Engineering Manager

About the Role

If you want to build, develop, and see your impact, join Skillz and level up your Career!

Skillz, the first publicly-traded mobile eSports platform that hosts billions of casual mobile gaming tournaments for millions of players worldwide, is revolutionizing the gaming industry. By fostering social competition within games, the Skillz platform helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling real-money activity in their games and providing operational support while connecting players through fair, enjoyable, and meaningful competition.

At Skillz, we understand the thrill of achievement and the satisfaction of overcoming challenges. Want to join a team made up of alums from Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Twitter (X), Roblox, Zynga, Samsung, Lyft, EA, Riot, Nexon, Gameskraft, PlayStation, Unity, Scopely, Tinder, Intel, Deloitte, EY, Twitch, DraftKings, Wynn Resorts and more? Learn more to see if Skillz is the right fit for your next career move!

Responsibilities 

• Act as a hands-on engineering leader for the Platform & Key Services pod, delivering product and platform goals in close partnership with Product and Engineering Leadership.
• Own pod execution, stability, and operational readiness, including on-call health, alert quality, release safety, and production reliability.
• Assess engineer performance through direct technical engagement (code reviews, design reviews, incident analysis); surface risks, performance gaps, and mitigation plans promptly to leadership.
• Provide day-to-day mentorship and coaching to senior and emerging technical leaders within the pod.
• Establish and enforce engineering quality baselines (design, testing, reviews, releases).
• Drive predictable delivery through accurate estimation, clear dependencies, and disciplined execution.
• Improve engineering management practices across Skillz by contributing to standards, processes, and leadership forums.
• Champion responsible use of AI-assisted development (e.g., code generation, testing, observability, incident analysis) to improve developer productivity, quality, and velocity.

Key Competencies 

• Strong hands-on engineering management with the ability to go deep in system design, code quality, and production issues.
• Proven experience building and operating scalable, reliable backend services with a focus on uptime, latency, and cost efficiency.
• Ability to hire, retain, and develop high-performing engineers, including succession planning and growth paths.
• Clear, structured risk communication with executive stakeholders and ownership of mitigation plans.
• Excellent cross-functional collaboration with Product, Finance, Data, and other Engineering teams.
• Skilled at translating complex technical concepts into clear business impact for non-technical audiences.
• Strong execution mindset with a bias toward operational excellence and delivery predictability.
• Practical understanding of AI tools and workflows to enhance engineering effectiveness without compromising quality or safety.

Experience 

• 6+ years of backend engineering experience; 2+ years in engineering leadership or management roles.
• Backend development experience with distributed systems / microservices / Kubernetes.
• Hands-on system design and code review experience using Java, Go, Python, JavaScript, or Ruby.
• Experience operating high-availability production systems, including incident response and post-mortems.
• Experience with payments platforms or other high-reliability, high-risk domains.
• Gaming industry experience preferred.
• Demonstrated track record of healthy tenure (2+ years per role) and progression.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
• Ability to work in-office 3 days/week in San Francisco.

Total Starting Compensation including Base + Bonus + Equity: $259,000

Location: Hybrid in San Francisco  

Travel Requirement: Less than 10% 

Why Skillz

• Culture of Impact: Join a united team of builders, creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs driven by the desire to win. At Skillz, we create value, obsess over our product, and make a difference in the world.

• Comprehensive Benefits: Enjoy peace of mind with our comprehensive benefits package, which includes 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision expenses for both you and your dependents. Additionally, take advantage of our 401K matching, equity incentives, pre-tax benefit options, and more.

• Wellness Support: Enhance your well-being with our array of wellness initiatives, including meditation and mental health resources, physical fitness coaching and classes, family planning assistance, health and parenting guidance, virtual therapy sessions, and more.

• Time off: We offer competitive paid time off (PTO) & company holidays, including a company-wide shutdown between Christmas and New Years, to help you recharge and pursue your passions.

• Las Vegas Headquarters: Skillz strongly believes in a five-day a week, collaborative office environment at our 36,000+ square foot headquarters. Enjoy free daily breakfast and catered lunch, snacks,a full-size gym with showers, commuter benefits, insurance, team bonding events and many more. 

• Recognized Success: Skillz has earned recognition as one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, CNBC's Disruptor 50, San Francisco Business Times' Best Places to Work, Forbes' Next Billion-Dollar Startups, and the #1 fastest-growing company in America on the Inc. 5000 list, and many more.

• Development Opportunities: We hold our employees to high standards while providing them with professional growth opportunities. We operate like a startup, and encourage all of our employees to collaborate and voice feedback about our product and ways we can improve as a business. We believe in never settling, and that also pertains to your growth. 

Join Skillz and Let's Redefine the Boundaries of Gaming!

Together, we'll create a world where skill, passion, and innovation thrive. We look forward to having you on board!

Skillz embraces diversity and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As part of our commitment to diversifying our workforce, we do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, gender, gender identity, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship, veteran status, or disability status, and we operate in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

#LI-Onsite  #LI-

Client-provided location(s): San Francisco, CA

Job ID: 7569811

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2026-01-28T18:34:00