Senior Manager, Scientific Data Engineering
At a glance
Senior Data Engineering role at TetraScience. Cambridge · full-time · $150,000–$230,000 base.
dataroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Guide scientific data engineers across squads through planning, building, testing and documenting their work
- Improve engineering workflows and cross-team handoffs, then track results with measures such as delivery speed and reliability
- Set shared expectations for code quality, architecture, testing and operational reliability across teams
- Turn product and company priorities into engineering plans, coordinating with Product, Design and other stakeholders
- Oversee managers, team growth, hiring, development, organizational design, budgets and staffing plans
What you bring
- At least ten years of professional experience, including five or more years managing people or leading through managers
- Experience managing managers and shaping team structures as an engineering organization grows
- A strong technical foundation to contribute credibly to architecture and design discussions
- A track record of improving engineering operations and using metrics to guide decisions
- Clear communication skills, including presenting to executive leaders
Who this fits
This is a senior people-leadership role spanning multiple engineering squads, suited to someone who can address organizational problems while engaging on technical decisions. The role is based onsite in Cambridge, and visa sponsorship is unavailable.
From the employer
About the Role
We're looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead Scientific Data Engineers (SDE) spread across multiple forward deployed engineering squads and drive both technical and organizational excellence. This role is ideal for a leader who can zoom out to see systemic inefficiencies across teams and processes, then roll up their sleeves to fix them — while also building a culture where engineers do their best work.
What You'll Do
Team & People Leadership
- Supervise and guide SDEs in each squad in planning, implementation, testing, and documentation. Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement across teams.
- Lead by example - comfortable with diving deeper into organizational and technical challenges and help the team navigate ambiguity and vagueness.
- Manage performance, career development, and org design as teams scale
- Hire, mentor, and retain strong engineering talent; build a pipeline of future technical leaders
Operational Excellence
- Proactively identify inefficiencies in engineering workflows, processes, and cross-team handoffs — don't wait to be told something is broken
- Design and implement systems (planning cadences, metrics, tooling) that increase velocity and reduce friction across teams
- Establish and track meaningful engineering metrics (cycle time, deployment frequency, incident rates, etc.) to guide decisions
- Drive continuous process improvement, balancing speed with sustainability
Technical & Engineering Excellence
- Set and uphold engineering standards for code quality, architecture, testing, and operational reliability across teams
- Partner with tech leads and architects on key technical decisions and trade-offs
- Champion best practices in system design, scalability, and maintainability
- Stay close enough to the technical details to ask sharp questions and unblock teams when needed
Strategy & Cross-Functional Partnership
- Translate company and product strategy into actionable engineering roadmaps across multiple teams
- Partner closely with Product, Design, and other stakeholders to align priorities and timelines
- Communicate progress, risks, and trade-offs clearly to executive leadership
- Own budget, headcount planning, and resource allocation for your organization
Requirements
What We're Looking For
Required
- Overall 10+ years of work experience, including at least 5 years being a manager or leading through other managers
- Proven track record of identifying and resolving operational inefficiencies at scale (process, tooling, or organizational)
- Demonstrated commitment to engineering excellence — quality, reliability, and maintainable systems, not just shipping speed
- Experience managing managers and building organizational structure as teams grow
- Strong technical background with the credibility to engage deeply on architecture and design decisions
- Excellent communication skills, with experience presenting to executive stakeholders
- Experience setting and using engineering metrics to drive decisions and improvements
- Comfortable working in a changing environment and navigating through unclear requirements
Nice to Have
- Experience scaling an engineering org through significant growth (e.g., 2x–5x headcount)
- Experience working in startups
- Experience in working with life science data
- Experience with distributed/remote engineering teams
- History of building or maturing engineering processes from scratch (SDLC, release management, incident response)
What Success Looks Like in the First Year
- Identify key engineering operational bottlenecks and inefficiencies
- Engineering teams operate with clear, well-understood processes and reduced cross-team friction
- Engineering teams able to accurately predict engineering effort and deliver high-quality products on time
- Measurable improvement in key engineering metrics (velocity, quality, reliability)
- Engineering is seen as a trusted, proactive partner by Product and executive leadership
Benefits
100% employer paid benefits for all eligible employees and immediate family members.
401K.
Unlimited paid time off (PTO).
Company paid Life Insurance, LTD/STD.
The salary range for this position is $150K-$230K USD. The salary range posted reflects our target baseline for this role. Final compensation is determined by a thorough evaluation of factors including the candidate’s specific experience, localized market data, and internal team equity.
This position isn't eligible for visa sponsorship
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