Engineering Manager

Job description

About PorterAt Porter, we’re on a mission to move a billion dreams by building the most trusted, efficient, and seamless logistics platform in India. We started in 2014 with a simple vision — to transform intra-city logistics through technology. Today, Porter is a late-stage startup, serving millions of users across 21+ cities, backed by marquee investors like Tiger Global, Lightrock, and Sequoia.We solve real-world problems — from empowering micro-entrepreneurs and truck owners, to optimizing last-mile delivery for SMEs and enterprises. Every challenge we take on has real consequences and real impact.With a sharp focus on user obsession, ownership, and collaboration, we’re building a workplace where people thrive when they take bold bets, move fast, and build with empathy.If you’re looking to work where scale meets purpose, complexity fuels learning, and culture isn’t an afterthought, Porter is the place. Role OverviewBuild teams. Build systems. Build impact.As an Engineering Manager - 1 at Porter, you will lead a team of engineers responsible for building and operating business-critical is a high-ownership role for someone who enjoys staying close to technology while also driving execution, developing people, and creating business impact. You will be responsible for:Leading a small engineering team with clarity, ownership, and empathyDriving predictable delivery across multiple projectsGuiding technical decisions across HLD, LLD, reliability, and scaleEnsuring systems are observable, reliable, and production-readyPartnering with Product, Business, Data, and Operations to solve real user problemsBuilding a strong engineering culture within your teamThis role is not about managing status updates.It is about owning outcomes. What You’ll DoLead High-Impact Engineering Execution You will convert ambiguous business and product goals into clear engineering plans.You will define milestones, owners, dependencies, risks, and success metrics. You will drive execution rhythm, surface risks early, and ensure your team delivers with predictability and quality.You will balance speed, scope, quality, reliability, and cost while keeping business impact at the center. Guide Technical DirectionYou will work closely with engineers to shape strong technical solutions.You will review HLDs and LLDs, challenge assumptions, identify reliability and scale gaps, and help the team make sound trade-offs.You are not expected to write every line of code, but you are expected to raise the quality of technical decision-making. Own Operational ExcellenceYou will be accountable for the operational health of systems owned by your team.You will drive SLOs, dashboards, alerts, incident management, postmortems, rollout planning, and production readiness.At Porter’s scale, launch is not the finish line. Systems need to run reliably after they are shipped. Build and Grow Your TeamYou will manage, coach, and develop engineers.You will set clear expectations, provide regular feedback, help people grow in scope, and handle difficult conversations with empathy and clarity. You will create a team environment where engineers feel trusted, accountable, and motivated to do high-quality work. Create Business ImpactYou will work closely with Product, Business, Data, and Operations to connect engineering execution with real-world outcomes. Your team’s work will directly impact customers, driver partners, marketplace reliability, operational efficiency, and cost. You will not just manage engineering work. You will solve business problems through engineering teams. What We’re Looking For8+ years of overall engineering experiencePrior experience managing or directly leading engineersStrong hands-on engineering background, preferably in backend, platform, marketplace, or distributed systemsExperience driving delivery across multiple projects or workstreamsExperience operating in fast-paced, high-ownership environmentsExposure to systems running at meaningful production scale. Technical JudgmentYou should be able to:Review HLDs and LLDs with depthReason about APIs, service boundaries, data models, scale, reliability, and failure modesIdentify design gaps before they become production issuesPartner effectively with senior engineers and architectsBalance technical quality with business urgencyExecution StrengthYou should be strong at:Breaking complex goals into clear plansManaging risks, dependencies, and trade-offsDriving alignment across Product, Business, Data, Ops, and EngineeringCommunicating status, risks, and decisions crisplyMaintaining momentum through ambiguity and changing prioritiesPeople LeadershipYou should bring:Strong ownership of team outcomesAbility to coach and grow engineersClear and constructive feedback styleEmpathy with accountabilityAbility to build trust, resolve conflict, and raise the team’s performance barMindsetWe value leaders who demonstrate:Own It — take accountability for outcomesKeep Moving — act with urgency and clarity in ambiguityUser Obsession — understand real customer and business impactCollaborate to Win — work well across teams and functionsEmpathy Driven — support people while maintaining high standardsWhy Join Porter?Lead teams building systems at massive real-world scaleSolve complex logistics and marketplace problems unique to India-scale operationsWork in a culture that values ownership, speed, frugality, reliability, and impactPartner closely with Product, Business, Data, and Operations to influence meaningful outcomesBuild both systems and teams for Porter’s next phase of growthIn SummaryAs an EM-1 at Porter, you will be a systems-minded engineering leader responsible for your team’s execution, technical quality, operational health, and talent growth.This role is for leaders who can stay close to technology, lead people with empathy, and deliver business-critical outcomes with high ownership.