Engineering Manager (Database)

Who We Are:

Materialize is a real-time data platform built on a breakthrough in incremental computation, enabling up-to-date, trustworthy views into any aspect of your business using just SQL. Build and adapt live, composable data products in minutes—with the team you already have. Use Materialize to power data-intensive UIs, deliver fresh context to AI/ML pipelines, and create dynamic digital twins of manufacturing processes for real-time optimization. Materialize is trusted by General Mills, Ryder, and Fubo.tv to solve their most pressing real-time data challenges.

Our team spans the US (with a NYC headquarters), Canada, and EMEA. 

Investors:

Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

About The Role

At Materialize, engineering management is about empowering your team to thrive, delivering both technical excellence and professional growth. Our Database team, which sits at the heart of our product and engineering efforts, is growing, and we're looking for an additional Engineering Manager to partner with our existing leadership to scale and support this highly technical group.

You will first join the Database group as a contributor, gaining deep familiarity with our systems and culture. Following this ramp-up period, you'll take ownership of a segment of the team, likely managing between 4-6 engineers to start. The exact scope and composition of your team will be influenced by your specific strengths and our organizational needs. 

In this role you will have a significant impact on delivering one of the most ambitious database products and technologies in the industry. You will both learn from and elevate our exceptionally talented engineering team. You'll play a pivotal role in shaping how our organization evolves to sustainably support our bold technical vision.

You’ll collaborate closely with a team spread across North American and European time zones, and report to the VP of Engineering. This role will be based out of our NYC office (near Astor Place) either as full-time in office or hybrid (~3x days/week in office).

Responsibilities

• You will manage, coach, and grow a high-performing team of 4-8 database engineers. 
• You will own the planning, execution, and timely delivery of your team’s commitments.
• You will partner closely with our product leadership to translate product strategy and customer needs into clear, actionable engineering outcomes.
• You will collaborate with your team’s senior engineers to develop technical roadmaps for core areas of the database.
• You will collaborate across engineering and across the organization to deliver on large, cross-cutting projects.
• You will foster a team culture of trust and inclusivity where collaboration thrives and excellence follows.
• You will refine the essential processes and structure needed for your team to consistently & sustainably deliver.
• You will partner with recruiting to hire and build a remarkable team.

About You

• You have 2+ years experience managing a team of distributed systems / database / infrastructure engineers
• You have experience managing and building a strong culture across a distributed team
• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills, comfortably engaging with varied audiences—from detailed technical discussions with engineers, strategic conversations with product leadership, to collaborative planning with go-to-market teams.
• You have substantial hands-on experience with one or more of the following: distributed systems, databases, and data infrastructure.
• You are highly organized, effectively managing priorities, timelines, and resources to ensure your team consistently delivers on commitments.
• You are passionate about coaching and developing high-performing teams, and you excel at empowering strong engineers to achieve their highest potential.
• You are comfortable and effective in dynamic environments, proactively navigating evolving priorities and organizational changes with ease and clarity.

Our Management Values

Minimum Viable Process

• People often join startups to get away from the heavyweight processes common at larger companies. We have recommendations for processes, but we only introduce them when there is a demonstrated need.

Transparency

• We highly value transparency across the organization. We default to working in the open (both on our codebase and within the company) and feel comfortable sharing incomplete thinking or works in progress with peers and our teams.

Candid, Continuous Feedback

• We provide candid (and kind) feedback as quickly as we can. We don’t wait for 1-1s or big emergencies to happen.

Servant Leadership

• Engineering leadership at Materialize is about being of service to your team. While managers have a lot of input into what the engineers do on a daily basis, this must be tempered with the engineers’ preferences, career goals, life/work balance, and growth goals.

Sound Technical Judgment

• We expect engineering managers to exercise good engineering judgment while leaving core technical decisions to the experts on the team. Our teams have exceptional engineers who have deep knowledge and are, therefore, most qualified to make most technical decisions. Engineering managers’ technical judgment contributes to evaluating engineering trade offs, helping engineers grow, influencing roadmaps, and contributing to design discussions.

SALARY RANGE: $195,000-225,000 + Equity 

The salary range provided in this job description should not be considered a guarantee or commitment. The actual compensation offered may vary based on individual qualifications objectively assessed during the application and interview process, including but not limited to the candidate’s:

• Qualifications and relevant work experience
• Educational background and credentials
• Relevant skills and certifications
• Geographic location
• Market demands

Materialize reserves the right to adjust the salary range based on the candidate's specific circumstances and the overall compensation package.

The salary range provided in this job description should not be considered a guarantee or commitment. The actual compensation offered may vary based on individual qualifications objectively assessed during the application and interview process, including but not limited to the candidate’s:

• Qualifications and relevant work experience
• Educational background and credentials
• Relevant skills and certifications
• Geographic location
• Market demands

Materialize reserves the right to adjust the salary range based on the candidate's specific circumstances and the overall compensation package.

We understand it takes a diverse team of highly intelligent, passionate, curious, and creative people to develop the exceptional product we are building. Our dynamic team has incredible perspectives to share, just as we know you do, and we take great pride in being an equal opportunity employer.