Senior Engineering Manager

ABOUT US

We’re a startup with big ambitions: to make estate planning modern, visual, and intelligent. Vanilla https://www.justvanilla.com/ is the first AI-powered estate advisory platform, built by advisors, planners, and attorneys to transform how wealth is transferred across generations. Our technology unifies scenario modeling, client visualization, and document creation into one seamless, digital experience.

Our team brings together diverse subject matter expertise across estate planning, wealth management, and scaling SaaS startups. We’re distributed across the U.S., with a mix of fully remote and hybrid roles, and we embrace flexibility while staying closely connected. At Vanilla, you’ll join curious builders and problem-solvers who thrive on speed, autonomy, and impact. Here, you won’t just join a company, you’ll help create it. If you’re excited to tackle hard problems, move quickly, and see your work shape both an industry and a growing startup, we’d love to meet you.

WORKING LOCATION

This role is a remote position, you must be based out of one of the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah or Washington

JOB SUMMARY

As the Sr. Engineering Manager at Vanilla, you’ll be a true player/coach — a hands-on technical leader who spends a meaningful share of each week in the codebase alongside your team. You’ll write and review code, design and debug systems, and set the technical bar by example, while also leading a small team of engineers, providing direction, and supporting their growth. This is not a hands-off, manager-of-managers role: you’ll pair with engineers, pick up meaningful work in critical or ambiguous areas, and stay close enough to the details to make sharp technical calls. It demands a leader with deep, current technical skills, strong leadership instincts, and a passion for building...