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The Role
Lead the Lister engineering domain, owning roadmap, delivery, technical health, partner data quality, and team growth. Manage three pods via team leads, stay hands-on with architecture and code reviews, partner cross-functionally, own intake and reliability, and hire/mentor engineers to scale backend services and data pipelines that integrate messy third-party partner systems.
Summary Generated by Built In
Who We Are
At Apartment List, we’re transforming how people rent—making it smarter, easier, and a lot less frustrating. Our platform has already matched over 1.4 million renters with their next home, while helping properties fill units with the right residents. Backed by strong growth and a big vision, we’re building the future of renting—and inviting bold thinkers to help us shape it!
About this role
As Senior Manager, Engineering for the Lister team, you'll lead the engineering behind how property partners get their listings onto Apartment List and get value back out. Through Lister, we turn partner data from across the property management landscape into accurate listings, and turn renter interest into revenue for our partners.
Reporting into the Head of Engineering, you'll play a pivotal role in executing product strategy for the Lister domain, setting the engineering vision, roadmap, and delivery across three pods, each supported by a team lead who owns day-to-day execution.
Our ideal leader is both a strong operator and a strategic one: a player-coach who brings deep expertise in backend services and data pipelines that partners depend on, and knows how to apply AI to move faster. You stay close enough to the code to keep the technical bar high while growing the engineers and championing the partners the team serves.
You'll thrive here if you're comfortable where the inputs come from external systems you don't control and no two behave alike. You embrace that messy reality, build clarity where there was none, and lead with steadiness through ambiguity and change.
- Own the outcomes of the Lister domain end to end: delivery, technical health, partner data quality, and the health of the team that carries it.
- Set and defend a committed quarterly roadmap across three pods, including an explicit list of what the team is not doing and why.
- Develop the team's leads. Grow their scope from project leadership toward broader ownership, and coach the engineers under them.
- Hire, mentor, and retain a high-performing team across levels, and address underperformance directly when it appears.
- Stay hands-on. Review code, drive architecture decisions on the pipeline and partner integrations, and pick up work when the situation calls for it.
- Partner with Product, Design, Analytics, Partner Success, and Finance to translate ambiguous partner and regulatory pressure into scoped engineering work.
- Own the intake process for the domain. Classify incoming partner escalations, data quality reports, and feature asks, and push back when the answer is no.
- Be accountable for the reliability of the systems the team owns, including on-call health, incident response, and the operational completeness of new services.
- Represent Lister engineering to leadership: what shipped, what is at risk, what it will take.
Here are the skills and experience you'll need to be successful
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years managing engineering teams of 5 or more.
- Experience managing through team leads or senior engineers, not just direct ICs.
- A track record of building and scaling backend services and data pipelines that other teams and external partners depend on.
- Comfort with messy third-party integrations. You have owned a system whose inputs you did not control, and you know how to build guardrails, observability, and reconciliation around data you cannot trust.
- Strong technical judgment. You can hold the architecture bar for a team you do not out-code, and you know when to dive in yourself.
- Experience partnering directly with Product Managers, Designers, and Analysts to shape roadmaps, not just receive them.
- A record of growing engineers, including promoting people and turning around underperformance.
- Clear written communication. You can explain a data pipeline failure to a partner-facing stakeholder and a business trade-off to an executive.
- Experience with Kotlin, Ruby, and Typescript, or the willingness to learn them.
- Experience building cloud-native applications, preferably on Google Cloud Platform.
Here's the Pay Range:
At Apartment List, we carefully consider a variety of factors to determine compensation for each position, including the role, level, and work. The CAN Total Target Compensation (TTC) for this position is:
- Zone 1: $175,000 - $212,000 TTC (including $154,000 - $180,000 base salary) + equity
- Zone 2: $157,000 - $190,000 TTC (including $138,000 - $161,000 base salary) + equity
This reflects the compensation target for new hire salaries for the position across all CAN locations. Please note, the compensation details provided do not include benefits and perks that we offer.
We also rely on market indicators along with considering your work location, job related skills, experience and relevant education and training, to determine compensation that is fair and competitive for you. Apartment List will consider paying compensation near the higher of the range in exceptional circumstances, where candidates have the experience, credentials or expertise that would warrant such consideration. It is always our goal to hire exceptional talent and we would be happy to share more about compensation during the hiring process.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years managing engineering teams of 5 or more
- Experience managing through team leads or senior engineers
- Track record of building and scaling backend services and data pipelines relied on by other teams and external partners
- Experience owning systems with messy third-party integrations, building guardrails, observability, and reconciliation
- Strong technical judgment and ability to drive architecture decisions while remaining hands-on as needed
- Experience partnering directly with Product Managers, Designers, and Analysts to shape roadmaps
- Proven record of growing engineers, promoting people, and addressing underperformance
- Clear written communication for both partner-facing stakeholders and executives
- Experience with Kotlin, Ruby, and Typescript, or willingness to learn them
- Experience building cloud-native applications, preferably on Google Cloud Platform
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The Company
What We Do
For us, renting is personal — we’re a company built by renters for renters. We’re here to deliver renters a home they love at the value they deserve. Whether renters are embarking to a new city, in search of a quieter neighborhood, or making the jump to a two-bedroom apartment — we’re here to find them their perfect apartment match. We’ve made it our mission to revolutionize renting by making it a stress-free, simple, and holistic experience, connecting ready-to-move renters with compatible city living. Home is a feeling everyone should own, and we’re on a mission to help renters find it.
Why Work With Us
Want a job that makes a difference? There are over 100 million renters in the US, and at Apartment List, we strive every day to remove the hassle from renting and make the process better for every single one of them. Together, we can change the narrative around what it means to be a renter.
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