Engineering Manager (Communications Team)

ABOUT BESTOW Life insurance is one of the world's most important products. It's also one of the hardest to build, distribute, and modernize. Bestow exists to change that. Bestow is a leading vertical technology platform serving some of the largest and most innovative life insurers. Our platform unifies the fragmented, legacy value chain, enabling carriers to launch products in weeks instead of years. Carriers choose us to scale and operate at unprecedented speed, powered by AI and automation. Bestow isn't selling policies. We're building the infrastructure that helps an entire industry move faster, reach more people, and deliver on its promise. Backed by leading investors (Goldman Sachs, Hedosophia, NEA, Valar, 8VC) and trusted by major carriers, Bestow is powered by a team that moves with precision, purpose, and heart. If you want to help reimagine a centuries-old industry with lasting impact, join us. Bestow offers flexible remote/hybrid work, meaningful benefits, equity, and substantial growth opportunities. Bestow uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit E-Verify.gov http://e-verify.gov. ABOUT THE TEAM The Engineering team is responsible for all technology for Bestow and the Bestow Platform. We serve employees, consumers, and enterprise customers. In addition to building software, we integrate and manage many third-party products used by employees and as part of the platform. Our major functional teams are product engineering, infrastructure, IT, data & analytics, and program management. Engineering works closely with product management and design to define and prioritize the product roadmap. As an Engineering Manager for the Communications Team, you will lead a team of Backend Software Engineers responsible for Bestow's communications infrastructure, the Document Creation Service and Notification Service. You will partner with Product Managers, Compliance, Legal, and our external delivery partners to develop and support solutions that power document generation, regulatory disclosures, and multi-channel customer communications across the platform. You will also collaborate with teams across Bestow to plan and execute the product roadmap. Our system runs on Kubernetes in Google Cloud Platform and is composed of several microservices written in Go that integrate using gRPC, REST, and async messaging patterns. You will share responsibility for operating our workloads on these platforms. A key focus for this role will be scaling our communications infrastructure, building reliable, compliant document generation and multi-channel notification delivery (email, SMS, and physical mail) that supports policy documents, required notices, automated delivery tracking, and seamless carrier and partner integrations. This role is open to remote candidates. #LI-Remote WHAT YOU’LL DO This is a player/coach role with direct reports, spending approximately 20% of your time contributing production-level code. TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP - Remain hands-on in the code and actively participate in system design and architecture decisions - Regularly review pull requests, providing thoughtful feedback that elevates code quality - Partner with engineers on complex technical challenges, offering guidance without micromanaging - Drive large initiatives from conception through delivery COMMUNICATIONS ARCHITECTURE & INTEGRATION - Own the document generation pipeline including templating, PDF rendering, carrier-and product-specific document configuration, and template lifecycle management - Lead multi-channel notification delivery across email, SMS, and physical mail, including third-party provider integrations (e.g., Lob, SendGrid, Twilio), delivery status tracking, and webhook handling - Design delivery failure handling including correct classification of provider errors (e.g., distinguishing user/4xx from system/5xx failures), retry logic, bounce/complaint management, and operational alerting - Build compliance-driven communications infrastructure for regulatory disclosures, required notices, document verification, and end-to-end audit trails for document delivery - Implement delivery observability including exposure of delivery failures in data feeds, idempotent retries, and custom monitoring/eventing for template processing - Drive operational improvements including carrier template onboarding automation, reducing manual intervention, and streamlining the document-to-delivery lifecycle TEAM DEVELOPMENT - Orchestrate effective engineering ceremonies that promote collaboration and continuous improvement - Create personalized growth plans for each team member, identifying strengths and development areas - Provide regular, constructive feedback and create opportunities for engineers to expand their skills STRATEGIC VISION - Balance technical excellence with business objectives - Demonstrate sound judgment when making technical trade-offs - Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders The ideal candidate embraces being both a technical contributor and a people leader, finding fulfillment in writing code while helping others grow into their full potential.     WHO YOU ARE An Engineering Manager at Bestow is a highly technical leader who thrives at the intersection of people and technology. You combine deep technical expertise with exceptional leadership skills to drive engineering excellence while developing talent. CORE REQUIREMENTS - Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience required - 8+ years professional experience in the software industry, with at least 3 years of management experience while keeping your coding skills strong - Professional experience with Go preferred - Comfortable using Docker for local software development - Familiar with modern, scalable system architectures (load balancing, horizontal scaling, etc.) - Experience with PostgreSQL or other relational databases (comfortable writing ANSI SQL) - Familiar with API design tools/languages (Protocol Buffers, Swagger, OpenAPI, etc.) - Cloud computing & Kubernetes (or similar container orchestration) preferred - Technical Aptitude; Fluency in programming, attention to detail, planning, understanding requirements, verification, Architecture Design - GenAI Developer Tooling & Up-leveling Team: Leveraged GenAI developer tools to maintain strong, hands-on contribution capabilities in complex backend architectures while coaching engineers on utilizing AI to accelerate continuous integration, release strategies, and template onboarding automation. Ensured AI-generated code adhered strictly to microservice design principles and compliance frameworks. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE - Deep understanding of the entire software development lifecycle, including feature inception, system maintenance, continuous integration and release strategies, and GenAI developer tooling - Ability to track key metrics and consistently meet established Service Level Agreements (SLAs) - Ability to understand complex technical problems and identify areas of risk - Ability to go deep technically when necessary—you should be able to contribute changes to the team's codebases at any time LEADERSHIP & SOFT SKILLS - Highly organized and detail-oriented - Proven track record of building and retaining high-performing teams - Strong problem-solving abilities - Excellent communication and collaborative attitude - End-to-end ownership mentality TOTAL REWARDS At Bestow, we’re proud to be awarded for our team members, innovative products, and culture. Our standard benefits include: - Competitive salary and equity based on role - Policies and managers that support work/life balance, like our flexible paid time off and parental leave programs - 100% paid-premium option for medical, dental, and vision insurance - Lifestyle stipend to support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing - Flexible work-from-home policy and open to remote - Remote and WFH options, as well as a beautiful, state-of-the-art office in Dallas’ Deep Ellum, for those who prefer an office setting - Employee-led diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives Recent Employer Awards include: - Best Place for Working Parents 2023 + 2024 + 2025 - Great Place to Work Certified, 2022 + 2023 + 2024 + 2025 - Built In Best Places to Work, 2022 + 2023 + 2025 - Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Texas 2022 + 2023 - Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance 2022 + 2023 + 2024 We value diversity at Bestow. The company will hire, recruit, and promote regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, pregnancy or maternity, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law. We understand the importance of creating a safe and comfortable work environment and encourage individualism and authenticity in every team member. Thanks for considering a job at Bestow!