Hauler Hero is a leading waste management SaaS platform serving haulers and waste management companies. We build modern technology that transforms how the industry operates, from route optimization to billing and customer management.
We’ve achieved product-market fit and are scaling our platform and engineering organization to support continued growth.
We’re hiring an Engineering Manager who leads while staying hands-on with code.
This is not a pure management role. You’ll spend roughly half your time on technical work and half on leadership, team development, and cross-functional collaboration.
You’ll inherit a functioning engineering organization and be responsible for elevating technical standards, mentoring senior talent, evolving architecture, and ensuring both the platform and team scale reliably.
You’ll partner closely with the Head of Engineering and principal engineers to shape technical direction while building leadership capability across the team.
At Hauler Hero, we're at the forefront of AI-assisted development. We believe AI tools are fundamentally transforming software engineering, and we're embracing this shift rather than resisting it.
Our Philosophy:
Engineering leadership is evolving from managing people who write every line of code to orchestrating teams that leverage AI agents for implementation while focusing on architecture, design, and the critical decisions that require human judgment.
This shift is happening industry-wide, and we're committed to helping our team master these tools now rather than playing catch-up later.
What This Looks Like for Engineering Managers:
Personal Technical Work (35% of your time):
Use tools like Claude (Opus 4.5), Claude Code, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot extensively for your hands-on coding work
AI assists with backend services, PostgreSQL queries, and system integrations while you focus on architecture and performance
Model effective AI usage for your team through your own technical work
Technical Leadership (30% of your time):
Mentor engineers on how to use AI tools effectively in code reviews and pairing sessions
Set standards for AI-assisted development: what to automate, what requires human judgment
Guide the team on prompt engineering and how to articulate technical problems clearly
Help engineers develop critical thinking skills to validate AI-generated solutions
Champion best practices for "trust but verify" with AI tools
Team Development (35% of your time):
Coach engineers through the transition to AI-assisted workflows
Identify who's embracing AI tools effectively and who needs additional support
Build a culture where AI is seen as a force multiplier, not a threat
Help the team understand that AI proficiency is becoming a core engineering skill
Human-AI Partnership in Your Role:
You lead:
System architecture and technical strategy decisions
Code review standards and quality expectations
Team hiring, development, and performance management
Cross-functional coordination and roadmap planning
AI assists:
Implementation of complex features you own
Test generation and documentation
Query optimization suggestions
Analyzing logs and debugging support
You review:
Everything AI produces for yourself and your team
Your judgment ensures correctness, quality, and architectural soundness
Accelerated Team Velocity:
We've seen engineering teams dramatically increase their output using AI tools effectively. As an EM, you'll help your team ship more features, solve problems faster, and spend more time on design and architecture while maintaining (or improving) quality standards.
Critical Leadership Qualities We Need:
Technical:
Deep understanding of backend systems to validate AI-generated code
Ability to review PostgreSQL queries for correctness and performance
Experience catching architectural issues and edge cases in AI-assisted work
Leadership:
Excitement about mentoring your team through this technological shift
Ability to set clear standards for when to use AI vs when to code manually
Skill in developing engineers' critical thinking about AI-generated solutions
Growth mindset about learning new ways to build software and lead teams
What We're Looking For:
We want engineering leaders who are:
Curious and experimental about AI-assisted development for themselves and their team
Strong technical mentors who can teach engineers to validate and improve AI solutions
Quality-focused leaders who know that AI speed doesn't mean lower standards
Growth-minded about evolving their own skills and developing their team
Excited about being on the cutting edge of how engineering teams build software
We're not looking for:
Leaders who are fundamentally resistant to AI-assisted development
Those who see AI as replacing engineers rather than amplifying them
Managers who can't balance hands-on AI usage with team leadership
Leaders who can't articulate and teach good problem-solving processes
Why This Matters:
The industry is shifting rapidly. Engineering leaders who embrace AI-assisted development and can mentor their teams through this transition will be significantly more valuable in the coming years. We're providing the training, tools, and support to help our team stay ahead of this curve.
If you're excited about leading a team through this transformation and want to help engineers work with AI effectively, you'll thrive here. If you're skeptical that AI should play a major role in your daily workflow and team practices, this probably isn't the right fit.
Write production code on complex backend services, migrations, and integrations
Design and scale backend services with deep focus on PostgreSQL performance
Drive architectural decisions across microservices on GCP
Lead technical design reviews and set engineering standards
Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks
Own critical technical initiatives end-to-end
Mentor engineers at all levels through reviews, pairing, and guidance
Raise engineering practices: code quality, testing, documentation, incident response
Lead architectural decision-making across domains
Develop senior engineers into technical leaders
Coordinate cross-team technical initiatives
Manage and develop a team of engineers
Partner on hiring strategy and interview processes
Drive career development and performance growth
Translate product needs into technical roadmaps
Balance feature delivery with technical debt reduction
Partner with Product and Customer Success on priorities and escalations
You’ve led technical teams in growing engineering organizations
You’ve made architectural and organizational decisions with lasting impact
You remain hands-on with production code
You’ve developed senior engineers into technical leaders
You balance speed and quality and know when each matters
Engineers seek your technical and career guidance
You lead through influence and technical credibility
8+ years software engineering experience
3+ years in technical leadership roles
Strong backend foundation: Java, Spring Boot, PostgreSQL, microservices
Experience scaling engineering teams and systems
Cloud experience (GCP preferred, AWS acceptable)
History balancing hands-on coding with people leadership
Ability to explain technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders
Proven architectural decision-making at scale
B2B SaaS experience
Billing, payments, or fintech systems
Mobile backend architectures
Geospatial or routing systems
Experience in regulated or compliance-heavy environments
Backend: Java 17+, Spring Boot, REST, GraphQL
Infrastructure: Google Cloud Platform
Data: PostgreSQL with PostGIS, Redis
Messaging: Pub/Sub
Mobile: iOS and Android backends
Integrations: Payments, communications, accounting APIs
Real Impact: Shape the technical foundation of a platform processing millions in transactions
Meaty Problems: Billing, geospatial routing, mobile sync, real-time messaging, AI automation
Autonomy: Real ownership and decision-making authority
Modern Stack: Active modernization and investment in tools and AI
Team Quality: Work with senior engineers who care about craft and mentorship
Ownership over tickets
Practical over perfect
Context over process
Customer empathy
Build for scale
Competitive salary + equity
Health, dental, vision insurance
Flexible PTO
Remote-first culture
Modern development tools and AI assistants
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