Engineering Manager

About Buffer

We create social media and brand-building software for small businesses, creators, and individuals. Our mission is to provide essential tools to help small businesses get off the ground and grow. Through exceptional customer service and uplifting content, we help our customers believe they can succeed and do good along the way.

Buffer is a fully distributed team, and we’ve always aimed to do things a little differently at Buffer. Since the early days, we’ve focused on building one of the most unique and fulfilling workplaces by rethinking a lot of traditional practices. We also default to transparency, so you can read all about our metrics, and our successes and failures along the way on our Transparency Dashboard.

We're united by Buffer's values, and we hire and work from all over the world. We strive to create a diverse and inclusive work environment, and we are building a culture where underrepresented groups are welcome and can flourish. Please note that we do travel to work together in person once or twice per year, and those events are highly encouraged to build deeper connections among our small team.

As you get to know Buffer and consider joining the journey, feel free to read more from Kirsti and Sabreen as they share their first experiences with Buffer, as well as from Hailley, who captured why she still calls Buffer home after 8+ years.

About the role

We're looking for an engineering manager for both our Content Creation and Content Engagement teams, covering the full content lifecycle at Buffer. You'll guide 7 engineers working on content creation (composer, AI features, planning tools) and engagement (comments, audience growth).

We're looking for an engineering manager who is in the details. Someone who maintains deep context on technical challenges, asks informed questions, and can guide strategic tradeoffs. This isn't a pure people management role. We expect our EMs to stay close to the code and architecture even if they're not writing production code daily.

We are a dynamic, lean, and fast-moving engineering team focused on the consistent delivery of value to delight our customers. We care about the quality of our product and by working small with a continuous improvement mindset, we aim to leave our code well-tested and better than when we started.

You'll partner closely with Product and Design to shape technical direction, create space for engineers to do their best work, and build a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.

What you'll do

• Lead 2 engineering teams - Content Creation and Content Engagement, creating an environment where engineers can do deep, focused work while staying connected

• Partner with Product and Design partners to shape technical direction, balance speed with quality, and guide architectural decisions that support long-term scalability

• Model Buffer values in your decision-making and communication, setting the cultural tone for both teams

• Develop your engineers through regular 1:1s, coaching, actionable feedback, and career development conversations that help them grow their skills and advance

• Build a strong feedback culture within the teams where growth is continuous, expectations are clear, and engineers feel supported to take risks and learn

• Lead with technical depth by maintaining strong context on architectural challenges, participating in technical discussions, and making informed tradeoffs

• Manage team operations, including capacity planning, hiring, on-call practices, and removing blockers

• Track and communicate team health metrics to ensure sustainable performance and make data-informed decisions about team structure and processes

• Coordinate within Engineering Leadership group (other Engineering Managers and Staff Engineers) on shared initiatives, represent team needs across the organization, and build trust and alignment

• Take shared ownership of product quality and system health by ensuring sustainable practices, and balancing technical debt with feature delivery

Helpful skills and experience

• You have 5+ years of experience managing software engineers with demonstrated ability to build high-performing teams that deliver high-quality software in small iterations and reduce cycle time

• You have a strong technical background with the ability to engage in architectural discussions, code reviews, and technical strategy. You maintain an up-to-date understanding of the architectural challenges your teams face

• You think in systems. You have the ability to see patterns across teams and make architectural decisions that create leverage

• You know how to lead remote teams, balancing synchronous collaboration with written communication across time zones (your teams will span the US and Europe).

• You focus on people development. You have a track record of coaching engineers, providing regular feedback, holding team members accountable, and creating fulfilling work experiences

• You partner well with Product and Design. You have experience working closely with Product and Design partners, bringing forward feasibility considerations and collaborating on lean ways to deliver outcomes

• You know how to hire and onboard engineers and have experience building strong engineering teams and retaining talent

• You have project management strength. You can lead teams to ship MVPs, get early data and feedback, and make customer-centric decisions

• You have a creator mindset. You have a personal connection to content creation, social media, or creator tools. It's a big plus if you used Buffer before and care about the experience

• You communicate exceptionally well in writing. You have strong written communication skills for distributed collaboration

• You have a growth mindset. You are humble, comfortable with ambiguity, and commitment to continuous learning

Our tech stack

Your teams work across the full stack in a single monorepo.

Frontend:

• React and TypeScript

• Internal design system (Popcorn) built on top of Radix UI with CSS modules and Storybook,

• Vite for build tooling

• Jest and React Testing Library for testing

• Playwright for E2E tests

Backend:

• Node.js and TypeScript

• GraphQL with Apollo (migrating away from REST)

• MongoDB as our main database

• Microservices architecture (consolidating into monorepo)

• We also have a legacy PHP backend that we are slowly migrating over to the monorepo

Infrastructure:

• AWS with Kubernetes

• Feature flags for gradual rollouts

• Datadog for monitoring and observability

AI/ML:

• Integration with various LLM providers

• Building internal abstractions for AI features

As an EM, you don't need to be actively coding, but you should be comfortable engaging in technical discussions, understanding architectural decisions, and occasionally diving into code to unblock or guide the team.

Interview process

Here's what our hiring process for this role is like.

1. Application. When submitting your application and resume, tell us why you want to join Buffer and take your time. This is your chance to make a strong first impression.

   • Please note: While we have several engineering roles open, we recommend applying to only one role - just choose one that resonates with you the most. If during our review or interviews we think you'd be great for a different position, we'll re-route your application internally.

2. Hiring manager interview (starting week of November 17th). Chat with Mike, Director of Engineering at Buffer, to understand what it takes to work at Buffer. This is an opportunity for both sides to get to know each other and determine whether our expectations align.

3. Asynchronous assignment. We'll send you 60-minute asynchronous assignment to help us understand how you think about technical details, feedback, and communication.

4. Management interview. Interview with engineering managers from Buffer focused on your management approach, performance management, people growth, team processes, and cross-team collaboration.

5. Team interview. Meet Product partner and engineers from the team to talk about your approach to leadership, team's work process and technical challenges.

6. Meet the CEO. At the very end, you will have the opportunity to meet with Joel Gascoigne, our CEO. This is a great chance for you to gain a deeper understanding of Buffer's strategy, values, and work processes.

7. Collaboration period. This is experimental stage for us where you would work with us over a few days (fully paid). The goal is to see how it feels to work in the team, both for us and for you. You'll meet a few bufferoos, and invite you to a Slack where you'll collaborate with the team.

8. Offer. We wrap it up with an offer and discuss the final details. We would align on the last bits before we make you part of the Buffer team 💛

At Buffer, we value diversity of experience, and we understand that comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team. So, if your experience is close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.

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