Job description
At Yardzen, we believe people are at their best when they’re outside.
Our mission is simple: help people envision the outdoor spaces of their dreams, entirely online, and connect them with trusted local contractors to bring those designs to life. Since our launch in 2018, we’ve empowered thousands of homeowners to transform their outdoor spaces, make sustainable choices, enhance property value, and enjoy life outdoors.
We’re transforming the $200 billion outdoor renovation industry with AI, data, and technology—offering a modern, seamless, and transparent design-build experience. Recognized as a Fast Company Most Innovative Company and named to Inc. Magazine’s Best Places to Work, our work has been featured in Architectural Digest, The New York Times, Sunset Magazine, House Beautiful, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. And we’re just getting started.
Yardzen is seeking a bold, compassionate, and focused Engineering Manager to lead a small, high-performing team. This is a true player/coach role: you’ll contribute directly to code and architecture, mentor developers, and help shape the culture of our growing Engineering org. You’ll partner closely with Product and Design to deliver innovative customer-facing features and internal tools that power our business.
Key Responsibilities:
- Provide technical leadership: Guide architectural direction and implementation for complex projects. Partner with Product to shape requirements, align priorities, and ensure teams are resourced to deliver maximum business impact. Technical leadership at Yardzen means leading by example with significant code contribution.
- Lead and support your team: Manage and mentor developers on small, focused squads. Conduct regular 1:1s to set clear expectations, provide feedback, support career growth, and help resolve both technical and personal challenges.
- Drive engineering excellence: Define, document, and champion best practices across frameworks, tools, and development processes. Ensure code quality through active participation in code reviews and technical discussions.
- Elevate the developer experience: Foster a culture of continuous improvement by streamlining workflows, optimizing tooling, and embracing modern technologies—including AI-driven development tools.
- Deliver results: Provide realistic estimates, track progress against goals, and help your team consistently deliver high-quality work. Build a reputation for Engineering as a reliable, high-performing partner across the company.
- Shape the roadmap: Translate business priorities into a clear, actionable engineering roadmap. Balance feature development with addressing technical debt, scalability, and platform improvements.
- Champion vision and alignment: Communicate engineering strategy and priorities clearly within Engineering and to cross-functional partners. Ensure team alignment with company goals and cross-functional initiatives.
- Maintain security and compliance: Ensure the team adheres to best practices for system security, data privacy, and compliance with relevant standards.
Qualifications:
- 7+ years of professional experience in software development, including 3+ years in a senior individual contributor role and 2+ years managing or leading engineering teams.
- Full-stack development experience with a solid understanding of both front-end and back-end technologies.
- Strong grasp of security and accessibility best practices, including those relevant to open source software.
- A demonstrated ability to work through ambiguous requirements—raising gaps, asking the right questions, and uncovering what’s needed to move forward.
- A sharp eye for user experience and a deep empathy for end users—you care about building tools that are not only functional but delightful to use.
- A thoughtful approach to testing: you know when test coverage is critical and when it’s not, and you write effective, pragmatic tests.
- A track record of holding teams accountable to delivering against goals aligned with company-wide priorities.
- A collaborative mindset—you bring ideas to the table not just about technology, but also product direction and team processes.
- Proven ability to work closely with Product and stakeholders to turn complex business requirements into actionable tickets and elegant technical solutions.
- A passion for teaching, mentoring, and guiding others in their career growth.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills that establish credibility and foster alignment across teams.
- A solid understanding of Agile principles, with the ability to apply them thoughtfully to deliver resilient software and maintain visibility into progress and timelines.
- A continuous learner who enjoys exploring new technologies and approaches.
Nice To Have:
- Experience working on a consumer facing marketplace.
- Experience at both startups and companies that have stricter compliance and security requirements.
- An affinity for and/or exposure to the design and construction industries.
Our Stack:
- React/NextJS
- Node/NestJS
- Postgres/Prisma
What We Offer:
- Remote work, always: We’re a remote-first company
- Full coverage for you: 100% paid medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Competitive compensation: Salary that matches your skills and experience
- Support for growing families: 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave
- Monthly perks: Wellness, cell phone, and internet stipends to keep you connected and cared for
$150,000 - $180,000 a year
The posted salary range reflects the target range for this role and is based on factors such as location, experience, and skills. Final compensation may vary depending on individual qualifications and geographic market.
At Yardzen, we’re committed to creating a space where our employees can bring their full selves to work and have equal opportunities to succeed. We are looking for people that will add to our culture, not just fit in. So regardless of race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, origin, ability, age, or veteran status, if joining this mission speaks to you, we encourage you to apply!
If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request a reasonable accommodation as part of the application or the recruiting process, please contact us at [email protected].
Yardzen is registered as an employer in many, but not all, states. If you are not located in a state where Yardzen is registered, you will not be eligible for employment.
