Engineering Manager, Device Passport

About the Role

As an Engineering Manager at Apkudo, you will lead the Device Passport team in building systems that give every device a trusted, verifiable identity, powering repair workflows, hardware certification, and takeback programs for partners including Asurion, Samsung, and major carriers. Your role will be crucial in bringing structure and momentum to a growing team while staying hands-on in the code.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of engineers in building and maintaining a scalable and efficient platform for device passporting.

• Partner closely with the Product Manager to develop and execute a vision for the team and align with company goals.

• Develop and maintain a well-groomed backlog, own sprint commitments, and ensure the team consistently delivers against its roadmap.

• Recruit, interview, and onboard engineers; build a team culture defined by ownership, craft, and psychological safety.

• Mentor engineers at every level through regular one-on-ones, career development conversations, goal-setting, and performance feedback.

• Serve as the primary escalation point for cross-team dependencies, blockers, and coordination with other pods.

• Translate technical complexity into clear updates for product and leadership stakeholders.

• Spend approximately 40% of your time as an individual contributor writing production Python code, reviewing pull requests with substantive technical feedback, and pairing with engineers on hard problems.

• Lead by example in code quality, testing discipline, and documentation standards.

• Contribute to architectural decisions and technical design reviews, ensuring the team's technical direction is sound and well-documented.

• Own specific features or integration modules within the Device Passport platform.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 3 years in an engineering management or tech lead role.

• Hands-on Python proficiency, with experience in writing production code and doing real code review.

• Strong PostgreSQL and SQL experience; comfort with cloud infrastructure (AWS or equivalent).

• Proven track record of shipping software on time with a distributed, cross-functional team.

• Experience with agile delivery, including sprint planning, backlog management, velocity tracking, and retrospectives.

• Demonstrated ability to give direct, constructive performance feedback and support engineers' career growth.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to represent engineering clearly to product, operations, and leadership audiences.

• High empathy, low ego, with a focus on team success rather than individual achievement.

• Familiarity with enterprise integration patterns and API-based platform products serving multiple external partners simultaneously.

• Exposure to warehouse automation, device lifecycle, or supply chain software is a plus.