Systems Engineering Manager

The job

LIVE Employer public job feed (private-sector employer) Source: the employer's public careers feed · Data: listed 2026-02-03

Job description

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 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've passed $1B in annualized run rate, up 15x from a year ago. In October 2026 we raised a $750M Series D led by Accel at a $15.75B valuation.

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.

What You’ll Work On:

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

You May Be a Fit If:

• You have 10+ years of industry experience, including 3+ years in a leadership role

• You have a track record of building high-performance distributed systems at scale

• You have a strong background in cloud infrastructure

• You have deep knowledge of low-level OS foundations (Linux kernel, file systems, containers, etc.)

• You’re proficient in a systems-level language (Rust, C, C++, or Java)

• 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 about the answer itself

Explore around this job

Field: Technology Sub-niche: Software engineering All jobs at Modal Jobs in New York Jobs in new york, NY New York city guide New York state guide Kings County economy

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About the role

This is a — role in the Technology field (Software engineering) at Modal.

We could not match this job title to one occupation in the official wage statistics, so no pay estimate is shown. Pay is not in the source listing; ask the employer for the range and compare in the 240 job niches.

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How to prepare and behave

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• Read the whole description and match your examples to its requirements; use the same words the posting uses where they are true for you.
• Research the employer before the interview: what it does, who its customers are and recent news; prepare two or three questions about the work.
• Arrive early (or log in early for a video call), dress one step above the daily dress code, and test your camera and audio beforehand.
• Answer with short stories: the situation, what you did and the result. Give numbers when you have them and never invent them.
• Be honest about gaps; say what you did to learn and how fast you can close them.
• Ask about the team, the first 90 days, how success is measured and the schedule; do not open with salary and time off.
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• Send a short thank-you message within a day, mentioning one thing you discussed.
• Have code, data work or projects you can show, and be ready to think aloud: many technical interviews test how you reason, not only the answer.

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The city

The job is in new york, NY. Below is what the official statistics say about living and working there.

How New York compares. Among the 120 largest places in New York, New York is #1 by population, #117 for homeownership (#1 = highest), #115 for long commutes (#1 = fewest), #31 for remote work (#1 = most). Its county, Kings County, is #38 of 62 counties for average pay ($59,980).

The place in numbers

New York has 8,483,844 residents (ACS 2020–2024), about 42.7% of the population of New York. It covers 300 square miles of land, which works out to roughly 28,236 people per square mile. The median age is 38.2, 4% younger than the state median (38.2 against 39.8).

Housing

The median gross rent is $1,821 a month (rent plus utilities), 12% above the state median ($1,821 against $1,621). Over a year that is 27.2% of the median household income. US housing guidance treats housing as affordable when it takes 30% of income or less, so the typical household is under that line. The median home value is $777,600, which is 9.7 times the median household income ($80,483); a ratio above 5 usually means buying is out of reach without savings or a second income. 32.8% of households own their home, 40% below the state average (32.8% against 54.4%). A low ownership share points to a rental-heavy market with more apartments and shorter stays.

Work and pay

The New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan area has 9,492,000 jobs in the BLS wage survey, and the median pay across all occupations is $61,430 a year, 20% above the national median ($61,430 against $50,980). The biggest occupation groups are office and administrative support (1,109,360 jobs, median $55,080); healthcare support (843,730 jobs, median $40,100); sales and related (751,110 jobs, median $47,540). The area is most specialised in healthcare support (1.8 times) and legal (1.7 times), where the share of workers is well above the national share. The best-paying groups with at least 5,000 jobs are management ($171,990) and legal ($150,990). In 2026M09 the unemployment rate of Kings County was 5.3%. 63.1% of residents aged 16 and over are in the labour force. The city lies in Kings County; its jobs, pay by industry and GDP are on the county page.

Getting around

Among workers, 21.6% drive alone, 44.0% use public transit, 9.2% walk, 16.9% work from home. 41.2% of workers commute 45 minutes or more, 50% above the state average (41.2% against 27.4%).

People and education

41.6% of adults aged 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 4% above the state share (41.6% against 40.2%). 36.6% of residents were born outside the United States, 61% above the state share (36.6% against 22.8%). The poverty rate is 17.9%, 28% above the state rate (17.9% against 14.0%).

Climate

The warmest month is Jul, averaging 75°F (23.7°C), and the coolest is Jan at 34°F (1.1°C). About 1,313 mm (52 inches) of precipitation falls in a year; Dec is the wettest month (133 mm) and Feb the driest (95 mm). These values come from NASA satellite-based climatology on a grid of about 50 km, so they describe the wider area, not a weather station in the city.

Nearby cities to compare

Closest cities in this guide: Hoboken (7 miles, rent 61% higher); Jersey City (7 miles, rent 10% higher); Union City (9 miles, rent 16% lower); Bayonne (9 miles, rent 8% lower). Rent differences are against New York; use the Compare tab to put any two cities side by side.

Full guide to New York →New York guideAll jobs in New York

Official links for New York

• Official website of New York: nyc.gov/main
• Census Bureau data profile for New York
• Official state website: ny.gov
• BLS Economy at a Glance: New York

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Where to live

The job city has no coordinates we can place on the map, so no housing comparison is shown. Use the 250 largest cities table to compare rent and income.

Career paths

We could not match this title to one occupation, so here are the other sub-niches in Technology, where your skills may carry over:

Cybersecurity (760) Data, analytics and AI (3724) Cloud, IT and infrastructure (1161) Product management (935)

Distances

This job has no single city we can place on the map (remote, flexible or unmatched location), so no distance table is shown. Browse all Technology jobs with distances from any of the 20 largest cities.

The employer

Modal is the employer in this listing. See all its open jobs here →

We do not hold headcount or revenue for this employer. Check its careers site and, if it is listed on a stock exchange, its public filings (SEC EDGAR search).

What it is like to work at a company (culture, schedules, benefits) is not in the source data, so we do not describe it. Read the description and ask the questions under "How to prepare".

Other open jobs at Modal

Similar jobs

Same sub-niche: Software engineering

More jobs in new york, NY

All Software engineering jobs → · All Technology sub-niches →

FAQ

What is the Systems Engineering Manager job at Modal?

A private-sector role in technology (software engineering) listed 280 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.

Where is this job?

new york, NY.

How do I apply?

Use the "View this job and apply on the employer's page" button. AtiveSite does not receive applications.

How much does it pay?

The listing does not publish pay, and we could not match the title to one official occupation.

What is the cost of living there?

Median rent in New York is $1,821 a month and median household income $80,483 (ACS 2020–2024).

How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-02-03 (280 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.

Are there similar jobs?

Yes: browse software engineering jobs in New York.

Sources and terms

• Job data: Modal careers page public feed (listing dated 2026-02-03). The job disappears from this site when it disappears from the source.
• Wages and projections: BLS OEWS (May 2025) and Employment Projections 2025–35.
• City and county figures: Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024, BEA, BLS QCEW and LAUS, NASA POWER climatology; distances from Census Gazetteer coordinates.

AtiveSite is not affiliated with or endorsed by the employer or any government agency, and does not process applications. Verify every detail with the employer before acting.

Sources

• BLS OEWS (wages and employment by occupation, May 2025)
• BLS Employment Projections 2025–35
• BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
• BLS JOLTS
• BLS State and Metro Area Employment
• Census Bureau American Community Survey (via Census Reporter)
• BEA GDP by state and Regional Price Parities
• IRS 2026 tax adjustments
• U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage by state
• Tax Foundation state income tax rates 2026
• USAJOBS
• USCIS
• U.S. Department of State, visas
• NASA POWER climatology
• GeoNames / Census Gazetteer (coordinates)