Applications Engineering Manager Jobs in Minnesota

Ovative Group is an independent, full‑funnel media, measurement, and creative firm that helps brands like Best Buy, Domino's, American Eagle, The Home Depot, Disney, Tumi, Michael Kors, Boost Mobile, and UnitedHealth Group transform their media and measurement programs. Our proprietary MarTech platform, EMRge, turns marketing into a driver of sustainable growth by measuring businesses holistically.

We are seeking an Engineering Manager to join our rapidly growing product and engineering development team. The position involves leading a cross‑functional team responsible for creating, optimizing, and maintaining scalable software and data solutions that enhance performance, stability, and scalability. You will guide the team through the full software development lifecycle—from concept to deployment—and collaborate closely with internal and client stakeholders.

• Partner in sprint and interval planning with product and technical leaders to align goals, scope, timing, dependencies, and delivery readiness.
• Support backlog refinement by ensuring work entering delivery is clear, ready, and sized appropriately.
• Lead the team's core delivery ceremonies and own the delivery rhythm, surfacing blockers, trade‑offs, and replanning needs early.
• Use team capacity, velocity, and delivery patterns to set realistic commitments and improve the delivery system.
• Mentor and coach engineering team members, fostering a culture of continuous learning, growth, and collaboration.
• Provide clear expectations, regular feedback, and consistent support through 1:1s and day‑to‑day leadership.
• Create stretch opportunities that help team members grow in ownership, versatility, and resilience while aligning to team and business needs.
• Foster a culture of teamwork and technical excellence, inspiring the team to achieve their best.
• Drive adherence to strong engineering practices across code quality, documentation, testing, maintainability, and technical health.
• Partner with Product Managers, Product Owners, and stakeholders to understand goals, clarify requirements, and translate work into actionable technical direction.
• Represent the team in cross‑team discussions, surfacing dependencies, risks, and needed decisions.
• Advocate for the team within the organization, ensuring the team’s needs, constraints, and perspectives are understood.
• Communicate status, risks, and key decisions clearly so the team is represented as a reliable partner.
• Ensure the team follows SDLC and DevOps best practices, maintaining strong standards for delivery quality, deployment discipline, reliability, and security.
• Partner effectively with IT, Infosec, QA, and other functions to deliver high‑quality, reliable software and maintain a strong security and compliance posture.
• Champion the adoption of AI‑assisted development tools and practices across the team, establishing effective patterns for responsible use that improve velocity while protecting quality and security.

• 5+ years of relevant experience in computer science, software engineering, or another technical discipline.
• Experience leading high‑performance teams, including lead engineers.
• Experience leading and growing cross‑functional technical team members in their personal development.
• Experience collaborating with cross‑functional team members, product owners, and stakeholders to drive and support business goals.
• Strong organization skills and ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines.
• Experience influencing and communicating with non‑technical decision makers as a technical thought leader.
• Experience with at least one major programming language (e.g., JavaScript, Python, Java).
• Familiarity with web technologies (e.g., JavaScript, HTML, CSS), data manipulation (e.g., SQL), and version control systems (e.g., GitHub).
• Familiarity with cloud environments (e.g., Google Cloud Platform, Azure, Amazon Web Services).
• Familiarity with DevOps practices/principles, Agile/Scrum methodologies, and the product development lifecycle.
• Experience leading and shaping Agile delivery practices.
• Experience supporting and guiding sprint planning and iterative delivery.

• Experience with, or a strong demonstrable interest in, agentic AI technologies and their practical applications.
• Experience with marketing APIs and/or automating data pulls from marketing platforms.
• Experience in client‑ or stakeholder‑facing, consultative roles.
• Familiarity with modern web APIs and full‑stack frameworks.
• Experience influencing budget and investment decisions for engineering organizations.

Base Salary ranges from $90,000 to $132,000, inclusive of a 20% bonus. Benefits include health insurance, 401(k) match, paid vacation, paid travel to headquarters, paid maternity/paternity leave, fertility support, monthly mobile stipend, sabbatical program, and charitable giving match.

Ovative is committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can participate and thrive. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, including on the basis of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Our policies reflect this commitment, extending benefits such as medical leave inclusive of same‑sex partners.