Systems Engineering Manager
Modal
Systems Engineering Manager at Modal is a full time role based in new york, new york, United States. The listing states pay of $275k–$330k. It was published on 3 February 2026 and was open at last check.
| Role | Systems Engineering Manager |
|---|---|
| Company | Modal |
| Location | new york, new york, United States |
| Employment type | Full Time |
| Pay (as listed) | $275k–$330k |
| Published | 3 February 2026 |
| Status | Open at last check |
About Us:
AI needs a new infrastructure layer. We're building it at Modal.
Every era of computing brought new workloads that previous infrastructure couldn't support: mainframes, databases, and the cloud. Each time, the company that rebuilt the layer underneath defined the decade. AI is no different, except it touches everything instead of one slice, and the window to build the layer underneath it is open right now.
Our customers include category-defining companies like Lovable, Ramp, Cognition, DoorDash, and Suno. They rely on Modal for instant GPU access, sub-second container starts, and native storage, so it's simple to serve low-latency inference, fine-tune models, and access production-ready sandboxes at scale.
We recently raised a $355M Series C at a $4.65B valuation, led by General Catalyst and Redpoint Ventures. We've crossed $300M+ ARR and grown fivefold since September.
Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g.,Seaborn,Luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience.
The Role
We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead a team of highly experienced engineers building the infrastructure that powers Modal's serverless GPU platform. This is a hands-on leadership role — expect to split your time between technical contribution and people management depending on what the team needs. You'll set direction, remove blockers, and build a strong engineering culture as your team tackles hard problems in distributed computing, large-scale data handling, and performance optimization.
Who You Are
You're an experienced engineering leader who stays close to the work and builds alongside your team when it counts. You earn trust through technical depth, not title. You communicate clearly, help strong engineers move fast without cutting corners, and stay calm and pragmatic under pressure. You care as much about how your team gets to an answer as the answer itself.
Responsibilities
Team
- Recruit, hire, and grow a high-performing team of cloud platform engineers; run regular 1:1s focused on coaching, feedback, and career growth.
- Set clear performance expectations, hold a high bar, and build an environment where engineers do their best work.
- Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Technical Direction
- Drive day-to-day technical decisions through design reviews, code reviews, and architectural discussions.
- Translate the infrastructure roadmap into clear team priorities and milestones, and hold execution against them.
- Establish standards for reliability, performance, and operational excellence; ensure the team owns projects end-to-end, from spec through production.
- Push for good judgment on tooling and architecture, with a bias against unnecessary complexity.
Cross-Functional & Incident Leadership
- Partner with product and engineering to align infrastructure work with business priorities; represent your team's progress, capacity, and tradeoffs clearly to leadership.
- Serve as the escalation point for major incidents; drive resolution with urgency and ensure the team learns systematically, feeding those learnings back into infrastructure improvements.
Requirements
- 10+ years of industry experience, including 3+ years in a leadership role
- Track record building high-performance distributed systems at scale
- Strong background in cloud infrastructure
- Deep knowledge of low-level OS foundations (Linux kernel, file systems, containers, etc.)
- Proficiency in a systems-level language (Rust, C, C++, or Java)
Create your free OnJob profile to apply — we'll take you to Modal's application after sign-up. · Posted 3 Feb 2026.
Systems Engineering Manager at Modal — questions answered
What does the Systems Engineering Manager role at Modal pay?
The Systems Engineering Manager at Modal listing states pay of $275k–$330k for the new york, new york, United States position. That figure is taken directly from the employer's own posting as published, not estimated or averaged from other roles.
Where is the Systems Engineering Manager role at Modal based?
Modal lists this Systems Engineering Manager role in new york, new york, United States, advertised as full time work at that location. Larger employers sometimes cover several sites under one city name, so confirm the exact office with Modal before you apply.
Is the Systems Engineering Manager role at Modal still open?
The Systems Engineering Manager posting at Modal was open at OnJob's last check of the employer's careers page, having been published on 3 February 2026. OnJob re-checks source listings on each build and marks a role closed once it disappears, but listings can close without notice, so the employer's own page is the final word.
How do you apply for the Systems Engineering Manager role at Modal?
Apply to the Systems Engineering Manager at Modal role through OnJob with a free profile: OnJob scores your fit against the listing, shows the skills lowering that score, and submits an ATS-ready profile to Modal's own application page. Creating a profile is free and needs no card.
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