Senior Engineering Manager
About Ethos
Ethos was built to make it faster and easier to get life insurance for the next million families. Our approach blends industry expertise, technology, and the human touch to find you the right policy to protect your loved ones.
We leverage deep technology and data science to streamline the life insurance process, making it more accessible and convenient. Using predictive analytics, we are able to transform a traditionally multi-week process into a modern digital experience for our users that can take just minutes! We’ve issued billions in coverage each month and eliminated the traditional barriers, ushering the industry into the modern age. Our full-stack technology platform is the backbone of family financial health.
We make getting life insurance easier, faster and better for everyone.
Our investors include General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Google Ventures, SoftBank, and the investment vehicles of Jay-Z, Kevin Durant, Robert Downey Jr and others. This year, we were named on CB Insights' Global Insurtech 50 list and BuiltIn's Top 100 Midsize Companies in San Francisco. We are scaling quickly and looking for passionate people to protect the next million families!
About the Role
We’re seeking a hands-on Engineering Manager to lead our Policy Admin Pod—a critical part of our platform responsible for core policy management infrastructure. This role blends people leadership, architectural ownership, and product collaboration. You'll be a force multiplier: guiding a team of talented engineers, shaping our backend architecture, and enabling the delivery of ambitious new features in a highly visible part of the product.We value clean, modular code and cohesive engineering patterns. This role is ideal for someone who still loves writing code but thrives on growing teams and scaling systems.
Roles and responsibilities:
- Lead a high-impact team of full-stack engineers focused on building and scaling policy administration systems.
- Own technical direction within the pod, providing deep architectural insight while supporting best-in-class implementation.
- Partner closely with Product, Compliance and Ops to translate business goals into engineering milestones and deliverables.
- Mentor and grow engineers through regular feedback, coaching, and structured career development plans.
- Maintain a strong technical bar through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on contribution where necessary.
- Measure what matters by aligning engineering goals with OKRs, reliability metrics, and business KPIs.
Qualifications and skills:
- 4+ years of engineering management experience, ideally in high-growth, product-led environments.
- 4+ years as a hands-on engineer, with recent experience in backend-heavy systems.
- Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives from design through delivery.
- Strong experience with Node.js, React, and PostgreSQL. Bonus: experience with Python/Django or policy admin domains.
- Familiarity with large-scale backend architectures, distributed systems, and service ownership.
- Expertise in engineering best practices including CI/CD, automated testing, observability, and developer tooling.
- A thoughtful, low-ego leadership style that elevates your team and promotes engineering excellence.
#LI-Hybrid
#LI-DG1
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. At Ethos we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace.
We are an equal opportunity employer who values diversity and inclusion and look for applicants who understand, embrace and thrive in a multicultural world. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Pursuant to the SF Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrests and conviction records.
To learn more about what information we collect and how it may be used, please refer to our California Candidate Privacy Notice.
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