Senior Engineering Manager - LATAM

About the Job AOA is hiring a Senior Engineering Manager to lead our engineering team and raise the high-quality, high-performing work we’re known for. In this role, you will help build a team that delivers predictably across varied project types, stacks, and languages, while strengthening the systems, standards, and habits that allow the team to move quickly and sustainably. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who enjoys both coaching people and staying close to the work. You will lead frontend and backend engineers, with most of our current work focused on frontend, while remaining close enough to the code to guide by example. You will coach engineers on craft and judgment, foster a strong code review culture, own architecture and technical direction across varied stacks, and plan the team’s monthly delivery cycle so work is clearly sized, thoughtfully committed, and reliably delivered. You will work across a portfolio of B2B/SaaS and eCommerce builds, partnering with designers, product leads, and client-facing teammates to keep delivery moving with clarity and care. You will set clear objectives, use measurement as a learning tool, and protect the internal investments that help the team scale well, including hiring, process, standards, and practices. As an AI-native agency, we use modern AI coding tools and agents to deliver higher-quality work in less time. You will help raise the whole team’s AI leverage while keeping engineering judgment, quality, maintainability, and client outcomes at the center of how we work. You may be a strong fit if you are a senior engineering leader who is still a builder at heart, comfortable across the stack, and energized by helping a thoughtful, close-knit team raise the technical bar, grow together, and move with speed, clarity, and care. Role Details Compensation: $7,500 USD per month Engagement: Contract (independent contractor) Location: Remote, based in Latin America Schedule: Available during standard business hours in US Central Time, for strong overlap with the team Reports to: CEO About AOA AOA is a growing digital design and development agency that creates high-impact websites, AI-native apps, and standout eCommerce experiences for ambitious modern brands. We partner closely with eCommerce and SaaS companies to deliver thoughtful, polished work that drives meaningful results and lasting client success. Our work spans strategy, design, development, eCommerce, conversion optimization, and custom application development. We are a close-knit team where every person has a direct, visible impact on our clients' success and the growth of the company. We value genuine relationships, high standards, ownership, clear communication, and a true commitment to client delight. As an AI-native agency, we use modern tools to enhance the quality, speed, and clarity of our work, while keeping human judgment, creativity, and relationships at the center. Responsibilities Key Outcome: A high-performing, self-managed engineering organization, known for its high standard of quality, delivery predictability, and agentic efficiency. Set and uphold the technical bar across architecture, code quality, testing, and engineering standards. Coach engineers on craft, judgment, autonomy, and technical decision-making through review, feedback, and architecture conversations. Build a team that delivers reliably without depending on the manager as a bottleneck or single point of failure. Set clear objectives, establish useful dashboards and review cadences, and use data to improve team performance. Own architecture and technical direction across varied project types, stacks, and languages. Lead effectively on unfamiliar stacks by relying on strong engineering principles, systems, and review practices. Run a code review culture that catches issues early, teaches consistently, and keeps quality high across projects. Increase the team’s use of AI coding tools and agents through clear patterns, guardrails, and review discipline. Stay hands-on by contributing code to high-risk work, hard problems, spikes, and patterns the team can build from. Plan monthly delivery cycles so work is clearly sized, realistically committed, and reliably completed across client projects. Hold the team to strong task discipline, including clear ownership, accurate status, self-review before QA, and follow-through. Own engineering hiring and assess candidates for craft, judgment, autonomy, and team fit. Partner with design, product, and client-facing teammates to keep delivery clear, coordinated, and well-specified. Own and evolve the engineering operating system, including standards, patterns, review practices, and rituals. Communicate proactively across a remote team, sharing progress, decisions, risks, and recommendations early. Qualifications 4+ years in senior engineering leadership or management, leading and growing engineering teams. 8+ years building production software across multiple stacks and languages. Strong full-stack technical judgment, with the ability to stay hands-on and contribute code when needed. Experience delivering both B2B/SaaS products and eCommerce builds. Agency experience, including leading delivery across multiple clients or projects in parallel. Experience working as an independent contractor. Proven ability to coach engineers, raise their craft, and build autonomy. Strong architecture and system-design judgment across varied technical environments. High standards for quality, including typed, tested code, thorough code review, and self-review before QA. Experience leading estimation, planning delivery cycles, and managing concurrent workstreams. Excellent professional English, spoken and written. Proactive, independent communication in a fully remote team. Reliable overlap with standard US Central Time business hours. Based in Latin America and able to work as an independent contractor. Practical, fluent use of AI coding tools and agents. Preferred Qualifications Deep frontend expertise, especially React and Next.js. Backend expertise across server languages, APIs, data modeling, and infrastructure. Experience building or maintaining design systems or component libraries. Experience with headless or eCommerce platforms such as Shopify Plus, Shopify Hydrogen, or headless commerce. Experience with points-based or sprint-based delivery models. Experience building or scaling an engineering team and its operating system. You do not need to check every single box to apply. We know strong engineering leaders bring the right experience in different ways. If you lead by example across the stack, raise the technical bar and the engineers around you, and want to do it at AI-native speed with a close-knit team that cares about client outcomes, we would love to hear from you.