Engineering Manager, Data Services

About TrueML: TrueML is a mission-driven financial software innovator and artificial intelligence pioneer on a bold mission to create supportive, digital-first customer experiences for distressed borrowers. By replacing rigid collection tactics with machine learning, TrueML engages each customer digitally and refines deployment strategies in real time based on their behavioral interactions. Alongside our sister company TrueAccord, our distributed team of data scientists and fintech operators build human-centric systems to ensure nobody gets locked out of the global financial system.

Position Overview

We are seeking a technical, systems-minded Engineering Manager for Data Services to serve as a primary architect and leader of the data ecosystem powering TrueML’s machine learning intelligence. In this critical, load-bearing leadership seat, you will report directly to the Director of Engineering (Data) to bridge technical gaps between raw telemetry infrastructure and actionable data models. You will guide a high-performing squad of data engineers through a period of purposeful scaling, driving platform migrations away from legacy frameworks into a modern distributed stack. This player-coach role demands an elite systems thinker who can confidently own SLAs for production workflows while maintaining event bus scaling properties.

Key Responsibilities

• High-Performing Team Leadership: Lead, manage, and mentor an elite team of data platform engineers, establishing a strong engineering mindset focused on continuous career pathing and vertical delivery alignment.
• Event Bus Architecture Ownership: Oversee the strategic design, deployment, and operational maintenance of our company-wide **Common Event Bus (CEB)** framework using Confluent Kafka to ensure high-throughput data distribution.
• Data Platform Modernization: Manage technical debt and systematically guide the team through infrastructure migrations, decommissioning legacy data services, Debezium configurations, and legacy task runners.
• Cross-Functional Data Modeling: Partner closely with Data Science, Product Management, and external operational business units to translate complex fintech criteria into resilient, well-documented relational schemas.
• Pipeline Quality & Peer Review: Maintain high engineering standards by performing high-impact code reviews, optimizing streaming data pipelines, and establishing rigorous testing boundaries.
• Hands-On System Diagnostics: Balance high-level leadership with pure engineering craft, contributing directly to development tasks and resolving complex production dependencies when critical, mission-focused priorities appear.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 7+ years of total professional history running Data Engineering, Platform Engineering, or backend Software Engineering tracks.
• Minimum of 2+ years of explicit, hands-on engineering management or technical leadership experience growing engineering teams through coaching and structured mentorship.
• Advanced, production-grade programming proficiency inside modern systems ecosystems using Python, Java, or Golang.
• Expert-level command of structural SQL mechanics, complex query optimizations, relational database architectures, and data warehousing patterns.
• Extensive background building distributed real-time data streaming pipelines, schema versioning layers, and handling strict SLAs for mission-critical processes.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication mechanics, optimized to translate technical obstacles into clean, actionable updates for non-technical stakeholders.
• Location Context: 100% remote-first full-time operational flexibility restricted exclusively to qualified engineering leaders permanently situated within the United States.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior technical experience manipulating big data frameworks using **Apache Spark, Scala, Benthos, or Protocol Buffers**.
• Familiarity navigating strict financial services compliance, regulatory framework barriers, or data protection policies within the Fintech sector.

What We Offer

• Targeted Annual Base Salary Framework: $150,000 – $250,000 USD, determined by geographic pay tiers based upon cost-of-living metrics.
• The exceptional technical runway to directly architect and scale the real-time event infrastructure tracking data for a premier, mission-driven fintech pioneer.
• Profound remote-work operational independence supported by a transparent, flat-hierarchy engineering structure.
• A progressive corporate culture that champions true equity, values diverse perspectives, and invests heavily in continuous internal technical advancement.