Engineering Manager

Location: Santa Clara, CA (5 days/week in office) Comp: ~$250K–$300K base + equity Who We Are Building the Backbone of Distributed Applications. At Orkes, we are reimagining how developers build reliable, scalable, event-driven applications without wrangling complex infrastructure. Born from Netflix's battle-tested open-source project, OSS Conductor, our platform is now powering billions of mission critical workflows across fintech, e-commerce, logistics, healthcare, and more. Our platform powers billions of mission critical workflows across industries like fintech, e-commerce, logistics, and healthcare helping companies run the core operations of their business with confidence. These are the workflows behind every transaction, every delivery, every patient check-in, quietly orchestrating our digital world. We’re solving some of the hardest infrastructure problems: how do you make distributed systems reliable, observable, and scalable – without every team having to reinvent the wheel? We absorb the complexity of distributed systems, letting teams build with confidence. We’re hiring a strong engineering leader to own the Cloud & Platform engineering function at Orkes. This is a high-impact, highly operational role; you’ll lead engineers while staying deeply hands-on in architecture, systems, and production challenges. The primary goal is to drive velocity of engineers on the team. We are open to: • A hands-on Tech Lead ready to step into management • OR a Manager who still codes and operates at a high technical level What You’ll Own Cloud & Platform Engineering • Lead systems responsible for cloud infrastructure, deployments, and platform capabilities • Support customer environments and production systems at scale • Drive improvements in reliability, performance, and scalability Team Leadership (Player-Coach) • Lead and mentor engineers while contributing technically • Review architecture, code, and system design • Potential to grow and manage a larger team over time Execution in a Startup Environment • Handle frequent context switching across priorities • Support high-profile customers and urgent production needs • Drive velocity while maintaining engineering quality What We’re Looking For • Strong background in distributed systems / cloud infrastructure • Proven experience as a hands-on engineer (recently) • Experience leading engineers (formal or informal) • Ability to operate in high-context-switch, fast-moving environments • Startup experience or large-company experience with understanding of scale What Won’t Work • Managers who have been out of hands-on engineering for too long • Pure people managers without deep technical credibility • Engineers who struggle with fast pace or shifting priorities Ideal Profile • Former senior/staff engineer stepping into leadership • OR current EM who still codes and leads technically • Someone who has seen both startup and structured scale