Engineering Manager

About Ovative Group:

Ovative Group is an independent, full-funnel media, measurement, and creative firm transforming how brands grow. We partner with leading names like American Eagle, Best Buy, Domino’s, The Home Depot, Polaris, and UnitedHealth Group to build smarter media and measurement programs that drive real, profitable growth. 

We don’t just track performance—we redefine it. Powered by our proprietary intelligence platform, EMRge, and our holistic metric Enterprise Marketing Return (EMR), we help brands connect revenue, customer, and brand outcomes into one clear picture of success. Our approach to full-funnel strategy, buying, and measurement delivers results that matter—and it’s getting noticed. Our work has been recognized by Digiday, Google, USA Today, Inc. 5000, and Search Engine Land.

About the Role:

We are seeking an Engineering Manager to join our rapidly growing product and engineering development team.
Our company specializes in enterprise-level media measurement and optimization across various industries.
 
In this role, you will take a leadership position within a cross-functional team responsible for creating, optimizing, and maintaining scalable software and data solutions to enhance performance, stability, and scalability. You will play a pivotal role in guiding the team and working closely with internal and client stakeholders throughout the entire software development lifecycle, from concept to deployment.
 
The ideal candidate will bring extensive experience in iterative development practices, a strong focus on building testable solutions, and both conceptual and pragmatic problem-solving skills. You actively leverage AI-assisted development tools to improve velocity and quality, and you help your team adopt these practices effectively. Your outstanding attention to detail and strong written and oral communication skills will enable you to work directly with business users, understanding their objectives and translating them into technical requirements.

As a valuable team member, you will have the opportunity to mentor junior team members, contribute to innovative ideas, and drive the adoption of cutting-edge technologies within the team and foster your own professional growth.

Responsibilities of an Engineering Manager:

• Partner in sprint and interval planning with product and technical leaders to align goals, scope, timing, dependencies, and delivery readiness.
 • Support backlog refinement by helping ensure work entering delivery is clear, ready, and sized appropriately.
 • Lead the team's core delivery ceremonies and own the team's delivery rhythm, surfacing blockers, tradeoffs, and replanning needs early to keep work moving.
 • Use team capacity, velocity, and delivery patterns to set realistic commitments and improve the team's delivery system over time.
 • Mentor and coach engineering team members, fostering a culture of continuous learning, growth, and collaboration.
 • Provide clear expectations, regular feedback, and consistent support through 1:1s and day-to-day leadership.
 • Create stretch opportunities that help team members grow in ownership, versatility, and resilience while aligning to team and business needs.
 • Foster a culture of teamwork and technical excellence, creating an environment where team members are inspired to achieve their best.
 • Drive adherence to strong engineering practices across code quality, documentation, testing, maintainability, and technical health, ensuring the team consistently delivers high-quality, reliable software in partnership with QA.
 • Partner directly with Product Managers, Product Owners, and stakeholders to understand goals, clarify requirements, and translate work into actionable technical direction for the team.
 • Represent the team in cross-team discussions, helping surface dependencies, risks, and decisions needed to keep work moving.
 • Advocate for the team within the organization, ensuring the team's needs, constraints, and perspectives are understood in the right forums.
 • Communicate status, risks, and key decisions clearly so the team is represented as a reliable and effective partner.
 • Ensure the team follows SDLC and DevOps best practices, maintaining strong standards for delivery quality, deployment discipline, reliability, and security.
 • Partner effectively with IT, Infosec, QA and other functions as needed to ensure the team consistently delivers high-quality, reliable software and maintains a strong security and compliance posture.
 • Champion the adoption of AI-assisted development tools and practices across the team, establishing effective patterns for responsible use that improve velocity while protecting quality and security.

Requirements:

 • 5+ years of relevant experience in computer science, software engineering, or another technical discipline
 • Experience leading high-performance team. Including lead engineers
 • Experience and passion for leading and growing cross-functional technical team members in their personal development
 • Experience working collaboratively with cross-functional team members, product owners, and stakeholders to drive and support business goals.
 • Strong organization skills and ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines
 • Experience influencing and communicating with non-technical decision makers as a technical thought leader
 • Experience with at least one major programming language (e.g., JavaScript, Python, Java).
 • Familiarity with web technologies (e.g., JavaScript, HTML, CSS), data manipulation (e.g., SQL), and version control systems (e.g., GitHub)
 • Familiarity with cloud environments (e.g., Google Cloud Platform, Azure, Amazon Web Services, etc.)
 • Familiarity with DevOps practices/principles, Agile/Scrum methodologies, and the product development lifecycle
 • Experience leading and shaping Agile delivery practices
 • Experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies and scaled Agile frameworks (e.g., SAFe), with demonstrated ability to support and guide sprint planning and iterative delivery

Preferred:

• Experience with, or a strong demonstrable interest in, agentic AI technologies and their practical applications.
• Experience with marketing APIs and/or automating data pulls from marketing platforms
• Experience in client or stakeholder-facing, consultative roles
• Familiarity with modern web APIs and full stack frameworks.
• Experience influencing budget and investment decisions for engineering organizations

Working at Ovative Group:

We provide strong, competitive, holistic benefits that understand the importance of your life inside and out of work. 

At Ovative, culture isn’t a buzzword—it’s the reason we’ve been named a Top Workplace for ten years running. We lead with trust, transparency, and a commitment to doing the hard work others avoid.

We offer flexibility. You'll work from our Minneapolis, Chicago, or New York office on set days each week, and an option to work remote on others.

Our open floor plan reflects our open communication and flat structure—where interns collaborate with VPs, analysts partner with senior leaders, and our CEO engages with every team member. Together, we create an environment where smart, driven people can do their best work and support one another in the process. 

We’re equally committed to inclusion and belonging. Ovative fosters a workplace where everyone can participate and thrive—regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression or other protected class status. Our benefits and policies reflect that commitment, from inclusive medical leave coverage for same-sex spouses to equitable care and support for all families. 

Benefits: 

We strive to hire and retain the best talent by offering fair, competitive compensation, a meaningful bonus program, and excellent health coverage. When the company performs well, we all benefit. 

Some tangible benefits and amenities we enjoy:

• Access to all office spaces in MSP, NYC, and CHI  

• Frequent, paid travel to our Minneapolis headquarters for company events, team events, and in-person collaboration with teams

• Generous paid vacation policy  

• 401k match program  

• Top-notch health insurance options, inclusive of same sex partners 

• Family formation benefits including reimbursement options for fertility, pregnancy, and parenting needs 

• Monthly stipend for your mobile phone and data plan  

• Sabbatical program  

• Charitable giving via our time and a financial match program  

• Shenanigan’s Day  

Additional information can be found at Ovative's Career Page.

The details of the benefits are covered by applicable plan documents for group benefits and by company policies where a plan document does not apply.

Working at Ovative won’t be easy—but if you like challenging, hard work, driving results, and being surrounded by the best talent, it has the potential to be the most rewarding job you’ll ever have. If you think you can make us better, we want to hear from you! 

EEO & Accessibility: 

Ovative is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a respectful, inclusive workplace for all. Applicants receive consideration without regard to legally protected characteristics (e.g., color, religion, creed, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity/, gender expression, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, marital/ status, familial status, military or veteran’s status, genetic information, status with regard to public assistance, and any other status protected under applicable law). 

We provide reasonable accommodations consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and applicable state law to qualified applicants and employees with disability, unless doing so would create an undue hardship.

If you need assistance or accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected]. 

Application Details and Process:

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer on a full-time basis, without current or future need for visa sponsorship. Ovative is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa for this position. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification documentation upon hire.

Open Until Filled or Otherwise Withdrawn:

We encourage interested candidates to apply early. The position will remain open for at least 10 business days from the first day of posting. After this time, if the position has not been filled, the posting will remain open until the position is filled, or until the posting is otherwise closed or withdrawn for business reasons.