{"id":3215685,"url":"https://alion.io/job/athena-infonomics-engineering-manager-tech-lead","title":"Engineering Manager / Tech Lead","company":{"id":3776188,"name":"Athena Infonomics","domain":"athenainfonomics.in","url":"https://alion.io/company/athenainfonomics","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Keka","truth_index":null},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Chennai, India"],"countries":["IN"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":28000,"max_usd":74000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":35},"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Angular","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Django","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Embeddings","optional":false},{"name":"FastAPI","optional":false},{"name":"Go","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"NLP","optional":false},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":false},{"name":"Prompt Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false},{"name":"React.js","optional":false},{"name":"Redis","optional":false},{"name":"Rest API","optional":false},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":false},{"name":"ETL/ELT","optional":true},{"name":"GDPR","optional":true},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"PostGIS","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-08T10:25:10Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-06-08","last_verified_at":"2026-10-31T06:02:34Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":144,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":144},"description":"Position: Engineering Manager / Tech Lead (8-12 years)\nLocation: Chennai, India (Hybrid) or Remote\nPosition Type: Full Time\nDepartment: Technology & Digital Solutions\nReports to: Director of Technology / VP Engineering\nAbout Us\nAthena Infonomics is a global impact solutions group that applies social science research, data analytics, and technology to advance international development. For over 15 years, we’ve partnered with major global institutions including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, FCDO, US State Department and leading INGOs to build digital tools, platforms, and data systems that drive evidence-based decision-making.We operate across India, the US, the UK, Kenya, and program hubs spanning Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We’re expanding our technology practice building reusable platforms, integrating AI into our solution delivery, and strengthening how we win and execute technology-intensive engagements.\nThis is a high-ownership, high-impact role. You’ll lead the technical side of client engagements from proposal to deployment, not just manage a backlog.\nThe Role\nYou are the engineering leader who owns the technical execution of our client engagements - from RFP response and solution architecture through build, deployment, and handover. You’ll work across multiple concurrent projects, each with different clients, timelines, and technical constraints, while building and growing the engineering team that delivers them. This is not a “manage from the sidelines” role. You will write code, review PRs, debug production issues, and architect solutions alongside your team, especially in the first 6 months. People management is a responsibility you take on because you’re the best person to unblock and grow the engineers around you, not because you want to stop building.\nWhat You Will Own\nRFP & Solution DesignLead the technical response for RFPs and proposals - assess feasibility, define architecture, estimate effort, and write the technical narrative that wins work.\nTranslate client requirements (often non-technical, domain-heavy) into clear technical specifications, system designs, and delivery plans.\nParticipate in client pitch meetings and orals. Represent the technology capability with confidence and credibility.\nIdentify reusable components, frameworks, and accelerators across engagements to reduce delivery time and improve margins.\n\nTechnical Execution & DeliveryOwn the engineering delivery for active projects: plan sprints, set milestones, ship releases, and hold the team accountable to client timelines and contract deliverables.\nArchitect and deliver custom digital platforms - data dashboards, MERL systems, analytics tools, knowledge management platforms - tailored to each engagement.\nLead the integration of AI-powered capabilities (data analytics, NLP, automated reporting) into client solutions, from prototype to production-grade.\nManage technical relationships with client IT teams, third-party vendors, and subcontracted developers.\nMake pragmatic build-vs-buy and architecture decisions. Document them. Stand behind them.\n\nHands-On EngineeringWrite production code - backend, frontend, or infrastructure - wherever the biggest bottleneck is.\nReview code daily. Set quality standards for testing, modularity, and deployability.\nDebug cross-stack issues (API, frontend, database, background workers, caching) when they arise.\nEstablish and improve CI/CD pipelines, deployment processes, and environment management across projects.\n\nTeam Leadership & GrowthLead a small, high-performing engineering team (backend, frontend, QA) across time zones.\nRun effective standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives - keep them short, keep them useful.\nHire, onboard, and ramp new engineers. Build a team culture of ownership, speed, and craftsmanship.\nMentor engineers technically - pair with them on hard problems, teach them to think in systems, help them grow into senior roles.\nManage resource allocation across concurrent projects. Know who's available, who's stretched, and when to raise the flag.\nShield the team from noise. Translate client and business priorities into clear engineering tasks.\n\nClient & Stakeholder PartnershipWear the client hat. Understand their domain, their constraints, and what \"done\" looks like to them - not just to engineering.\nPush back on requirements when they're technically unsound, but always with a better alternative. Justify your decisions clearly.\nCommunicate proactively and transparently - with leadership on project health and risks, with clients on progress and trade-offs.\nLead technical demos, sprint reviews, and handover sessions with client stakeholders.\n\nWhat We’re Looking For\nMust Have\nExperience & Track Record\n8+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years leading teams (engineering manager, tech lead, or equivalent).\nExperience delivering technology projects in a consulting, services, or RFP-driven environment. You understand SOWs, deliverables, milestones, and client sign-offs.\nShipped custom platforms or digital products for external clients - not just internal tools.\nHands-on experience with a modern web stack: Backend (Python/Django/FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Redis)\nFrontend (React or Angular with TypeScript)\nInfrastructure (AWS or Azure, Docker, CI/CD).\n\nExperience managing multiple concurrent projects with different clients and timelines.\nEngineering Depth\nCan design a system, write the critical path code, review the rest, and debug it in production.\nStrong API design sense - RESTful services, authentication, data exchange formats, third-party integrations.\nDatabase proficiency - schema design, query optimization, data modeling for analytics workloads.\nUnderstands performance end-to-end: frontend load times, API latency, database query plans, caching strategies.\nAI/ML Fluency (applied, not research)\nWorking knowledge of LLM integration patterns: RAG, embeddings, prompt engineering, API orchestration. \nExperience building AI-powered features for client solutions (not just training models - integrating AI into user-facing workflows).\nCan evaluate AI output quality, design feedback loops, and make pragmatic decisions about build-vs-API for AI capabilities.\nEstimation & Proposal Skills\nCan break down vague client requirements into work packages with realistic effort estimates. \nExperience writing or contributing to technical proposals, RFP responses, or solution architecture documents.\nUnderstands how to scope for uncertainty - contingency planning, phased delivery, and MVP-first approaches in contract contexts.\nLeadership Character\nOwnership mindset. You see a problem, you fix it or get it fixed. You don’t wait for permission or point at someone else.\nGo-getter. You find a way to get things done even when the path isn't clear, resources are tight, or the client changes direction.\nStrong communicator. You write clearly, speak directly, and keep stakeholders informed without being asked. You default to transparency.\nLow ego. You’ll pair-program with a junior engineer in the morning and present to a client CTO in the afternoon. The work matters more than the title.\nBias for action. You'd rather ship an 80% solution and iterate than over-plan and miss the deliverable.\nNice to Have\nExperience in the international development / social impact / MERL sector.\nExperience building data platforms, dashboards, or MERL systems for government or donor-funded programs.\nFamiliarity with data sovereignty requirements across different countries (GDPR, in-country hosting mandates).\nExperience with geospatial data (PostGIS, mapping/visualization) or data integration pipelines (ETL, data harmonization).\nBackground with USAID, Gates Foundation, World Bank, or similar institutional client environments.\nPrevious experience at a consulting firm scaling its technology practice from services to platform.\nWhat the First 90 Days Look Like\n**Days 1-30: Immerse & Assess**\nGet hands-on with active project codebases. Ship at least one PR on a live engagement.\nMeet every team member 1:1. Understand their strengths, project assignments, and growth goals.\nShadow at least one client interaction (sprint review, requirements session, or demo).\nAudit current engineering processes: code review, testing, deployment, documentation. Identify the top 3 improvements.\nReview recent proposals and RFPs to understand how work is won and scoped.\n**Days 31-60: Lead & Improve**\n- Own sprint planning and delivery cadence for at least one active project.\n- Implement the top engineering process improvement.\n- Contribute to at least one RFP/proposal technical section.\n- Begin contributing technically to the highest-priority engagement.\n**Days 61-90: Accelerate & Scale**\n- Lead a client deliverable or milestone to completion.\n- Have a hiring plan for the next hires and be actively interviewing.\nWhy Join Athena Infonomics\nMission that matters. Your work powers digital tools and platforms used by governments, donors, and development organizations tackling real problems - sanitation, health, education, climate - across multiple continents.\nVariety and depth. No two engagements are the same. You'll architect dashboards for a Gates Foundation program one quarter and build a data analytics platform for a USAID project the next.\nOwnership from day one. You won't wait for a product manager to hand you tickets. You'll shape solutions from the proposal stage and see them through to deployment.\nAI at the frontier. We're integrating AI into how development data is collected, analyzed, and reported. You'll define this capability, not inherit it.\nBuild the practice. You're not joining a mature 200-person eng org. You're building the technology function. Early leaders get outsized influence and growth.\nGlobal exposure. Work with clients and teams across India, the US, East Africa, and South Asia. Real international experience, not just a global logo.\nAthena Infonomics is an Equal Opportunities Employer\nAthena Infonomics is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.\nAI Proficiency and Responsible Use\nProficiency in the responsible and sophisticated use of AI is a mandatory requirement for all roles, across all levels and functions at Athena Infonomics.","description_format":"text","description_chars":10470,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"India","iso":"IN","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["AI Consulting & Integration","Think Tanks & Policy Research"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-24T22:14:02Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":14,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.511,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":144,"expected_fill_days":57,"reasons":["conf:3","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-31T05:58:55Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/athena-infonomics-engineering-manager-tech-lead","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/athena-infonomics-engineering-manager-tech-lead.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-31T07:15:50Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":10726,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-01T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3776188},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3776188"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fathena-infonomics-engineering-manager-tech-lead"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fathena-infonomics-engineering-manager-tech-lead"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fathena-infonomics-engineering-manager-tech-lead"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/athena-infonomics-engineering-manager-tech-lead\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fathena-infonomics-engineering-manager-tech-lead"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3215685}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"athenainfonomics.in","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3215685},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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