Engineering Manager

Department: Engineering

Location: New York City

Compensation: $220K – $270K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

What we do

Adaptive is a vertical AI company of 50, building the agentic operating system for the $2 trillion U.S. construction industry. We work with over 1,000 customers, partner with over 50 accounting firms, and have raised $26m from Emergence, a16z, and other top funds.

Why join us?

Win a massive category that's up for grabs. Construction is among the least digitized industries left, and no AI king has been crowned. With our momentum, team, and backing, we are in position to be that company

Build a moat that compounds. We orchestrate multi-stakeholder workflows across an industry that today runs on paper, email, and phone calls. Every process we manage generates data no one else has. That data makes each new use case easier to expand to, while building a compounding moat

Work with the rare team that can pull this off. Winning here takes deep construction knowledge and deep AI fluency in the same room. That intersection is rare, and we have it with backgrounds across finance, technology, and construction

Serve the people building the world around you. Your favorite local café. The new house on the corner. The massive new skyscraper at Central Park South. All built by our customers: skilled, creative people who have spent their lives bringing neighborhoods to life

About the role

We're excited to share this opportunity to join our growing team at Adaptive! As an Engineering Manager, you'll play a key role in shaping both our product and engineering culture at an early stage.

This is a hands-on leadership role where you'll manage a team of 5-7 engineers while remaining deeply involved in technical decisions and execution. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, you'll work closely with a tight-knit team to drive impactful product delivery, contribute to architecture, and ensure we build high-quality, scalable systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, and develop a team of 5-7 engineers, including hiring, mentoring, and performance management

• Own end-to-end delivery of product initiatives, working closely with the team to ship quickly and iterate based on feedback

• Act as a force multiplier by unblocking the team, simplifying problems, and maintaining strong execution momentum

• Stay hands-on in the codebase, contributing across the stack where it matters most and setting a high technical bar

• Drive pragmatic architectural decisions that balance speed and long-term scalability

Qualifications

• 5-8+ years of software engineering experience with 1-3+ years of formal people management experience leading engineers

• Strong technical depth with a willingness to be hands-on when needed

• Experience operating in a startup or high-growth environment with evolving priorities

• Proven track record of shipping products quickly and making sound trade-offs between speed and quality

• Strong communication and collaboration skills with a high-ownership, low-ego mindset

What we offer

• Competitive salary plus meaningful equity

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance

• 401(k) match and flexible PTO policy

• A seat at the table in a rapidly scaling fintech startup

• Unlimited opportunities for professional growth and leadership

In-office mandate

• This role requires you to work Monday - Thursday in our sunny Union Square office.