At Connectly, we’re building the future of conversational commerce in Latin America, starting with WhatsApp. Our 360° AI engagement platform empowers retailers to sell, support, and scale directly inside the app their customers already use every day.
We’re a VC-backed Series B startup with a world-class team from Meta, Google, Uber, and other leading Silicon Valley companies. We operate as a hybrid organization, with offices in Bogotá and San Francisco, and distributed teams across Latin America, including Brazil, where many of our AI initiatives are based.
Job summary
- We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead one of Connectly’s core AI and platform engineering teams. This is a hybrid leadership role that combines people management, technical strategy, and hands-on execution in a fast-paced startup environment.
- Reporting directly to the CTO, you will oversee a high-performing organization of 10–20 engineers, guiding both technical direction and team development. You’ll play a key role in driving Connectly’s engineering culture, balancing product delivery, architectural excellence, and talent growth, while partnering with product, sales, and customer teams to deliver solutions that power the future of AI commerce in Latin America.
Responsibilities include:
- Lead, grow, and retain a high-performing engineering organization (10–20 people) across multiple locations.
- Provide technical leadership and define strategy in partnership with the CTO, from system architecture and infrastructure design to AI scalability and reliability.
- Stay hands-on with the technology to guide design, code reviews, and architectural decisions that impact system quality and stability.
- Own the quality, reliability, and performance of the product, ensuring stable releases, strong testing practices, and operational excellence.
- Drive engineering processes that balance speed and rigor: sprint planning, technical reviews, postmortems, and iterative improvement.
- Partner closely with Product Management and Sales to deliver launches, achieve business metrics, and ensure successful enterprise deployments.
- Engage directly with enterprise customers when needed, helping design complex integrations with third-party systems such as Meta APIs, CRMs, and eCommerce platforms (Shopify, VTEX, SAP).
- Take full ownership of hiring, developing, and evaluating engineers, providing continuous feedback, performance reviews, and growth plans.
- Identify and cultivate emerging leaders within your team, fostering a culture of ownership, accountability, and innovation.
- Act as a force multiplier, building systems, processes, and talent that scale beyond your direct scope.
What will make you excel at this job:
- Strong track record leading high-performance teams of 10–20 engineers in a fast-paced technology company.
- Deep technical expertise and ability to be hands-on in guiding system design, architecture, and best practices.
- Passion for building and scaling AI-driven systems and applying LLM technology to real-world business use cases.
- Proven experience in establishing engineering processes that balance speed, quality, and reliability.
- Excellent people management and mentorship skills, with a focus on growing individuals and teams.
- Ability to communicate effectively across disciplines, engineering, product, and sales, and operate in ambiguity with strong execution focus.
- A pragmatic problem-solver with a bias for impact, not just activity.
Requirements
- MS or BS in Computer Science.
- 8+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in management or tech lead roles within a technology company.
- Proven experience leading teams of 10–20 engineers, ideally across distributed locations.
- Demonstrated ability to set technical strategy and drive architectural decisions at scale.
- Strong understanding of backend and AI systems, including Python, AWS, Kafka, Postgres, DynamoDB, and modern CI/CD practices.
- Experience partnering with cross-functional stakeholders, including PM, Sales, and Customer Success, to deliver major launches.
- Experience engaging directly with enterprise clients and integrating with third-party ecosystems such as Meta APIs, CRMs, and commerce platforms.
- Strong leadership, empathy, and communication skills; capable of delivering both technical and performance feedback constructively.
Benefits
- Work directly with the CTO and executive team to shape Connectly’s technology and culture.
- Competitive compensation and equity participation.
- Unlimited time off and flexible working hours.
- Hybrid work culture with teams in Brazil, Bogotá, and San Francisco.
We are a strong believer in passion, curiosity and willingness to learn on the job. If you are in doubt, we encourage you to apply!
Connectly is an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and supportive workplace that is distributed around the world.
