Engineering Manager, Platform

About

Fora is the modern travel agency, empowering anyone with a passion for travel to build a thriving advisory business. We're modernizing the $100B+ travel agency industry by combining powerful technology, data, and community to enable thousands of entrepreneurs to build on our platform. Our business-in-a-box platform gives travel entrepreneurs everything they need to launch and scale, from cutting-edge tools and personalized training to a vibrant community and exclusive industry partnerships.

We believe that everyone, from seasoned professionals to first-time advisors, can build something both profitable and personal. Founded in 2021 by seasoned entrepreneurs, Fora has grown steadily since, expanding to a team of 200+ full-time employees based in downtown New York City. In 2025, we announced our $60 million Series B and C investment rounds, led by Thrive Capital and Insight Partners, with participation by previous investors including Forerunner and Heartcore Capital. We've also been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Startup 2024, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies 2025 and 2023, and Built In 2025 Best Places to Work.

Engineering Manager, Platform

At the heart of it all is our mission: to help the next generation of travel entrepreneurs turn their love for travel into a fulfilling career, whether full-time or part-time.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a cross-functional platform team, managing day-to-day execution, setting clear priorities, and maintaining sustainable, high-quality engineering practices.
• Stay hands-on with architecture and technical decisions, providing meaningful guidance on infrastructure design, platform scalability, and engineering standards across the team's scope.
• Own the roadmap for foundational platform capabilities including CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, observability, secrets management, and database reliability.
• Partner with engineering teams across Fora to establish Service Level Objectives (SLOs), support reliability targets, and ensure platform systems meet the demands of a growing product organization.
• Coach and develop engineers through regular feedback, mentorship, and career development, with a commitment to building a motivated and high-performing team.
• Oversee relationships with contractors and embedded vendor resources, ensuring work is well-scoped, integrated effectively, and held to Fora's engineering standards.
• Collaborate with security-focused engineering efforts to ensure the platform reflects strong security and compliance practices, including network segmentation, secrets management, and access controls.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team environment that reflects Fora's commitment to building diverse, high-performing engineering teams.
• Contribute to recruiting by evaluating engineering candidates effectively and representing Fora positively throughout the process.

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in engineering management with a proven track record of successful delivery and team growth.
• 8+ years of experience in software or infrastructure engineering, with meaningful depth in platform, DevOps, or infrastructure domains.
• Strong technical acumen, with the ability to engage deeply in architecture decisions, infrastructure design, and engineering fundamentals rather than managing from a distance.
• Solid understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), container orchestration, CI/CD systems, observability tooling, and database reliability at scale.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, manage performance thoughtfully, and build teams that are engaged and growing.
• Exceptional project management and organizational skills, including the ability to break down complex infrastructure work, anticipate risks, and deliver consistently high-quality outcomes.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex infrastructure and platform concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven recruiting experience, including the ability to evaluate engineering candidates and represent the company well.
• A collaborative, empathetic leadership style grounded in humility, accountability, openness to feedback, and a genuine investment in the people around you.
• Entrepreneurial mindset and comfort working in an early- to mid-stage startup environment where ambiguity and pace are part of the fun.
• First-principles thinker who carefully evaluates each problem and thoughtfully chooses between established best practices and bespoke solutions, especially when designing team processes and technical standards.
• Strongly Preferred Experience with high-traffic B2B2C platforms or marketplace architectures.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, Terraform, PostgreSQL administration, and message queue systems such as RabbitMQ or Celery.

Compensation

Compensation for this role varies based on experience, with an indicative range of $210k–$235k + equity. Additional benefits include: Unlimited vacation, Health Insurance (including an option completely covered by Fora HQ), Dental & Vision Insurance, Wellhub Memberships, 401k plan with company match, Commuter Benefits, Supplemental Life Insurance, Stock Options.

Work Authorization

Authorization to work in the United States is required for full-time roles based in our New York City office. Fora is unable to sponsor or assist with U.S. work authorization. Roles based outside of the United States are not subject to this requirement.

Equal Opportunity

Fora is committed to an equitable hiring process and an inclusive work environment. BIPOC and traditionally underrepresented candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. We will not discriminate and will take action to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or any other characteristic protected by law.