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Engineering Manager

Team

Software Engineering

Location

San Francisco, United States

Apply on Gem
ABOUT RETOOL
Nearly every company in the world runs on custom software: Gartner estimates that up to 50% of all code is written for internal use. This is the operational software for refunding orders, underwriting loans, onboarding employees, analyzing transactions, and providing customer support. But most companies don’t have adequate resources to properly invest in these tools, leading to a lot of old and clunky internal software or, even worse, users still stuck in manual and spreadsheet flows.
At Retool, we’re on a mission to bring good software to everyone. We’re building a new type of development platform that combines the benefits of traditional software development with a drag-and-drop UI editor and AI, making it dramatically faster to build internal tools. We believe that the future of software development lies in abstracting away the tedious and repetitive tasks developers waste time on, while creating reusable components that act as a force multiplier for future developers and projects. The result is not just productivity, but good software by default. And that’s a mission worth striving for.
Today, our customers span from small startups building their first operational tools to Fortune 500 companies building mission-critical apps for thousands of users across their business. Interested in joining us? Let us know!

WHY WE’RE LOOKING FOR YOU:
Our engineering leaders are at the forefront of Retool’s product development, bridging the gap between engineering excellence and customer impact. We look for leaders who not only bring strong technical expertise but also the strategic vision to shape Retool’s product direction, balancing day-to-day execution with long-term thinking.
You’ll lead the Apps Foundation team, a group on a mission to ensure Retool apps are performant, reliable, and scalable as our enterprise customers push the limits of what’s possible. This team builds and maintains the foundations that power the Retool app experience—everything from how apps are loaded, run, and saved to the testing, observability, and performance systems that keep them fast and dependable at scale.
You’ll guide engineers focused on:
  • Runtime: the core systems and data structures that make Retool apps tick.
  • Performance: ensuring apps are performant out of the box, minimal tuning required.
  • Testing & Observability: frameworks and monitoring tools that detect, diagnose, and resolve issues before users even notice.
  • User Experience Analytics: session replay and product analytics that show how apps perform and evolve in real-world conditions.
Your work will directly influence thousands of business-critical applications, creating the infrastructure that ensures Retool apps don’t just launch successfully, but stay fast, reliable, and valuable over time.
IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL:
  • Communicate and collaborate effectively with Product and Design counterparts
  • Manage a full-stack team of engineers; support the team by identifying growth opportunities, providing continuous feedback, and performance management as appropriate
  • Establish and define your team's strategy to ensure execution maximizes business impact
  • Meet with customers to better understand product sentiment
  • Introduce scalable, repeatable processes that help engineering and product teams deliver a successful product
  • Partner with recruiting on building out a diverse team of exceptionally motivated engineers
THE SKILLSET YOU'LL BRING:
  • 3+ years of experience successfully leading and managing full-stack teams
  • Deep technical understanding; we don’t expect you to code, but you should be able to navigate our codebase and engage deeply on design and architecture.
  • A strong ability to champion an engineering team through macro process changes
  • A history of orienting teams and setting strategy toward engineering goals, with a bias toward impact
  • Experience successfully recruiting, building, and scaling teams
  • A propensity to operate as a business-owner — caring deeply about our customers, product, and team
  • Thoughtfulness around engineering culture, process, and identity
  • Proficiency in navigating through ambiguity, managing stakeholders, communicating in a structured manner, as well as driving maximal accountability and excellence
  • A collaborative skillset to partner effectively with product, design, and go-to-market teams

Retool offers generous benefits to all employees and hybrid work location. For more information, please visit the benefits and perks section of our careers page!
Retool is currently set up to employ all roles in the US and specific roles in the UK. To find roles that can be employed in the UK, please refer to our careers page and review the indicated locations.