Engineering Manager (Remote)

Summary

We are SmartAlbums Inc – a software company on a mission to simplify the lives of busy, professional photographers. We’re a fully remote team spread across 15 countries and 4 continents, and we’re on the hunt for the next member of our engineering leadership team.

We are seeking an Engineering Manager to join our ranks. We are determined to find someone who doesn’t simply limit themselves to managing engineers, but instead also pushes themselves to contribute to the value of our software.

We want to work with great people. But why would you want to work with us?

We hope this explains why: https://vimeo.com/1147859133

Your Role

Reporting to the Director of Engineering, you’ll lead 1–2 autonomous product teams (a total of 8–13 engineers) with ICs as your direct reports.

Your Priorities:

  • Delivery Predictability – You ensure that teams ship value consistently. You own the "How" (process) and flow, identifying bottlenecks before they become blockers.

  • The AI Transition – You will drive our company-wide shift to an AI-powered SDLC. You will experiment with new tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, etc.), decide what the stack of the future looks like, and operationalize it.

  • Team Health & Growth – You are involved in hiring, performance reviews, and career development. You are the one who handles difficult conversations within your teams and aligns personal growth with company goals.

  • Engineering Metrics – You use data (engineering metrics) to diagnose team health and drive improvement, not for vanity reporting.

Culture & Processes – How We Work

We ship daily from 10 countries with async Slack-first collaboration.

  • Async first, meetings only when they matter – Almost everything happens in Slack threads; the 08-10 a.m. PT overlap is used mostly to sync with our US-based leadership.

  • Ship small, ship often – Trunk-based commits, same-day peer reviews, and one-click GitLab deployments behind feature flags keep releases calm and frequent.

  • Learning baked-in – Udemy subscription plus a dedicated budget for AI and developer tools so you can keep sharpening your craft.

  • AI in your corner – Monthly stipend for the AI-tool you like, a Slack bot that knows our data, and AI helpers that draft call summaries; humans always have the final say.

  • Autonomy with clear goals – Product teams set their quarterly OKRs and choose the path that gets them there.

Benefits

  • 🌎 Work from anywhere with a good internet connection — our team is 100% remote and distributed all over the world, from Brazil, to Montenegro, to the USA, to Finland, and more. 

  • 🕙 Flexible Schedule — You align with European business hours for your teams and keep the 8–10 AM Pacific Time window open for leadership syncs. Expect actual calls during this US overlap, about 2–3 days a week, not daily. Outside of scheduled meetings, you have the freedom to structure your workday around your life, family, and peak productivity.

  • 💰 Competitive salary based on experience level.

  • 📈 You get rewarded as we grow. Annual bonuses for meeting company targets and participation in our Profit-Sharing Program if our company is acquired. 

  • 🏝 22 paid days off annually, with the ability to make up missed days.

  • 👶 Paid parental leave.

Qualifications

  • Required:

    • Managed fully-remote engineering teams (2+ teams, 10+ engineers total).

    • SaaS product company experience with product-driven development.

    • Technical foundation (ex-engineer): you understand architecture, infrastructure, and tradeoffs.

    • Excellent people and stakeholder management - hiring, feedback, performance reviews, and handling difficult conversations.

    • Structured, self-directed, high-agency - you track commitments and close loops without reminders.

    • Familiarity with at least one of the modern AI development tools (Cursor, Windsurf, etc).

  • Nice to have:

    • Hands-on experience rolling out AI-powered SDLC (AI-assisted coding practices, quality workflows, enablement, experimentation).

    • Experience building/using engineering performance metrics systems (flow/DORA-like metrics, quality, operational signals) in a healthy way.

    • Experience working in small-to-medium sized companies  (low bureaucracy, high ownership).

  • Not a fit:

      • No prior experience managing a fully remote engineering team.

      • No meaningful experience in product-led SaaS.

      • Can’t support 8–10am Pacific overlap ~3 days/week.

 

About SMARTALBUMS

 

Photography
shouldn’t be
a desk job.

At SmartAlbums Inc, we know professional photographers are frustrated with all of the tedious work required to run a successful photography business. Many get so overwhelmed that they end up quitting on their dream of having a photography career. That is why we create easy-to-use, time-saving software that takes the work out of running a photography business so photographers can get back to doing what they love, creating art.

1.4m albums
created in 2025

Photographers around the world
trust us with their best work,
relying on our tools to elevate their artistry
and increase their profit.

SmartAlbums Inc (originally named as Pixellu) was co-founded in 2010 by two wedding photographers. Faced with the challenges of long hours and endless tasks, we began asking ourselves, “How can we save valuable time, make more money, and get our lives back?” Our answer was technology. We started Pixellu with the idea that we could make money by providing an honest service that helped photographers save time and live more fulfilling lives. We believed that, by focusing on a great product and great service, we could build a business that not only does good, but also does well.

Today, we are a team of
40 team members
spread across 15 countries,
serving tens of thousands
of photographers
in over 100 countries.

 

Our vision is for SmartAlbums Inc to become the foundation of more than 1 million successful photography businesses, so that photographers can focus on doing what they love while we automate the rest of their work. We are becoming the bridge between their camera and clients — all they would need to do is upload their photos to our app.

We embrace the spirit of autonomous teams that are empowered to change the photography world while having a healthy work-life balance.