Engineering Manager, Publishing

About Us

Academia.edu is a venture-backed, for-profit, and profitable company based in San Francisco. We are recognized as the world’s leading platform for researchers and scholars to share work, discover research, and connect with academics globally. Our bold vision is to democratize and accelerate the world's research, enhancing the speed of scientific discovery and technological progress for the benefit of everyone. We imagine a world where accessing academic papers is effortless, keeping track of cutting-edge research is seamless and collaborating with researchers is easier than ever before. Our platform empowers millions of scholars worldwide to push the boundaries of human understanding. We believe that academic research is a lever that improves the progress of humanity, and our commitment to this mission drives everything we do.

Join us as we continue to redefine what's possible in the world of research. Discover careers that challenge, inspire and propel you toward a future where your ideas can truly change the world. At Academia.edu, we're not just shaping the future of research—we're shaping the future of possibilities.

Please note that this role is in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Our office comes alive on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays! Three times a week, our Bay Area team gathers in our office located in San Francisco's Financial District (580 California St) for All Hands meetings, collaborative sessions, innovation-driven brainstorming, and events that bring us closer together. Our space has everything we need—from cozy rooms for 1:1 mentoring and focused work to larger rooms designed for team activities.

About the role

As the Engineering Manager - Publishing at Academia.edu, your people management skills will shine, both through mentoring and coaching the members of your team, and also through designing people processes for the wider engineering organization. You will lead a team of talented engineers to success, collaborating closely with other stakeholders to shape the product trajectory. At Academia.edu, rather than following narrowly defined requirements, you’ll collaborate across functions to help align engineering efforts with broader business objectives, sometimes shaping priorities yourself, other times supporting execution. When your team gets stuck, you’ll use your experience and problem-solving skills to get them unstuck. You’ll also help to hire and grow our organization with talented and motivated software engineers.

Academia.edu Journals / Publishing is a rapidly growing business unit with the goal of building the world’s highest-impact open-access journals. Your team will build software to support that aim.

Key Responsibilities

• People Management: Lead and mentor engineers, conduct weekly 1:1s, and build scalable people processes (e.g., leveling, career paths). Hire, develop, and retain a high-performing team.

• Technical Management: Provide technical leadership through code reviews, data analysis, and occasional coding, while guiding architectural decisions and collaborating with teams to implement innovative solutions.

• Operational Leadership: Oversee deliverables, optimize workflows, and collaborate on project prioritization.

• Strategic Alignment: Ensure engineering efforts align with business objectives through regular cross-timezone meetings (2–4x/week between 7 am–10 am PT). Implement systems and processes that support a dynamic roadmap.

Requirements

• Minimum of 4 years of experience managing engineering teams.

• Proven experience managing a team of at least 5 engineers for 1+ years.

• Ability to define and prioritize engineering efforts aligned with product outcomes.

• Strong hands-on engineering background and technical competency. You will monitor project progress, conduct code reviews, do data analysis, guide, and mentor engineers.

• Although our standard core hours are 10 am-4 pm PT, for this role, you must be available during early morning hours to attend meetings with European team members, to ensure the strategy and alignment of the team.

• Effective communicator across time zones, cultures, and skill levels—especially:

1. With non-native English speakers

2. For non-technical stakeholders

3. In asynchronous environments

4. While coaching ICs to improve communication

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with a B2C digital product

• Experience managing engineering teams at more than one company

• Experience managing more than one team at the same time at one company.

• Experience working with European stakeholders and team members.

• Previous experience balancing IC engineering with management responsibilities.

• Experience with a Ruby on Rails tech stack.

Compensation

The total cash compensation for this role is targeted at $190,000 to $230,000 USD for the first year. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.