Contract Software Engineering Manager Jobs in Colorado

YOUR MISSION

Software is the central nervous system for True Anomaly's engineering and product thesis. Software bridges the gap between military objectives, theoretical astrodynamics and the human and autonomous control of spacecraft and ground systems in time and space. True Anomaly is seeking an exceptional Engineering Manager, Ground Software to lead a team of talented engineers driving the direction and evolution of our distributed, multi-faceted ground software system.

This is a high-impact, strategic leadership role. You'll build and develop a cross-functional team of front-end, back-end, and full-stack engineers, define and drive the technical roadmap for your product area, lead cross-functional initiatives that span engineering, product, and operations, and establish the architectural and operating foundations that will scale our ground platform for years to come. You'll identify strategic technical investments, champion them across the organization, and lead their execution. You won't just ship features; you'll shape the product direction, influence company objectives, and grow the engineers who will build the next generation of our platform. When you see systemic issues affecting reliability, velocity, or quality, you'll diagnose root causes, build consensus around solutions, and drive organizational change to address them.

You do not need to have experience building space ground systems or experience in aerospace. You'll lead high-priority initiatives with strategic importance to the company and a chance to fundamentally impact the outcome of future conflict (and the future of the company), all while enjoying world-class benefits including platinum healthcare, flexible work hours/location, highly competitive compensation and a generous stock options package.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build, lead, and develop a cross-functional squad of front-end, back-end, and full-stack engineers who own a Mosaic product area end-to-end
• Own the squad's delivery, quality, and team health, running sprint rituals that serve the work and protecting the team's ability to focus
• Run effective 1:1s, give timely and specific feedback, and grow engineers along both technical and management career paths
• Stay close enough to the code to earn trust and make informed decisions, contributing directly when the situation calls for it
• Drive the technical roadmap for your product area, including the recurring judgment of whether a new capability belongs in the product or in the shared Mosaic platform layer
• Champion strategic technical investments - testing, observability, internal tooling, debt reduction - and make the case for the engineering time they require
• Partner with the Product Owner as the technical counterpart in defining scope, timelines, and trade-offs
• Coordinate cross-team work with other Ground Software squads on shared APIs, components, and platform capabilities
• Manage the squad's relationship with Space Operations, the Simulation team, DevOps, and other stakeholders through structured channels
• Lead incident response when production issues affect operators, and drive blameless post-mortems that prevent recurrence
• Help define what a product-aligned squad looks like at Mosaic, establishing patterns that will shape future squads as the organization scales

QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with 4+ years building and leading engineering teams that ship production software
• Hands-on technical depth in either modern back-end systems (Elixir/OTP, or comparable concurrent/distributed runtimes such as Erlang, Go, or the JVM) or modern front-end systems (React/TypeScript), with enough working knowledge of the other side of the stack to make informed architectural decisions and lead cross-functional work credibly
• Track record of hiring and developing high-performing engineers in fast-moving environments
• Demonstrated ability to balance hands-on technical contribution with people leadership
• Experience leading cross-functional teams or coordinating closely across functional boundaries on shared product outcomes
• Strong understanding of distributed systems integration patterns (gRPC, REST, WebSockets) and API contract design
• Experience establishing or evolving engineering processes - sprint operating models, code review standards, testing strategy, incident response
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders and represent engineering's interests to senior leadership
• Eligible for DoD Secret or TS/SCI clearance

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, aerospace engineering, or a related discipline
• Direct experience with Elixir/OTP and the Phoenix framework, or with React/TypeScript at scale in production single-page applications
• Experience leading a team through a structural transition - functional to product-aligned, monolith to services, founding team to scaled organization
• Background in aerospace, defense, or other domains with mission-critical reliability requirements, classified work environments (SCIF), or operational software where the cost of a bug is measured in operator decisions
• Experience with real-time data systems, telemetry processing, command and control, or large-scale data visualization (Three.js, WebGL, or similar)
• Familiarity with cleared work environments and how security and accreditation constraints shape engineering workflows
• Active U.S. security clearance at any level

COMPENSATION

• Base Salary:  $160,000 to $270,000

• Equity + Benefits including Health, Dental, Vision, HRA/HSA options, PTO and paid holidays, 401K, Parental Leave 

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, location, and experience. 

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Work Location-This is an onsite role, we are seeking candidates based near Denver, CO or Long Beach, CA.
• Work environment-the work environment; temperature, noise level, inside or outside, or other factors that will affect the person's working conditions while performing the job.
• Physical demands-the physical demands of the job, including bending, sitting, lifting and driving.

This position will be open until it is successfully filled. To submit your application, please follow the directions below.

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