Systems Engineering Manager

Modal, Inc

$130K — $180K *
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of industry experience with 3+ years in a leadership role
  • Proven expertise in building high-performance distributed systems
  • Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure principles
  • Deep knowledge of low-level operating system fundamentals
  • Proficiency in systems-level programming languages including Rust, C, C++, or Java

Responsibilities

  • Lead and inspire a team of experienced engineers
  • Contribute technically to projects by writing code and troubleshooting issues
  • Set the engineering direction and priorities in alignment with business goals
  • Remove blockers to help the team achieve their objectives
  • Cultivate a positive engineering culture with a focus on collaboration and innovation

Benefits

  • Opportunity to grow within a fast-growing AI infrastructure company
  • Work within a diverse team of experts and innovators
  • Engage in hands-on technical leadership and project involvement
  • Be part of a company recognized for significant growth and innovation
  • Work in a collaborative, high-impact environment
Full Job Description
About Us:

Modal provides the infrastructure foundation for AI teams. With instant GPU access, sub-second container startups, and native storage, Modal makes it simple to train models, run batch jobs, and serve low-latency inference. Companies like Suno, Lovable, and Substack rely on Modal to move from prototype to production without the burden of managing infrastructure.

We're a fast-growing team based out of NYC, SF, and Stockholm. We've hit 9-figure ARR and recently raised a Series B at a $1.1B valuation. We have thousands of customers who rely on us for production AI workloads, including Lovable, Scale AI, Substack, and Suno.

Working at Modal means joining one of the fastest-growing AI infrastructure organizations at an early stage, with many opportunities to grow within the company. Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g. Seaborn, Luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience.

The Role:

We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead a group of highly experienced engineers. This is a hands-on leadership role where you'll spend roughly half your time on technical contribution and half on people management, depending on the need. You'll work closely with the team to set direction, remove blockers, and foster a strong engineering culture as they tackle complex systems challenges in distributed computing, large-scale data handling, and performance optimization.

Who You AreWe think you are an experienced engineering leader who thrives close to the work and enjoys building alongside their team when needed. You earn trust through technical depth, communicate with clarity, and help great engineers move fast and make sound decisions. You thrive in a fast paced environment, you are pragmatic, calm under pressure, and focused on impact.

Requirements:
  • At least 10 years of industry experience, including 3 years experience in a leadership role
  • Experience building high-performance distributed systems at a large scale
  • Strong background in cloud infrastructure
  • Strong knowledge of low-level operating system foundations (Linux kernel, file systems, containers, etc.)
  • Proficient in systems-level languages such as Rust, C, C++, or Java

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