Software Engineering Manager, Public Sector

Scale AI’s Public Sector business is growing quickly as government agencies adopt AI to support critical national security, defense, and public sector missions. We’re looking for a hands-on Engineering Manager to lead a team of software engineers building core products and infrastructure for these customers. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in technical environments, enjoys managing teams while staying close to the code, and wants to work on meaningful problems that impact real-world operations across the U.S. government.

About the role

You’ll play a critical role in delivering backend systems, distributed platforms, and ML tooling used by our public sector partners—all while helping your team grow and execute. You’ll split your time between technical planning and execution (50%) and people management and team development (50%), leading a team of 6-8 engineers. You’ll work cross-functionally with product, security, and customer-facing teams to ensure our engineering efforts meet complex federal compliance, security, and performance needs. Must be able to commute to office three times per week.

Responsibilities

• Recruit a high-performing engineering team.
• Drive engineering productivity.
• Provide guidance, mentorship, and technical leadership to a team of engineers working on Generative AI projects.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define, design, and execute strategic roadmap.
• Navigate and deliver outcomes while navigating through complex public sector compliance requirements and frameworks.
• Design and implement scalable backend systems for Federal customers, leveraging Scale's modern and cloud-native AI infrastructure.
• Develop distributed systems, data-intensive applications, and machine learning infrastructure to enable real impact for mission owners.
• Build robust and reliable backend systems that can serve as standalone products, empowering customers to accelerate their own AI ambitions.
• Participate actively in customer engagements, working closely with stakeholders to understand requirements and deliver innovative solutions.
• Contribute to the platform roadmap and product strategy for Scale AI's Federal business, playing a key role in shaping the future direction of our offerings.
• Have or ability to obtain a TS/SCI clearance.

Requirements

• 5+ years of full-time engineering experience, post-graduation.
• 2+ years of prior engineering management or equivalent experience and has managed an engineering team.
• Extensive experience in software development.
• Experience scaling products at hyper-growth startups.
• Excitement to work with AI technologies and their applications for the public sector.
• Extremely strong track record as an individual contributor.
• Track record of mentoring and leading teams in successful projects.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to translate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to haves

• TS/SCI Clearance.
• Deep technical knowledge of Software Development, willing to get deep into the weeds to solve problems alongside the team.
• Experience with AI platforms and technologies, including generative models and LLMs.
• Previous experience in government or government-facing technology roles.
• Experience with cloud-native technologies, full stack development, data engineering, and ML ops infrastructure.

Pay

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale. It will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training.

• San Francisco, New York: $216,000—$270,000 USD
• Washington DC: $194,400—$243,000 USD
• St Louis: $162,400—$203,000 USD

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Retirement benefits.
• Learning and development stipend.
• Generous PTO.
• Commuter stipend (for eligible roles).
• Equity-based compensation (for eligible roles, subject to Board of Director approval).

About Us

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.