Copia Automation builds the version control and change management platform for industrial automation. Our customers are in oil & gas, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure: environments where the code running on PLCs, SCADA systems, and HMIs have direct safety implications. We bring modern software engineering practices to operational technology teams that have been underserved by tooling for decades.
We’re a well-funded startup growing fast, with enterprise customers deploying Copia across hundreds of facilities. Our headquarters is in New York City.
The RoleWe’re hiring an Engineering Manager to stand up and lead a brand-new Core Applications Platform team. This team’s customers are our internal product teams, and its mandate is to design, build, and own the shared, full-stack application capabilities that every product at Copia depends on; the kind of capabilities that should be solved once, well, and reused across many user types.
Reporting into the VP of Engineering, you will lead a group of full-stack software engineers and partner closely with the Product, Design, and other Engineering leaders whose teams rely on what you build. You’ll support, mentor, and grow your team while staying close enough to the technology to provide meaningful architectural input, code review, and the occasional pull request.
This role is a great fit for a hands-on line manager who is excited by the challenge of building a new team from scratch and shaping how an entire engineering organization builds product. You must be comfortable collaborating through ambiguity, while supporting your team to drive predictable velocity as we continue to scale the organization.
What you'll do:
Build and lead the team. You will stand up a brand-new squad of roughly four senior full-stack engineers, managing the full lifecycle of hiring, onboarding, and continuous growth through weekly 1:1s and performance feedback. You’ll align individual aspirations with business needs while fostering a culture of high standards and psychological safety.
Set the charter and direction. Partnering with Engineering leadership, Product, and Design, you will define the team’s ownership boundaries and engagement models, translating high-level goals into a clear roadmap and well-scoped delivery milestones.
Treat internal product teams as your customers. You will seek to understand their pain points, prioritize ruthlessly, and ship reusable, well-documented capabilities while measuring their adoption and impact across the organization.
Drive the technical direction. You will oversee the architecture of shared full-stack platforms, including frontend frameworks, backend services, APIs, and multi-tenant primitives and ensure they scale. You’ll stay close enough to the technology to provide architectural input, code reviews, and hands-on contributions where they add the most leverage.
Own operational quality and how we work. You’ll be responsible for on-call practices, incident response runbooks, and the engineering standards (from CI/CD to ADRs and testing) that empower every product team at Copia to move faster with higher confidence.
What you'll need:
5+ years of professional full-stack software engineering experience, with at least 1–2 years of formal or informal people-leadership experience (tech lead, team lead, or direct management).
A strong technical foundation across the stack - frontend, backend, APIs, and data - and the judgment to design shared application capabilities that other engineers will want to build on.
Experience delivering a product or capability with engineers as the end users (an internal platform, SDK, design system, framework, shared services layer, or developer-tools product). You know how to treat other engineers as real customers.
Demonstrated ability to coach engineers — helping them grow technically, take on bigger scope, and develop in their careers.
Strong written and verbal communication. You can adjust your message for engineers, executives, and partner teams without losing the substance.
Sound judgment around prioritization, scope, and trade-offs, which includes knowing when to ship a focused MVP versus investing in the right foundation and when to say "no" or "not yet" to internal customers.
Empathy, humility, and high standards. You are kind to people and tough on problems.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
Nice to haves:
Experience starting a new team from zero — defining charter, hiring the first engineers, and establishing how it works with the rest of the org.
Experience building shared application platforms, frameworks, design systems, or internal SDKs that were adopted by multiple internal product teams.
Experience with some of our stack or adjacent technologies on both sides of the wire: TypeScript / Node.js, React, Go, Python, PostgreSQL, AWS, Datadog.
Familiarity with multi-tenant architecture, identity / authn / authz patterns, feature flags, and other primitives that show up repeatedly across products.
Experience standing up or improving engineering practices: incident response, on-call, ADRs, code review standards, or career ladders.
Background in B2B SaaS, developer tools, industrial automation, OT/IT, manufacturing software, or IoT.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of professional full-stack software engineering experience
- 1-2 years of formal or informal people-leadership experience (tech lead, team lead, or direct management)
- Strong technical foundation across frontend, backend, APIs, and data
- Experience delivering a product or capability with engineers as end users (internal platform, SDK, design system, shared services, or developer tools)
- Demonstrated ability to coach and grow engineers
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Sound judgment around prioritization, scope, and trade-offs
- Empathy, humility, and high standards; ability to foster psychological safety
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
- Experience starting a new team, defining charter, and hiring initial engineers
- Experience building shared application platforms, frameworks, design systems, or internal SDKs adopted by multiple teams
- Experience with TypeScript, Node.js, React, Go, Python, PostgreSQL, AWS, or Datadog
- Familiarity with multi-tenant architecture, identity/authn/authz patterns, and feature flags
- Experience establishing engineering practices: incident response, on-call, ADRs, code review standards, or career ladders
- Background in B2B SaaS, developer tools, industrial automation, OT/IT, manufacturing software, or IoT
What We Do
Copia is redefining how the world’s factories, energy systems, and infrastructure are built and maintained. Our Industrial Code Lifecycle Management Platform connects software engineering practices with operational technology, giving manufacturers resiliency with the visibility, control, and confidence they need to innovate safely. We’re engineers, builders, and problem-solvers driven by one mission: Keep industry moving forward. Copia is building the modern engineering platform for industrial automation. Industrial organizations operate critical infrastructure on PLCs, SCADA, and OT networks. These environments power manufacturing, energy, food production, and infrastructure worldwide. Most of them still rely on fragmented tooling and manual workflows that would not be tolerated in any modern software environment. Copia closes that gap. We bring the discipline of modern software engineering to operational technology teams, giving controls engineers and IT security teams the version control, change management, and operational resilience their environments demand. Two concepts define what we do: Industrial Code Lifecycle Management (ICLM) applies structured lifecycle practices to automation code and configuration management. Think DevOps for the plant floor. It enables industrial teams to manage PLC logic, configurations, and automation assets with version control, traceability, and controlled deployment processes. No more tribal knowledge. No more manual backups on USB drives. No more mystery around what changed, when, and who made the call. Operational Technology Disaster Recovery (OTDR) ensures automation systems can be rapidly restored after failures, cyber incidents, or operational disruptions. It covers backup validation, system restoration procedures, and resilience planning for industrial control systems. When ransomware hits or equipment fails, production gets back online in hours, not weeks. Together, ICLM and OTDR form the foundation for secure, resilient industrial automation environments. Copia is the platform that makes both operationally real.
Why Work With Us
At Copia, you’ll work with some of the most advanced industrial and engineering organizations in the world. You’ll help them adopt modern tools that improve how engineering teams collaborate, manage code, and operate critical infrastructure. Copia is growing incredibly quickly as a company, thus all roles are seen as "growth track" roles.
Copia Automation Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Employees are expected in the Copia office a minimum of 2-3 days/week, 10 days/month. Our office is located in NoMad/Flatiron, steps away from Madison Square Park, and minutes away from the 6, R, W, F, M, E, and 1 trains, as well as the PATH.
