+ years managing and leading engineers
• Strong proficiency in Python, TypeScript, and backend development
• Experience designing distributed systems, APIs, and data-intensive applications
• Hands-on experience building production AI systems, agents, or automation workflows
• Solid understanding of LLMs, APIs, and tool integration patterns
• Experience with data platforms (lakes, warehouses, pipelines) and AWS/cloud-native systems
• Strong problem-solving, debugging, and rapid prototyping skills
• Comfortable contributing in code while leading a team
• Strong communication skills and ability to operate in fast-paced environments
• Experience with multi-agent systems or workflow automation platforms
• Track record of improving engineering productivity through AI or automation
• Experience evaluating AI system performance, reliability, and quality
• Familiarity with modern AI development practices and tools
• Experience with Databricks, DBT, or modern data platforms
• Knowledge of event-driven architectures, orchestration, and observability
• Startup or high-growth environment experience