Engineering Manager

Quick Summary

Lead a full-stack team building distributed, API-first systems on AWS. Player-coach role driving scalable architecture, reliable delivery, and high-performing engineers.

At this time, we are unable to sponsor employment visas for this role.

The opportunity

We’re looking for a passionate, entrepreneurial Engineering Manager to help us scale our product architecture and elevate our engineering execution. As Kin continues to grow, we’re evolving from monolithic systems toward distributed, modular services — and we need a hands-on leader who can guide that transformation while delivering customer-facing innovation.

This role exists at a pivotal moment: we’re balancing rapid product development with long-term system reliability, performance, and scalability. You’ll lead a full-stack team across front-end and back-end systems, partnering closely with Product to ship roadmap features while strengthening architecture and engineering standards.

Your responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing full-stack engineering team, fostering ownership, accountability, and continuous growth
• Serve as a hands-on player-coach, contributing meaningful production code while setting technical direction
• Drive delivery of roadmap initiatives from concept through production with predictable, high-quality execution
• Champion API-first design and schema-first development practices (OpenAPI/Swagger, contract testing, interface-driven development)
• Guide the decomposition of monolithic systems into modular, distributed services with clear ownership boundaries
• Establish best practices for observability, resilience, and distributed communication (tracing, retries, idempotency, error handling)
• Lead architectural discussions to ensure long-term maintainability, reliability, and performance
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, PMO, and other engineering teams to align technical strategy with business priorities
• Participate in recruiting, interviewing, and hiring to strengthen the engineering organization

What you’ll bring

Core Experience & Technical Skills

• Minimum 8 years of hands-on software development experience with strong computer science fundamentals
• Proven experience managing or leading a team of engineers in a fast-paced environment
• Demonstrated success acting as a player-coach who contributes meaningfully to the codebase
• Experience building distributed systems and decomposing monoliths into modular services
• Hands-on experience with API-first and schema-first workflows (OpenAPI/Swagger, contract testing, interface-driven development)
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, message queues/brokers, and distributed system design patterns
• Ability to design systems with clear service ownership, reliability, and modularity
• Excellent command of the full SDLC: analysis, design, development, testing, deployment, and support
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to convey complex technical concepts clearly

Nice to have

• Experience with modern JavaScript frameworks (React, Angular, or Vue)
• Familiarity with BI or big-data technologies such as Looker or BigTable
• Experience with Ruby on Rails or similar backend frameworks
• Exposure to regulated industries such as insurance or financial services

Where we work

We are a remote-first company with offices in Chicago, IL and St. Petersburg, FL where teams can come together for collaboration.

For all other positions, these roles can sit in any of the following 41 states: AL, AR, AZ, CA (exempt only), CO, CT, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, and WI. Please only apply if you are able to live and work full-time in one of the states listed above.

For remote technical positions located in Canada, we are only able to hire individuals who reside in Ontario. Applicants must be able to live and work full-time in Ontario to be considered.

State locations and specifics are subject to change as our hiring requirements shift.