Sr Software Engineering Manager, Data Platform

About Us

LILT is the leading AI solution for enterprise translations. Our stack made up of our Contextual AI Engine, Connector APIs, and Human Adaptive Feedback enable global organizations to adopt a true AI translation strategy, focusing on business outcomes instead of outputs. With LILT, innovative, category-defining organizations like Intel, ASICS, WalkMe, Canva, Bloomberg, Walmart, AWS, and Philips are using AI technology to deliver multilingual, digital customer experiences at scale.

As a result, LILT’s AI technology foundation is similar to ChatGPT and Google Translate, before our patented Contextual AI Engine, connector-first approach, and human-adapted feedback.

Get the best of both worlds at LILT! Dive into dynamic in-office energy 2 days a week, sparking creativity and forging bonds with your awesome team. Then, seamlessly shift gears and crush your to-do list from the comfort of your home base for the rest of the week. It's the perfect harmony of productivity and personal freedom. Want a peek inside? Visit our Careers page!

The Engineering Team at LILT

LILT is a high-performance, large-scale multilingual translation and creation system. We invest in and prioritize workflow (i.e., usability and interface design) and backend AI systems. Since the translation workforce is distributed worldwide, there are interesting cloud engineering problems to solve. We have a strong preference for building our own backend technology, so you’ll be implementing and working with the latest natural language processing (NLP) techniques and ideas.

Where You’ll Work

This position can be based out of our Emeryville, CA and will be expected to work in the office in a hybrid capacity.

What You’ll Do

As a Software Engineering Manager, you will identify, hire and build a world-class team of Software Engineers, Researchers, and Data Analysts to define, drive and execute on the creation of the next generation of Lilt’s data platform. You will develop a team of highly motivated and talented individuals that can influence decision making at every single level of the company: Product Management, Finance, Operations, Engineering, and Research. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role with enormous growth opportunities.

You must be curious, have attention to detail, be energized by a challenging entrepreneurial environment, be comfortable thinking big while also diving deep, and be open to experimenting, and iterating on processes as the company grows.

Key Responsibilities:

• Hire, develop, and lead a team of software engineers, researchers, and data analysts both supporting the current and designing the next generation of the data platform

• Evolve software development processes and guide the team to deliver high-quality software, dashboards, and reports on schedule

• Partner with stakeholders from Product, Finance, and Operations to understand data requirements and to decompose requirements into concrete deliverables

• Drive architectural, software quality, operational improvements across the team and the broader organization. Partner with internal stakeholders to determine and address root causes

• Work with technical contributors and engineering managers to set realistic and achievable goals and to manage expectations on what can and cannot be done; hold themselves and the team to those goals.

• Facilitate the team’s career development and give constructive, effective feedback on work product and communication

Skills & Abilities:

• Leadership: Exceptional leadership skills, including the ability to motivate, inspire, and empower teams. Strong communication, interpersonal, and conflict resolution skills.

• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Project Management: Strong project management skills, including the ability to set goals, prioritize tasks, and track progress. Proactive nature to communicate delays, roadblocks, or other issues along with solutions.

• Decision-Making: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Ability to make sound decisions under pressure and in ambiguous situations. Ability to provide recommendations as well as proactive ideas to mitigate future problems.

• People Management: Ability to build high-performing teams, promote a positive culture, and develop talent. Skilled in coaching, mentoring, and performance management. Able to hold tough performance conversations while inspiring high performance outcomes.

• Technical Acumen: Staying up-to-date with relevant technologies and trends is crucial.

Successful candidates will have:

• BS or MS or PhD in a science or engineering discipline

• 2+ years of Manager of Managers or 4+ years of Engineering Manager experience

• 3+ years of experience architecting, designing, and scaling new and current systems

• Familiarity with Big Data technology like Apache Hadoop, NoSQL, Presto, BigQuery, BigTable, etc.

• Familiarity with data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented design

• Strong desire to master the product that you create and to understand the customer that uses the product.

• Ability to manage and execute projects through cross-functional collaboration and organizational influence

Our Story

Our founders, Spence and John met at Google working on Google Translate. As researchers at Stanford and Berkeley, they both worked on language technology to make information accessible to everyone. They were amazed to learn that Google Translate wasn’t used for enterprise products and services inside the company and left to start a new company to address this need – LILT.

At its core, LILT has always been a machine learning company since its incorporation on March 6, 2015. At the time, machine translation didn’t meet the quality standard for enterprise translations, so LILT assembled a cutting-edge research team tasked with closing that gap. While meeting customer demand for translation services, LILT has prioritized investments in Large Language Models, believing that this foundation was imperative to the future of enterprise translation.

Benefits:

• Compensation: At market salary, meaningful equity, 401(k) matching, and flexible time off plus company holidays

• Medical Benefits: Employees receive coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance, plus FSA/DFSA, HSA, and Commuter benefits. In addition, LILT pays for basic life insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability

• Paid parental leave is provided after 6 months.

• Monthly lifestyle benefit stipend via the Fringe platform to allow employees to customize benefits to their lifestyle

LILT is an equal opportunity employer. We extend equal opportunity to all individuals without regard to an individual’s race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic characteristics, veteran or marital status, pregnancy, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state or federal laws. We are committed to the principles of fair employment and the elimination of all discriminatory practices.