Hands-On Software Engineering Manager

Job Description: Software Engineering Manager

Why Mindhop

Mindhop is a growing, New York–based technology company that designs advanced, data-driven transportation systems for public-sector agencies across the United States.

The transportation technology sector is rapidly transforming as advances in sensing, connectivity, and artificial intelligence unlock new capabilities. Mindhop is emerging as a technology leader in this space, delivering innovative solutions that modernize transportation system management and operations.

Our Technology

Mindhop’s dotstream™ platform is a scalable, cloud-based data fusion and analytics system that ingests multimodal transportation data from diverse sources and provides a functionally rich user interface, featuring GIS-based mapping, real-time data streams, and analytical tools for AI-assisted decision-making.

Your Responsibilities

Reporting to the CTO, you will lead and oversee a six-person development team of front- and back-end developers and cloud engineers. This is a hands-on leadership role that combines technical leadership with active contribution to the codebase as part of a small, collaborative team. You will also play a key role in product development, collaborating with design and client-facing teams to shape product direction and provide input on new features before they enter development.

Team Leadership & Development Oversight

• Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and direction to a six-person team of front-end, back-end, and cloud engineers.
• Determine system architecture and lead technical decision-making across the development team.
• Participate in and lead design sessions, translating requirements into sound technical designs.
• Define, establish, and refine development processes and engineering standards.
• Allocate tasks across the team and track work, progress, and delivery in Jira.
• Remove blockers and ensure alignment across development, QA, and DevOps.

Hands-On Development

• Actively contribute production code as a working member of the team when required.
• Develop and review front-end components using React.
• Build back-end services, APIs, and data workflows using Python.
• Write complex SQL queries, stored procedures, and data transformation scripts.
• Work with cloud services (AWS preferred) for compute, storage, analytics, queues, and serverless operations.
• Support data integrations, ETL pipelines, and real-time data processing.

Agile Delivery & Release Management

• Lead daily standups, sprint planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives.
• Own release planning and milestone management.
• Write detailed user stories, acceptance criteria, workflows, and technical requirements.
• Oversee DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and SaaS deployment.

Software Engineering & Technical Design

• Lead the design and architecture of scalable, cloud-based systems.
• Select appropriate technology stacks, frameworks, and tools for new features and products.
• Provide technical review and guidance across the codebase.
• Contribute to prototypes and proofs-of-concept.

Product Development & Strategy

• Collaborate with design and client-facing teams to help define product direction and roadmap.
• Provide input on new features and enhancements before they move into development
• Prioritize features based on operational requirements and strategic objectives.
• Translate client and operational needs into actionable technical features.

Your Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field.
• Strong communication (oral and written), problem-solving, and leadership skills.
• Strong organizational skills, enabling you to multitask across projects with minimal direction
• 7+ years of professional experience
• 5+ years of hands-on software development experience (React, Python, SQL required).
• 2+ years of technical leadership experience.
• Strong experience in software architecture and system design.
• Development of APIs and full-stack applications
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred), large-scale data manipulation, ETL.
• Deep understanding of agile methodologies and DevOps workflows.
• Proficiency in backend development tools (Java, .NET, Node.js, or similar).
• Relational and non-relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Kafka)
• In-depth understanding of database management systems and online analytical processing
• Familiarity with BI technologies (Power BI, Oracle BI, or similar).

Mindhop offers a generous benefits package including paid time off, 401K matching, and medical insurance contributions. This role requires a minimum of three in-office days per week, subject to change based on business needs.

Salary: $150,000 - $180,000, dependent upon qualifications and experience.

Mindhop is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

This job description outlines the primary duties and qualifications for the role and is not intended to be an exhaustive list of responsibilities.