Engineering Manager / Tech Lead

Position: Engineering Manager / Tech Lead (8-12 years) Location: Chennai, India (Hybrid) or Remote Position Type: Full Time Department: Technology & Digital Solutions Reports to: Director of Technology / VP Engineering About Us Athena 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. This 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. The Role You 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. What You Will Own RFP & Solution Design Lead the technical response for RFPs and proposals — assess feasibility, define architecture, estimate effort, and write the technical narrative that wins work. Translate client requirements (often non-technical, domain-heavy) into clear technical specifications, system designs, and delivery plans. Participate in client pitch meetings and orals. Represent the technology capability with confidence and credibility. Identify reusable components, frameworks, and accelerators across engagements to reduce delivery time and improve margins. Technical Execution & Delivery Own the engineering delivery for active projects: plan sprints, set milestones, ship releases, and hold the team accountable to client timelines and contract deliverables. Architect and deliver custom digital platforms — data dashboards, MERL systems, analytics tools, knowledge management platforms — tailored to each engagement. Lead the integration of AI-powered capabilities (data analytics, NLP, automated reporting) into client solutions, from prototype to production-grade. Manage technical relationships with client IT teams, third-party vendors, and subcontracted developers. Make pragmatic build-vs-buy and architecture decisions. Document them. Stand behind them. Hands-On Engineering Write production code — backend, frontend, or infrastructure — wherever the biggest bottleneck is. Review code daily. Set quality standards for testing, modularity, and deployability. Debug cross-stack issues (API, frontend, database, background workers, caching) when they arise. Establish and improve CI/CD pipelines, deployment processes, and environment management across projects. Team Leadership & Growth Lead a small, high-performing engineering team (backend, frontend, QA) across time zones. Run effective standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives — keep them short, keep them useful. Hire, onboard, and ramp new engineers. Build a team culture of ownership, speed, and craftsmanship. Mentor engineers technically — pair with them on hard problems, teach them to think in systems, help them grow into senior roles. Manage resource allocation across concurrent projects. Know who's available, who's stretched, and when to raise the flag. Shield the team from noise. Translate client and business priorities into clear engineering tasks. Client & Stakeholder Partnership Wear the client hat. Understand their domain, their constraints, and what "done" looks like to them — not just to engineering. Push back on requirements when they're technically unsound, but always with a better alternative. Justify your decisions clearly. Communicate proactively and transparently — with leadership on project health and risks, with clients on progress and trade-offs. Lead technical demos, sprint reviews, and handover sessions with client stakeholders. What We’re Looking For Must Have Experience & Track Record 8+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years leading teams (engineering manager, tech lead, or equivalent). Experience delivering technology projects in a consulting, services, or RFP-driven environment. You understand SOWs, deliverables, milestones, and client sign-offs. Shipped custom platforms or digital products for external clients — not just internal tools. Hands-on experience with a modern web stack: Backend (Python/Django/FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Redis) Frontend (React or Angular with TypeScript) Infrastructure (AWS or Azure, Docker, CI/CD). Experience managing multiple concurrent projects with different clients and timelines. Engineering Depth Can design a system, write the critical path code, review the rest, and debug it in production. Strong API design sense — RESTful services, authentication, data exchange formats, third-party integrations. Database proficiency — schema design, query optimization, data modeling for analytics workloads. Understands performance end-to-end: frontend load times, API latency, database query plans, caching strategies. AI/ML Fluency (applied, not research) Working knowledge of LLM integration patterns: RAG, embeddings, prompt engineering, API orchestration. Experience building AI-powered features for client solutions (not just training models — integrating AI into user-facing workflows). Can evaluate AI output quality, design feedback loops, and make pragmatic decisions about build-vs-API for AI capabilities. Estimation & Proposal Skills Can break down vague client requirements into work packages with realistic effort estimates. Experience writing or contributing to technical proposals, RFP responses, or solution architecture documents. Understands how to scope for uncertainty — contingency planning, phased delivery, and MVP-first approaches in contract contexts. Leadership Character Ownership mindset. You see a problem, you fix it or get it fixed. You don’t wait for permission or point at someone else. Go-getter. You find a way to get things done even when the path isn't clear, resources are tight, or the client changes direction. Strong communicator. You write clearly, speak directly, and keep stakeholders informed without being asked. You default to transparency. Low 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. Bias for action. You'd rather ship an 80% solution and iterate than over-plan and miss the deliverable. Nice to Have Experience in the international development / social impact / MERL sector. Experience building data platforms, dashboards, or MERL systems for government or donor-funded programs. Familiarity with data sovereignty requirements across different countries (GDPR, in-country hosting mandates). Experience with geospatial data (PostGIS, mapping/visualization) or data integration pipelines (ETL, data harmonization). Background with USAID, Gates Foundation, World Bank, or similar institutional client environments. Previous experience at a consulting firm scaling its technology practice from services to platform. What the First 90 Days Look Like **Days 1–30: Immerse & Assess** Get hands-on with active pro