Senior Manager, Full-Stack AI Engineering

Senior Manager, Full-Stack Engineering$190,000-$210,0004 days/week on-site in Houston or Austin OverviewA growing technology-driven organisation is seeking a Senior Manager, Full-Stack AI Engineering to lead a small team of engineers delivering AI-powered software solutions. This is a highly hands-on leadership position, with the majority of time spent contributing directly to architecture, development, and delivery while also managing and developing engineers.The ideal candidate brings a strong full-stack engineering background and has successfully transitioned into AI-focused application development. This individual should have practical experience deploying large language model (LLM) solutions, generative AI capabilities, retrieval-augmented systems, agent-based architectures, and AI-assisted software development workflows in production environments.This role partners closely with product, data, and AI stakeholders to deliver enterprise-scale applications while establishing engineering excellence across the team.Key ResponsibilitiesTechnical Leadership & DeliveryLead the design, development, and deployment of production-grade AI-enabled applications.Contribute directly to coding, architecture, solution design, and technical delivery across multiple initiatives.Build and support end-to-end solutions spanning frontend applications, backend services, APIs, data integration pipelines, and AI-powered features.Provide technical direction on AI integration patterns, system architecture, cloud-native solutions, and software engineering best practices.Conduct architecture reviews, code reviews, and technical design discussions.Ensure scalability, maintainability, security, and operational excellence across delivered solutions.Team ManagementManage and mentor a team of software engineers across multiple workstreams.Conduct performance reviews, regular coaching sessions, and career development planning.Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and delivery excellence.Participate in hiring, onboarding, and talent development activities.Engineering Standards & QualityEstablish and enforce standards for coding, testing, documentation, security, and release management.Promote responsible use of AI-assisted development tools and establish best practices for their adoption.Evaluate emerging engineering and AI development tools to improve team effectiveness and software quality.Ensure AI-generated code meets the same standards as manually authored code.Cross-Functional CollaborationPartner with product leaders, data teams, AI specialists, and business stakeholders to prioritise and deliver solutions.Communicate technical risks, dependencies, and delivery expectations effectively.Contribute to planning, estimation, and process improvement initiatives.Required QualificationsBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.10+ years of software engineering experience with substantial full-stack development expertise.5+ years of engineering leadership or people management experience.Demonstrated experience hiring, mentoring, and developing software engineering talent.Strong experience with modern full-stack technologies, including: Frontend frameworks such as React or Angular.Backend development using Java, Python, Go, or similar languages.Python frameworks such as FastAPI, Django, or Flask.Experience delivering AI-enabled or data-intensive applications in production environments.Practical experience integrating LLMs, generative AI solutions, AI workflows, or related technologies into software products.Experience defining engineering standards covering code quality, testing, documentation, and security.Experience implementing and governing AI-assisted coding workflows using tools such as Claude Code, Codex, Augment Code, or comparable platforms.Strong understanding of CI/CD, cloud-native architectures, deployment automation, and infrastructure-as-code.Experience managing multiple projects or delivery workstreams simultaneously.Ability to assess architecture quality, coding standards, technical complexity, and delivery risk.Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.Preferred QualificationsExperience building production solutions using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agent-based AI frameworks, and LLM-powered applications.Experience with modern cloud platforms, particularly AWS.Experience working with large-scale data platforms, lakehouse environments, or analytics ecosystems.Experience partnering with data scientists, ML engineers, and product teams in agile delivery environments.Prior experience in startup, scale-up, or small-to-mid-sized engineering environments.Background leading highly technical teams while remaining an active individual contributor.Work Model / Location / Engagement DetailsFull-time permanent position.Remote-flexible within commuting distance of a major office location in the Southern United States.Candidates must reside within approximately 50 miles of the designated office region.In-office attendance required approximately 4 days per month.Occasional travel expected (approximately 20% to 30%).Compensation up to $210,000 base salary plus target bonus of 25%.