Software Engineering Manager (Full-Stack)

At Diesel Laptops, we are dedicated to revolutionizing the commercial truck and off-highway vehicle repair industry. Since our inception, we have been committed to providing cutting-edge diagnostic tools, repair information, and world-class training to our clients. Our mission is to empower technicians and repair facilities with the knowledge and tools they need to efficiently diagnose and repair vehicles, ultimately reducing downtime and improving profitability. At Diesel Laptops, we pride ourselves on fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment where every team member is valued and has the opportunity to grow.

We are seeking a hands-on Software Engineering Manager to lead a team of full-stack engineers building and operating real-time, data-driven applications. This role follows an 80/20 management-to-IC split, with primary responsibility for team leadership, delivery, and engineering quality, while remaining technically engaged through targeted contributions.

This role emphasizes building and scaling high-quality systems, while also helping evolve our existing architecture over time. Much of our application logic today lives in Python within the web layer, handling complex data querying and transformation. You will guide the team in structuring this logic into clean, maintainable patterns, with a strong focus on data modeling, data integrity, and system clarity.

As part of ongoing platform improvements, you will also support the team in incrementally modernizing the system, including simplifying or consolidating legacy components where appropriate. The ideal candidate is a strong technical leader who can both develop engineers and bring clarity to complex systems, improving reliability, maintainability, and developer experience over time.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership (80%)

• Manage and mentor a team of 5–7 engineers across frontend, backend, and full-stack domains
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development planning
• Own team technical delivery against product and platform priorities
• Maintain and continuously improve engineering standards, code quality expectations, and review practices
• Work directly with Project Manager to drive sprint planning, prioritization, and execution consistency
• Partner with Product, Data, and DevOps teams on cross-functional initiatives
• Support hiring, onboarding, and contractor management

Technical Contribution (20%)

• Contribute selectively to production code in high-impact areas
• Lead design and architectural decisions across full stack development
• Perform high-quality code reviews across React, React Native, Django, and related frameworks
• Set technical direction and patterns for the team (not primary feature ownership)
• Step in on critical issues, incidents, or high-risk deliverables

Architecture \& System Design

• Guide backend architecture with a focus on data modeling, schema design, and reliable data transformations, particularly in Python-based application logic, ensuring clean system boundaries and consistency across servicesShape frontend architecture (React, TanStack ecosystem preferred)
• Contribute to mobile strategy (React Native or Flutter)
• Ensure clean integration with data pipelines and ML-driven systems
• Promote API-first and modular design principles

Legacy System Migration \& Simplification

• Support the gradual migration away from AWS Lambdas and PHP services
• Support safe migration of functionality into the core application stack (Django / Python)
• Ensure continuity of business logic while improving maintainability and observability
• Identify opportunities to simplify, consolidate, or eliminate redundant services

Delivery \& Execution

• Improve delivery predictability and reduce bottlenecks
• Ensure high-quality releases with proper testing and observability
• Balance feature delivery with technical debt and platform investments
• Drive accountability and ownership within the team

Minimum Qualifications

• 5\+ years of full-stack software engineering experience
• Experience with backend systems using Python for data processing and transformation logic
• 1\+ years of engineering management or strong technical leadership experience
• Production experience with:

Backend: Django (preferred), or Rails / Spring Boot

Frontend: React (TanStack ecosystem a strong plus), React Native (Expo ecosystem a strong plus)

APIs: RESTful design and integration

Databases: SQL (Postgres preferred)

• Proven ability to lead teams while staying technically credible

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with real-time or data-driven systems
• Familiarity with ML/data-integrated applications
• Ability to decompose and consolidate distributed logic into maintainable application services
• Exposure to cloud infrastructure and CI/CD systems
• Experience improving engineering processes and team performance

Core Technologies

Frontend: React, TanStack (Query, Router), Tailwind CSS (shadcn)

Backend: Django, Django REST Framework

Mobile: React Native or Flutter, Expo

Database: PostgreSQL

Tooling: GitHub Actions, CI/CD pipelines

Performance Metrics

• Team delivery velocity and predictability
• Code quality and system reliability
• Reduction in production issues and cycle time
• Developer productivity and onboarding effectiveness
• Team engagement, professional growth, and retention