Engineering Manager

Location: San Francisco
Type: Full-time, On-site

Overview

AfterQuery builds the data and evaluation systems that power frontier AI models. In 14 months, we scaled from 0 to $100M ARR and raised a $30M Series A at a $300M valuation. Today, every leading AI lab uses our datasets and reinforcement learning environments to encode and scale real-world expertise.

We’re focused on one core problem: the most valuable knowledge in the world lives inside people’s heads, and models still struggle to use it. We build the systems that capture, structure, and evaluate that expertise at scale.

We’re hiring an Engineering Manager who’s still a strong IC. You’ll lead engineers, stay hands-on in the code, and drive execution across critical systems. This is an ownership role, not a coordination role.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership: Manage a small group of engineers and own their output end-to-end
Hands-on Development: Write code, review systems, and contribute directly to critical builds
Execution: Drive projects forward quickly while maintaining a high bar for quality
Hiring & Mentorship: Recruit, mentor, and develop engineers to raise the overall team bar
Technical Ownership: Ensure systems are scalable, clean, and reusable
Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with ops, domain experts, and customers
50/50 Split between building + managing engineers

Required Qualifications

Strong background as a senior or staff-level engineer
Experience managing or leading high-performing engineering teams (5–15 engineers)
Proven ability to ship production systems in fast-paced environments
Comfort operating in ambiguous, rapidly changing contexts
Desire to remain hands-on with code and system design

Not a Fit If

You don’t want to code anymore
You need a lot of process or structure
You’ve been far from the code for a while