Job description
About Customer.io
Over 7,500 companies—from scrappy startups to global brands—use our platform to send billions of emails, push notifications, in-app messages, and SMS every day. Customer.io powers automated communication that people actually want to receive.
We help teams send smarter, more relevant messages using real-time behavioral data. Under the hood: Go, React, Ember, and AI help us ship fast and scale with confidence.
We’re looking for a pragmatic, strategic Engineering Manager to lead our Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team. This team is on the front lines of making sure our platform is reliable, developer-friendly, and ready for the next stage of growth. In this role, you’ll balance today’s needs—strengthening developer support, smoothing sharp edges in our platform, and ensuring production readiness—with tomorrow’s opportunities—defining and leading the path toward a more scalable, resilient, and forward-looking system architecture.
What We Value
Ownership
You follow through on commitments and create clarity when things are murky. You’re motivated by impact—not just intention—and you hold yourself and others accountable for outcomes.
Leaders who drive impact
You empower your team to deliver meaningful value to customers. You balance high standards with empathy, creating an environment where growth and results thrive.
A healthy skepticism for “the way things are done”
You bring curiosity and rigor. Best practices matter—but never more than progress and continuous improvement.
As an Engineering Manager at Customer.io, you will…
- Lead effective squad rituals and ensure production readiness through high-quality peer review, QA, documentation, deployment, logging, and monitoring practices
- Partner with engineers to ensure solutions are scalable, architecturally sound, flexible, and secure
- Create accountability for delivery timelines while fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and empathetic work environment
- Provide timely, specific coaching and development opportunities for your direct reports
- Hire, onboard, and grow the right people to accomplish business objectives within your squad
- Build deep understanding of Customer.io’s vision, products, and customers to drive meaningful engineering investigations and decisions
- Collaborate with other Engineering Managers and technical leaders to align on strategy and execution
We’re looking for someone who…
- Has 8+ years of engineering management experience, with at least part of that leading SRE or infrastructure teams in SaaS (B2B or B2C), ideally at early-to-mid-stage companies
- Brings 3+ years of hands-on SRE experience, designing and operating reliable, scalable infrastructure
- Understands SaaS architecture, languages, technologies, and cloud infrastructure deeply enough to represent and advocate for their squad’s technical choices across the company
- Balances pragmatism and vision—capable of delivering near-term improvements while charting a long-term path forward
- Invests in technical depth: reviewing proposals, experimenting with new technologies, and leveling up engineers through feedback and mentorship
- Builds and nurtures high-performing, distributed teams
- Stays energized by solving customer-impacting problems, even under pressure
- Communicates clearly and directly, both verbally and in writing
Compensation & Benefits
We believe in transparency. Starting salary for this role is $175,000 - $195,000 USD (or equivalent in local currency) depending on experience and subject to market rate adjustment.
We know our people are what make us great, and we’re committed to taking great care of them. Our inclusive benefits package supports your well-being and growth, including 100% coverage of medical, dental, vision, mental health, and supplemental insurance premiums for you and your family. We also offer 16 weeks paid parental leave, unlimited PTO, stipends for remote work and wellness, a professional development budget, and more.
See full benefits here →
Our Process
No gotchas, no trick questions—just a clear, human process designed to help both of us make an informed decision.
- Application - We review everyone with care. Tell us why you’re interested.
- Recruiter Call (30 mins) - Let’s chat about what you’re looking for and how we work.
- Behavioral & Leadership Interviews (60 mins + 45 mins) - Meet with the hiring manager and a people partner to explore your leadership style, management philosophy, and approach to supporting high-performing teams.
- Technical Interview (60 mins) - A collaborative system design conversation focused on scaling challenges.
- Take-Home Assignment - Submit a short retrospective on a project you’ve led as an Engineering Manager.
- Retrospective Review Call (60 mins) - We’ll use your written submission as the foundation for a deeper conversation.
All final candidates will be asked to complete a background check and employment verifications as part of our pre-employment process.
Customer.io recognizes the stifling impact of systemic injustice on diverse communities. We commit to using our influence to increase inclusion and equity within the tech industry. We strive to build an inclusive team culture, implement bias-free hiring practices, and develop community partnerships to expand our global impact.
Zoom is the only video conference platform that we use, virtual interviews will be conducted using the video capability (i.e., not via the chat), and offers will be extended in writing on official Customer.io letterhead. Please be vigilant in all of your job search activity, and if you have any questions please contact [email protected].
Join us!
We believe in empathy, transparency, responsibility, and, yes, a little awkwardness. If you’re excited by what you read and want to build software that makes communication better for everyone—apply now.
