Senior AI-First Engineer (Management Background)

CampusIQ | North Austin, TX (Hybrid)

We're hiring engineering managers to come back to building. Not to manage people. To build software.

But here's why we specifically want managers:
You spent years developing judgment about what good looks like. You know when architecture is sound or smells wrong. You understand systems thinking. You've built processes that make teams effective. You know how to set standards and enforce them.

Those skills—the ones that made you a good manager—are exactly what AI-first development needs. AI can write code. It can't (yet) provide architectural judgment, set quality standards, or build the tooling and processes that make a team effective. That's where you come in.

What You'll Actually Do

Build software. Real features for our campus analytics platform. You'll use Claude Code as your primary development tool, shipping to production systems serving major universities. Build the tooling and processes that make AI-first development work. The linters, quality gates, testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, just files. The automation that enforces standards you learned to care about when you were managing teams.

Apply Your Management Experience to Building Systems

• You know 98% test coverage matters because you've reviewed too much untested code
• You'll build cyclomatic complexity limits into linters because you've debugged too many 500-line functions
• You'll create pre-commit hooks because you've spent too many code reviews catching the same issues
• You'll architect systems with the judgment that comes from years of seeing what works and what breaks

Work with a small team (3 engineers + you) figuring out AI-first development together. Hybrid in Austin because when you're defining new processes, being in the same room matters.

Why This Works For You

You miss building. The 1-on-1s, performance reviews, and politics aren't why you got into engineering. You have skills AI needs. Your pattern matching, architectural judgment, and systems thinking are more valuable now than ever. You'll move faster than you thought possible. AI handles implementation. You provide the judgment and build the infrastructure. Together, you'll ship faster than teams 10x your size. You're early. We're still figuring this out. Your experience building processes and making teams effective? That's exactly what we need to define how AI-first development actually works.

What We're Looking

For Management experience required: 2-5+ years managing engineering teams. You've seen enough code, enough architectures, enough systems to know what good looks like.

Technical depth: Strong Python/backend experience. You haven't been coding full-time recently, but you were a strong engineer before you moved into management. You built tooling before: Even as a manager, you cared about CI/CD, testing frameworks, linters, developer experience. You know that good tools make good teams.You're not threatened by AI: You see it as leverage, not replacement. You understand that judgment and systems thinking are your competitive advantage.Austin-based, hybrid required: We're learning together. Being in the same room matters when you're building new processes.You want to build again: Not manage people. Not climb the management ladder. Build software and the systems that make building software work.

The Reality

We're early. Still figuring out what AI-first development means. But results are exceeding expectations.

• You'll code again. But through AI, not by typing every line yourself.
• Your management skills matter. The judgment, the systems thinking, the process building—that's what makes this work.
• Small team, high impact. You'll define how we work, what standards we hold, what tooling we build.
• Hybrid is intentional. Remote flexibility + in-person collaboration when it matters.
• Real systems. Billions of events, major universities, production systems that matter.

Salary

$180K-$240KK + equity + the chance to revolutionize how software is built

How to Apply 

Please complete the form above, and send us:

1. Your management background (how long, team size, what you learned)
2. Something you built before or during management (deployed project preferred)
3. Tooling or processes you created that made your team more effective
4. Your experience with AI development tools (or willingness to learn)
5. Why you want to come back to building.

We're not looking for people who have it all figured out. We're looking for managers who miss building and want to figure out AI-first development with us.