AthenaHQ

Be the Answer in AI Search - AI SEO across SEO, GEO & AEO

Engineering Manager

$200K - $300K0.80% - 1.50%San Francisco, CA, US
Job type
Full-time
Role
Engineering, Engineering manager
Experience
6+ years
Visa
US citizen/visa only
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Andrew Yan
Andrew Yan
Co-Founder, CEO

About the role

About the Role

We’re hiring an Engineering Manager who is a true player-coach. You will both write production code and lead a small, high-performing team that serves . This role is for someone who loves building, shipping, and owning outcomes, not just managing process.

You’ll spend a meaningful portion of your time hands on in the codebase while also setting direction, mentoring engineers, and keeping the team moving fast.

What You'll Do

  • Spend ~50% of your time reviewing and shipping production code
  • Build effective systems and processes that scale
  • Own delivery end to end: planning, execution, and quality
  • Lead and mentor engineers through 1:1s, feedback, and career growth
  • Act as the technical bar raiser for the team
  • Partner closely with Product to turn ambiguous requirements into shipped features
  • Unblock engineers quickly and make pragmatic tradeoffs
  • Run lean sprint rituals focused on shipping, not ceremony
  • Drive architectural decisions that balance speed and scalability
  • Hire, onboard, and ramp engineers as the team grows

What We're Looking For

  • Interest and experience leading an engineering team
  • Strong senior engineer background with recent hands on coding experience
  • Prior experience as a player-coach, tech lead, or engineering manager
  • Comfortable owning complex systems and debugging in production
  • Proven ability to move fast without sacrificing quality
  • Clear communicator who leads by example
  • Bias toward action and accountability

Nice to Have

  • Early stage or high growth startup experience
  • B2B SaaS or data intensive systems experience
  • Experience evolving from player-coach into pure EM over time

Tech Stack

  • Modern web stack (Next.js, ClickHouse, Temporal)

Why Join

  • Work side-by-side with CTO and CEO
  • High ownership, real technical impact on a product pushing the boundaries on AI marketing for Fortune 500s like Coinbase, SoFi, Twilio, and more with over $500B in market cap.
  • Build alongside your team, not above it
  • Fast iteration and direct feedback loops
  • Competitive compensation and meaningful equity

About AthenaHQ

Athena helps brands take control and grow on GenAI Search. Founded by a former Google Search product manager, Athena helps 200+ global customers ranging from fast-growing AI startups like Julius and Greptile to publicly-traded companies like SoFi and ZoomInfo and household brands drive traffic and activate GenAI as the fastest-growing growth channel.

AthenaHQ
Founded:2025
Batch:W25
Team Size:12
Status:
Active
Location:San Francisco
Founders
Andrew Yan
Andrew Yan
Co-Founder, CEO
Alan Yao
Alan Yao
Co-Founder