# Manager, Engineering **Company:** [Navan](https://zerogtalent.com/frontier-companies/navan) **Location:** Bengaluru, IN **Work mode:** On-site **Seniority:** Mid **Category:** Engineering **Department:** Engineering **Listed:** 2026-11-11 [View and apply on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/frontier-jobs/navan/manager-engineering-8237265) ## What you'll do - Lead and develop a team of 5-10 engineers - Set technical direction for shared AI services and platform - Drive delivery with roadmaps, milestones, and ownership - Gather requirements with cross-functional teams - Build partnerships and scale through hiring and onboarding ## What you need - 7+ yrs software engineering, 2+ yrs engineering management - Distributed systems, APIs, data platforms, cloud infrastructure knowledge - Bachelor's or Master's in CS, Engineering, or related technical field - Evaluate architecture and guide complex technical decisions - Clear written and verbal communication skills ## Job description ### **About the Role** Navan's GOS engineering team builds the shared platform and capabilities that help teams across Navan develop, evaluate, deploy, and operate AI-powered products safely and at scale. The team focuses on reusable AI services that reduce repetitive manual workflows, along with model and provider integrations, evaluation and observability, guardrails, and a strong developer experience. As an Engineering Manager, you will lead a team of 5-10 full-stack engineers. You will translate business and product needs into a clear technical strategy, balance near-term delivery with long-term platform investments, and create an environment where engineers can do their best work. ### **What You Will Do** - **Lead and Develop the Team:** Manage, coach, and grow a team of 5-10 engineers. Set clear expectations, hold regular one-on-ones, provide actionable feedback, and support career development. - **Set Technical Direction:** Guide architecture and engineering trade-offs for shared AI services and platform capabilities, with a focus on scalability, security, reliability, and ease of adoption. - **Drive Delivery:** Turn strategy into realistic roadmaps, milestones, and ownership. Manage dependencies and risks while helping the team deliver measurable product and platform outcomes. - **Gather and Clarify Requirements:** Work closely with Operations, SRE, Security, Data Science, Legal, and engineering teams across Travel and Expense to understand problems, resolve ambiguity, and define clear requirements. - **Raise the Quality Bar:** Establish practices for AI evaluation, observability, privacy, safety, cost management, and operational readiness. Use data and production feedback to improve the platform. - **Build Strong Partnerships:** Communicate decisions and trade-offs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders. Coordinate cross-team initiatives and create alignment around shared priorities. - **Scale the Organization:** Identify staffing needs, lead hiring and onboarding, and improve engineering processes as the team and its responsibilities grow. ### **What We Are Looking For** - **Experience:** 7+ years of software engineering experience building scalable systems, including at least 2 years of direct engineering management experience. - **Technical Depth:** Strong knowledge of distributed systems, APIs, data platforms, and cloud infrastructure. Experience with AI or machine learning platforms, large language model applications, or developer platforms is valuable. - **Engineering Judgment:** Ability to evaluate architecture, make practical trade-offs, and guide teams through complex technical and operational decisions. - **Leadership and Execution:** A record of building healthy teams, managing delivery across competing priorities, and holding a high bar for quality and ownership. - **Communication:** Clear written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain technical concepts, decisions, and risks to different audiences. - **Education:** Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience. ### **Good to Have** - Knowledge of the travel domain, including corporate travel, booking, servicing, or expense workflows. - Strong product knowledge and a product-minded approach to connecting platform investments with customer and business needs. - Experience working with varied stakeholders to gather requirements, reconcile competing needs, and turn ambiguous problems into an executable plan. - Strong problem-solving skills and a record of simplifying complex technical or business challenges. - Hands-on exposure to large language models, model providers, retrieval systems, evaluations, observability, or AI governance. - Experience building shared capabilities that are adopted by multiple product and engineering teams. Navan uses AI-assisted Automated Employment Decision Tool (Metaview) to assist with evaluating resumes against job qualifications for this role. All final decisions are made by human recruiters and hiring managers.  **Human oversight:** Metaview does not automatically reject candidates or make final hiring decisions. Our recruiters and hiring managers review all outputs and make the final hiring decision regarding every application.  - **Your rights:** If you prefer to have your application reviewed without AI assistance, you may request a human evaluation by entering your email [here](https://my.metaview.app/applications/opt-out?organization=15dd7e883f). Your decision to do so will not affect how your candidacy is evaluated.  Please refer to our [Candidate Privacy Notice](https://navan.com/candidate-privacy-notice) for more information about our processing of personal data, and your rights. ## Other open roles at Navan - [WFM Real Time Traffic Analyst](https://zerogtalent.com/frontier-jobs/navan/wfm-real-time-traffic-analyst-8030513) — Bengaluru, IN - [Brand Designer](https://zerogtalent.com/frontier-jobs/navan/brand-designer-8360686) — San Francisco, CA - [Brand Designer](https://zerogtalent.com/frontier-jobs/navan/brand-designer-8375733) — Los Angeles, CA - [Brand Copywriter](https://zerogtalent.com/frontier-jobs/navan/brand-copywriter-8375734) — Los Angeles, CA - [Workplace Experience Coordinator](https://zerogtalent.com/frontier-jobs/navan/workplace-experience-coordinator-8354085) — New York, NY --- *Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*