Engineering Manager, AI Applications

Who We Are Having surpassed $300M ARR and continuing to grow, Optro is the leading audit, risk, ESG, and InfoSec platform on the market. More than 50% of the Fortune 500, including 7 of the Fortune 10, leverage our award‑winning technology to move their businesses forward with greater clarity and agility. And our customers love us: Optro is top‑rated on G2.com and Gartner Peer Insights. At Optro, we inspire each other to innovate and are proud of what we are producing. We spend each day thinking of new ways to help our customers and contribute to the greater good of our company and our surrounding communities. We are all about assisting each other and breaking through barriers to create the most loved audit, risk, ESG, and InfoSec platform by our customers. This is how we have become one of the 500 fastest‑growing tech companies in North America for the seventh year in a row, as ranked by Deloitte! Why this role is exciting We're looking for a highly motivated Engineering Manager to lead our AI Applications team engineers embedded across Optro's product organization to accelerate delivery of AI‑powered features. This is a unique opportunity to drive large, strategic, and complex projects that shape the future of Optro's AI capabilities, combining strong engineering leadership with a passion for applied AI. Our AI Applications team owns the integration layer between our AI Platform and the product org: partnering with product squads, owning our internal AI chat assistant, and leading the development of MCP‑based tooling and agent‑driven workflows. You'll be a force multiplier, enabling product teams to move faster and smarter with AI, while mentoring and growing a high‑performing team deeply committed to our customers and to continuous learning. Responsibilities Mentor, inspire, and grow a diverse team of engineers, fostering a culture of craftsmanship, curiosity, and continuous learning in applied AI. Manage the team through hiring, retaining, mentoring, and continuously building individual and team capabilities in modern AI engineering best practices. Act as an embedded engineering partner to the product organization, championing AI‑first approaches to feature delivery and accelerating squads' ability to leverage AI infrastructure. Lead the technical direction and execution for AI initiatives, including agent workflow development, MCP tooling, and the internal AI chat assistant. Develop and nurture strong relationships with Product, QA, Delivery, Design, Customer Support, GTM, and other partners to deliver best‑in‑class AI‑powered experiences. Own end‑to‑end build and delivery of AI solutions, features, and services within Optro's platform, collaborating closely with the AI Platform team for core infrastructure. Continuously improve all aspects of the product lifecycle, technical systems, engineering processes, and team practices, to deliver outstanding results for customers. Collaborate closely with Product Management to define goals, objectives, and the roadmap for AI Applications initiatives, ensuring alignment with business priorities. Champion agile best practices, ensuring clarity, transparency, and efficient delivery across your team and the broader organization. What you'll bring Engineering Leadership 5+ years of engineering experience, with 2+ years in an engineering management role leading teams building and shipping production AI or software systems. Demonstrated ability to be a technical mentor and engineering role model, someone engineers look to for guidance on architecture, code quality, and engineering culture. Strong proficiency with Python and modern server‑side development; comfort with TypeScript/Node.js is a plus. Experience with AWS (preferred) or Azure cloud environments and modern deployment practices. Track record of partnering with Product teams to drive delivery velocity and quality. Applied AI & agent frameworks Solid understanding of modern agent frameworks and how to apply them to build reliable, production‑grade AI workflows (e.g., LangGraph, LangChain, or comparable tooling). Experience deploying agents in production including observability, tracing, failure handling, and performance considerations. Familiarity with vector databases, semantic search, or RAG‑adjacent technologies at the application integration level. Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and experience building or consuming tool‑based AI integrations. Bonus Experience building or maintaining AI‑assisted chat or conversational interfaces. Experience with modern JavaScript frameworks (Ember preferred; Vue, React, or Angular also valued) for front‑end collaboration. Understanding of ethical AI principles and responsible AI development practices. Experience working in a highly regulated, ARC (Audit, Risk, and Compliance) environment. Preferred Managed remote or distributed engineering teams. Experience in an agile development environment and with modern project management tooling. Strong B2B SaaS product experience. Comfort operating in a fast‑moving environment where the AI tooling landscape evolves rapidly. Our Company Values Customer obsession: It starts and ends here. Consistently ask yourself how what you’re doing creates value for our customers. It’s a mindset. Gritty resilience: Make it happen. Find a way. Move fast, stay positive, and do what it takes. Drive innovation: Create the future. Continuously improve what exists and invent what’s next. Win, together: One team. No silos, no egos. Drive to be the best and support each other’s success. Growth mindset: 10x, not 10%. Think in orders of magnitude, not increments. Seek feedback, learn, and improve. Please note that background checks are required. Qualified Applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for Employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. This role may have access to highly sensitive data, including employee data, customer data, company financials, and proprietary product information. We love building strong partnerships, but please note that Optro cannot accept unsolicited resumes from agencies. Any submissions without a signed agreement in place will not create a fee obligation. #LI-Remote #J-18808-Ljbffr