---
title: 'Senior Engineering Manager, Product at brightwheel'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-engineering-manager-product-brightwheel-united-states-h9btstq87gnz'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-16'
---

# Senior Engineering Manager, Product at brightwheel

- **Company:** brightwheel
- **Location:** United States
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-09-14
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/brightwheel/b8543eb2-9f6e-4955-94fd-f02e013bf618

## Job description

## Our Mission and Opportunity

Early education is one of the most important determinants of childhood outcomes, a critical support for working families, and a $175B market that remains underserved by modern technology. Brightwheel is the largest, fastest growing, and most loved platform in early ed, trusted by millions of educators and families every day. We are a three-time [Cloud 100 company](https://www.forbes.com/lists/cloud100/a), backed by top investors including Addition, Bessemer, Emerson Collective, Lowercase Capital, Notable Capital, and Mark Cuban.

## Our Team

Our team is passionate, talented, and customer-focused. We embody our [Leadership Principles](https://mybrightwheel.com/about/) in our work and culture. We are a distributed team with remote employees across every US time zone, as well as select offices in the US and internationally.

## Our Mission and Opportunity

Early education is one of the greatest determinants of childhood outcomes, is a must for working families, and has lasting social and economic impact. Brightwheel’s vision is high quality early education for every child. We pursue this by directly supporting teachers in the classroom, engaging parents in the development of their kids, and enabling the small businesses that make up the backbone of the $175 billion early education industry. Brightwheel is the most loved technology brand in early education, trusted by tens of thousands of providers and millions of educators and families.

## About the role

Our team is passionate, talented, and deeply customer-focused. We build the platform that thousands of early education programs rely on every day to run their business, serve families, and support children’s growth. As a vertical SaaS company, brightwheel already sits in the middle of the key workflows in early education. We are extending that foundation into a system of action—where software not only records what happened, but also anticipates work, recommends next steps, and takes safe, automated action on behalf of school leaders, teachers, families, and our internal teams.

We’re looking for a hands-on Engineering Manager who combines strong people leadership, technical judgment, and ownership of measurable outcomes. In this role, you will lead a team building customer-facing products that help school leaders, teachers, and families save time, make better decisions, and run stronger programs. You’ll partner closely with Product, Design, and customer-facing teams to define what to build, then take it through production, adoption, and measurable customer impact.

## What you’ll do

- Lead a full-stack engineering team from problem definition through production, measurement, and iteration.
- Translate company goals into clear outcomes, investment choices, and a credible execution plan.
- Set the engineering strategy for quality, reliability, security, privacy, and operational health.
- Ship AI-powered products and change how the team works with AI—not just add AI features.
- Hire and develop strong engineers, set a clear bar, and act when the team or an individual is below it.
- Make capacity, dependencies, forecasts, and risks visible early.
- Partner early with Product, Design, and customer-facing teams to turn customer problems into shipped product with measurable adoption and impact.
- Own product and platform health across web, mobile, and backend systems, including rollout, reliability, privacy, and support impact.
- Use customer behavior, operational signals, and production data to decide what to build, simplify, or stop.

You may be a good fit if you

- Have led an engineering team that delivered measurable customer or business results.
- Have the technical depth to challenge architecture, product, data, reliability, and operational decisions without taking the work away from the team.
- Have set engineering strategy and made explicit investment and prioritization choices.
- Have shipped an AI-powered product or workflow to production and can explain the measurable result.
- Have hired and developed strong engineers, built succession, and handled performance issues directly.
- Have built trusted partnerships across Product, Design, and business teams while representing a clear Engineering point of view.

Strong candidates may also have

- Experience in vertical SaaS, education, fintech, healthcare, CRM, ecommerce, or another operations-heavy domain.
- Led a material change in product direction, architecture, or operating model.
- Built production AI products, agents, evaluation systems, or automation.
- Experience building customer-facing products with measurable adoption or outcome impact.
- Experience using customer feedback and production data to improve web, mobile, or backend product outcomes.

Technology

- Backend: Ruby on Rails and Sidekiq.
- Frontend and mobile: React with TypeScript; native iOS with Swift and Android with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.
- Data and infrastructure: PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes on Amazon EKS, and AWS.
- AI and automation: AWS Bedrock and other hosted models, vector search, orchestration frameworks, and modern AI coding tools.

Brightwheel is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

Protecting Our Applicants: Please be aware of recruiting scams impersonating Brightwheel. All legitimate communications come from @[mybrightwheel.com](http://mybrightwheel.com) addresses, and we never ask for payment or sensitive personal data as part of our hiring process. If you suspect fraudulent contact, reach out to security@mybrightwheel.com. Thank you for helping us keep our applicant community safe.

## About brightwheel

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Brightwheel provides the #1 all-in-one childcare management platform that combines SaaS, payments, and a consumer‑like daily experience for early education programs.
- **Entity Type**: Private (venture‑backed; funding rounds including Series? Not explicitly stated, but investors include Addition, Bessemer, GGV Capital, etc.)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2015
- **Founders**: Not publicly listed on the provided sources; founders are likely Dave Vasen (CEO) and others (not confirmed in search results)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Early childhood education technology (EdTech / Childcare Management Software)
- **Target customers**: B2B – daycare centers, preschools, and early education administrators; B2C – parents and guardians of enrolled children.
- **Mission / purpose**: “High quality early education for every child.” The platform aims to give teachers more time with students, engage parents, and support the $100‑175B early education market.

## Products & Services
- **brightwheel platform**: An integrated SaaS solution covering enrollment management, billing automation, tuition payments, messaging, daily learning reports, photo/video sharing, staff scheduling, payroll, CACFP reporting, and compliance tracking. Available as a mobile app and web dashboard.
- **Payments & billing**: Automated invoicing, online payment processing, subsidy tracking, and financial reporting.
- **Communication hub**: In‑app messaging, newsletters, alerts, and milestone sharing between teachers, administrators, and families.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total funding is not explicitly stated in the search results, but notable investors indicate significant venture backing. Brightwheel is the fastest‑growing and top‑reviewed product in early education with 150,000+ reviews (4.9 rating).
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Addition, Bessemer Venture Partners, Emerson Collective, GGV Capital, Lowercase Capital, Mark Cuban.
- **Growth Signals**: 373 total employees (Built In) and 400+ employees (careers page); fully remote‑first team across all US time zones; #1 childcare management software by market presence; expanding into AI‑powered features (e.g., AI assistant for support).

## Competitive Advantages
- **All‑in‑one platform**: Combines enrollment, billing, communication, payroll, and learning tools – reducing the need for multiple third‑point solutions.
- **High customer trust**: 4.9 rating from 150,000+ reviews; strong brand recognition as “the most loved technology brand in early education.”
- **Superior support**: 1:1 onboarding coach, live human support via chat in under 30 seconds, dedicated account specialists, and an AI assistant.
- **Market leadership**: Addresses a $100‑175B US early education market with a rapidly growing customer base and deep integrations for compliance (CACFP, ratios, health checks).

## Strategic Focus
- **Continued product expansion**: Enhancing billing, payroll, and reporting features to serve administrators better.
- **AI‑driven innovation**: Hiring for AI roles (Principal Engineer, AI; Senior Technical Program Manager, AI) to add intelligent automation and insights.
- **Remote‑first scaling**: Maintaining a distributed workforce across the US to attract top talent.
- **Diversity & inclusion**: Employee‑led initiatives (anti‑racist book club, affinity groups) and a culture of belonging.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission‑driven, fast‑growth environment with a focus on continuous learning, ownership, and customer value. Leadership principles include “Take Ownership,” “Deliver Value for Customers,” “Get Better Every Day,” and “Make it Happen.”
- **Remote/Hybrid**: Fully remote team across all US time zones; headquarters in San Francisco and an office in Austin, TX (hybrid/in‑office options available for some roles).
- **Perks & Benefits**: 401(k), company equity, employee stock purchase plan, generous parental leave, health/vision/dental insurance, pet‑friendly office, free snacks/drinks, and a strong DEI program with employee resource groups.
- **Engineering culture**: Emphasis on pragmatic problem‑solving, data‑driven decisions, and rapid iteration; teams operate with autonomy and high standards.

## Sources
1. [mybrightwheel.com (Careers)](https://mybrightwheel.com/careers/)
2. [mybrightwheel.com (About)](https://mybrightwheel.com/about/)
3. [mybrightwheel.com (Product)](https://mybrightwheel.com/)
4. [Built In (brightwheel company profile)](https://builtin.com/company/brightwheel)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com (brightwheel jobs)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/brightwheel)

## Other roles at brightwheel

- [Sales Development Representative - (Pakistan)](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-development-representative-pakistan-brightwheel-islamabad-r7p5a73v5r4g) — Islamabad, Pakistan
- [Enterprise Support Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-support-specialist-brightwheel-philippines-px7tf63a2467) — Philippines
- [Founding Account Executive - Education Products](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-account-executive-education-products-brightwheel-united-states-7eej5jaqxmsq) — United States
- [Principal AI Software Engineer, GTM](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-ai-software-engineer-gtm-brightwheel-united-states-bgaxcrkxh2cb) — United States
- [Principal AI Software Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-ai-software-engineer-product-brightwheel-united-states-9sna9yecg9g4) — United States
- [Senior Data Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-analyst-brightwheel-brazil-yf62e47tt0h0) — Brazil
- [Salesforce Solution Architect](https://feeny.ai/job/salesforce-solution-architect-brightwheel-brazil-fq3z5gf5f95z) — Brazil
- [Principal Product Manager, New Ventures](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-product-manager-new-ventures-brightwheel-united-states-3hehb74bgm8g) — United States
- [Director, GTM Ops & Analytics](https://feeny.ai/job/director-gtm-ops-analytics-brightwheel-united-states-wmz1bn9dcffh) — United States
- [Staff AI Software Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-ai-software-engineer-product-brightwheel-united-states-ctg39eakfhew) — United States