---
title: 'Engineering Manager/TLM, Platform at Harper'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-tlm-platform-harper-san-francisco-8h29hpszw0g7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Engineering Manager/TLM, Platform at Harper

- **Company:** Harper
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-31
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/harperinsure/081b2871-a11f-4d89-b6fe-922a12dcfb2e

## Job description

The Problem 36 million businesses in America need insurance—it's not optional. 77% are underinsured. 40% have no coverage at all. The distribution system failed them: too slow, too opaque, too confusing. Over 90% of commercial insurance is still human-led. We're building the inverse: 90%+ AI-led, pushing toward the higher 90s. Not by patching legacy workflows—by building AI that makes humans more effective, improves the customer experience, and eliminates friction at every step. We're adding ~1,000 customers per month. We've grown 100x since last year. We're looking to do even more this year—and that's why we're hiring. You'll build the team and the systems the rest of engineering depends on. When they compound, everyone gets faster.

The Thesis Harper runs 200+ services across Railway and AWS. We orchestrate N parallel agentic workloads. Our AI systems make thousands of decisions a day, and every decision needs to be traceable, evaluated, and cheaper to run tomorrow than it is today. The infrastructure underneath all of that is the difference between a company that scales and one that stalls. Great platform engineering here isn't invisible—it's the reason product ships fast. When observability catches a silent failure before a customer does. When a pooling layer makes connection exhaustion a non-issue. When developer velocity doubles because someone built the tool nobody knew they needed. That leverage compounds across every other engineer on the team.

## The Role

This role is open both to an experienced EM and to someone on the path to becoming an EM who doesn't yet have significant management experience—we're happy to bring that person on and support the transition. This is a team that still needs to be built. We have 2 people in it today, and we believe this area needs significant investment at Harper. The role owns three things: infrastructure (cloud, third-party vendors, and everything surrounding it), developer productivity (making sure we're genuinely an AI-first shop, with the right AI tooling and harnesses in place for every other engineering team to be successful), and SRE and production support (production discipline is top of mind as we head into a high-growth, high-scale phase—we need someone who has run an SRE function before). Each of these three areas can grow into a larger team of its own over time.

The team is 2 people today, growing to five to six over the next three months. Because the team is small, whoever takes this role—EM or TLM—will need to be hands-on at the start, working directly with the team and doing the work themselves.

## What You'll Do

- Own infrastructure — cloud, third-party vendors, and everything surrounding it
- Build developer productivity — the AI tooling and harnesses that make every other engineering team genuinely AI-first
- Own SRE and production support — bring production discipline as we head into a high-growth, high-scale phase
- Build out the team — grow from 2 people to five to six over the next three months
- Stay hands-on — with a team this small, work directly alongside your engineers and do the work yourself, not just direct it
- Grow each function over time — infrastructure, developer productivity, and SRE/production support can each become a larger team of its own

You Might Be a Fit If...

- Have at least 2 years as a line manager directly managing teams of six to ten people—or clear readiness to grow into that role
- You've been a line manager for at least two years, directly managing teams of six to ten people—or you're on a clear path there and want to grow into it
- You have hands-on experience with AWS or GCP and strong database troubleshooting skills
- You've seen real scale—on the order of at least a million requests per minute
- You can troubleshoot across databases, networking, compute, Docker, Kubernetes, and other aspects of infrastructure
- You care as much about developer productivity and AI tooling as you do about raw infrastructure
- You know on-call practices, SLAs, SLOs, and SRE practices generally
- You want to stay hands-on and grow into a fuller managerial role over time
- You move fast, with the same appetite as the rest of Harper

## Nice to Have

- Your own network to draw on for hiring—otherwise, comfort working closely with recruiters
- Experience building developer productivity tooling and AI harnesses for other engineering teams
- Experience building a team from a very small base
- Prior startup experience—especially at a company scaling through hypergrowth

## Compensation & Logistics

- Salary: $225,000–$275,000
- Location: San Francisco, in-office. Based in SF or willing to relocate.
- Schedule: Monday–Friday, in-office five days a week.
- Benefits: Uber commuter benefits; breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided; snacks, drinks, and coffee daily; free gym membership; health, dental, and vision insurance.

The Process

- Hiring Manager screen - 30 min video chat.
- Technical screen — 60 min remote: project deep dive + system design
- Super Day on-site — meet the team, sit in on the operation, do real work alongside us.

## About Harper

## Company Overview

- **One-liner**: Harper is an AI-native commercial insurance brokerage that uses data and automation to help mid-sized businesses secure optimal coverage faster and at lower cost.
- **Entity Type**: Private startup (Y Combinator Winter 2025, raised $47 million)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Dakotah Rice (CEO) and Tushar Nair (CTO)

## Core Business

- Primary industry: Commercial insurance (Excess & Surplus lines brokerage)
- Target customers: Mid-sized businesses with complex insurance needs, spanning technology, life sciences, aerospace, construction, and consulting
- Mission: "We want to become the largest insurance brokerage in the world with the best NPS." (Source: [Y Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/harper))

## Products & Services

- **Harper Hub**: Proprietary AI-native platform that automates form filling, carrier matching, and client communications, cutting weeks from the traditional quoting timeline.
- **Brokerage Services**: Comprehensive commercial insurance products including General Liability, Professional Liability (tech E&O with no AI exclusions), Cyber Insurance, Commercial Auto, Commercial Property, Umbrella, and Bonds – all placed through an AI-enhanced workflow.
- **Specialty Expertise**: Deep coverage for regulated industries such as FDA‑regulated labs, aerospace contractors, and security guard firms.

## Market Standing

- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$47 million** (confirmed on company website and Y Combinator profile; some third‑party sources list a lower figure but official sources indicate $47M)
- **Notable Investors**: Y Combinator (pre‑seed lead); other investors not publicly detailed
- **Growth Signals**: Writing over **$6 million in annualized premiums** across 35 states (as of early 2025); **6,000+ clients** with **98.78% client retention**; headcount of 39 employees growing **353% year‑over‑year**; **19 open positions**; 100% success placing tech E&O without AI exclusions.

## Competitive Advantages

- **AI‑native infrastructure**: Proprietary technology automates quoting, binding, and service, enabling faster turnaround and lower overhead compared to traditional brokers.
- **Deep niche expertise**: Focus on complex, regulated industries (tech, life sciences, aerospace) where incumbents often struggle.
- **High retention**: 98.78% client retention rate and proven ability to place hard‑to‑cover policies (e.g., tech E&O with AI exclusions) signal strong customer trust.
- **Data‑driven underwriting**: Real‑time analysis of prior interactions and quote intelligence to match businesses with the best carrier.

## Strategic Focus

- Scaling the AI‑native brokerage to serve the mid‑market today and eventually all businesses (commercial insurance commissions represent a $100B+ market).
- Aggressively hiring across engineering, sales, operations, and partnerships to support rapid growth.
- Expanding carrier partnerships and geographic reach (currently licensed in 35 states).

## Why Work Here

- **Early‑stage impact**: Join a Y Combinator‑backed startup at its inflection point, building the AI‑native future of insurance.
- **High‑leverage roles**: Engineers and GTM professionals work directly on systems (LLMs, automation) that drive measurable business outcomes.
- **Culture**: "Human expertise amplified by AI" – domain knowledge meets cutting‑edge technology; teammates from Goldman Sachs, Coinbase, and other top firms.
- **Work environment**: San Francisco headquarters with both in‑office and remote roles available depending on the position.
- **Compensation**: Competitive startup salaries (e.g., $160K–$230K for engineering roles per job listings).
- **Career growth**: Fast‑growing company (353% headcount growth) with opportunities to shape processes and take on ownership early.

## Sources

1. [harperinsure.com](https://harperinsure.com/) – Company website (home page)
2. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/harperinsure](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/harperinsure) – Careers page
3. [ycombinator.com/companies/harper](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/harper) – Y Combinator company profile
4. [linkedin.com/company/harperinsure](https://www.linkedin.com/company/harperinsure) – LinkedIn company page
5. [builtin.com/company/harper-harperinsurecom](https://builtin.com/company/harper-harperinsurecom) – Built In company profile

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