Software Engineer Manager (Database Observability)

Your opportunity

At New Relic, we provide our customers real-time insights, so they can innovate faster. Our software delivers insightful observability tools across different technologies and distributed systems, enabling software engineering teams to quickly identify, understand and tackle issues, analyze performance and get the most of their software and infrastructure.

Database Observability is a critical pillar of New Relic's platform strategy. We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager (M3) to lead a senior, high-performing team building next-generation Database Observability products. Your team will own the entire lifecycle of critical telemetry data flows from lightweight database agents and high-throughput ingestion pipelines to intelligent DB recommendation engines and autonomous DB AI Agents.

You will lead a team that includes senior and Lead-level engineers with deep domain expertise in distributed systems and AI. Your primary value will come from setting strategic technical direction, enabling their best work, and fostering a high-accountability culture while partnering closely with Product and Design to deliver features that directly drive New Relic's Database Observability.

What you'll do

Manage a full-stack engineering team (6–8 engineers) spanning backend systems, database telemetry, agent engineering, and UI workflows.

Own end-to-end delivery sprint planning, roadmap execution, system quality, and operational excellence for critical database ingestion and recommendation pipelines.

Guide the team in harnessing cutting-edge AI technologies including Agentic AI, MCP, and LLMs to evolve database observability from passive monitoring to automated, AI-driven diagnostics and remediation.

Drive architectural discussions around high-throughput, low-latency ingestion, streaming telemetry (Kafka), and database agent development, holding the team to high engineering excellence standards.

Partner closely with Product Management and Design to translate high-level vision into actionable, well-engineered execution plans..

Hire, mentor, and grow engineers at every level. Set clear expectations, manage performance equitably, and build a visible talent pipeline.

Build a strong DevOps culture where teams own what they ship ensuring robust monitoring, incident response, CI/CD automation, and high reliability.

Champion modern engineering workflows, including AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) to accelerate delivery and spec-driven development.

This role requires

10+ years of total software engineering experience with 2+ years directly managing engineering teams.

Proven track record of coaching, guiding, and retaining individual contributors ,enabling domain experts rather than directing them.

Deep technical background in backend and distributed systems (Go, Java, Python, or equivalent) with the ability to engage credibly in architecture discussions around high throughput, low latency, and data pipelines.

Foundational understanding of database engines (Relational and NoSQL) and the challenges of safely collecting performance metrics under heavy production loads.

Proven track record of delivering complex, multi-quarter technical initiatives on time with high quality, alongside experience managing team health, technical debt, and performance expectations.

Clear, direct, and transparent communication style effective at aligning senior engineers, cross-functional partners, and executive stakeholders.

Familiarity with modern practices including CI/CD, microservices, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and production observability.

Bonus points if you have

Background in Observability, Database Engineering, SRE, or Performance Tuning domains.

Exposure to Agentic AI, LLM application architecture, or Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Experience with real-time streaming architectures (Apache Kafka) and database collector/agent design.

Hands-on experience with OpenTelemetry (OTel) standards.

Active experience guiding teams through AI-assisted development practices (e.g., spec-driven development using Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor).

Track record of managing teams through rapid scaling or ground-up product launches.

Familiarity with Kafka, GraphQL, or distributed data systems

Exposure to AI-assisted development practices (spec-driven dev, Claude Code, Copilot)

Why Join Us:

Be part of a forward-thinking team working with cutting-edge technologies in a collaborative environment.

Access to opportunities for professional growth and development, including mentorship, learning resources, and a culture that encourages continuous improvement.

We believe in maintaining a healthy work-life balance with flexible work hours and remote work opportunities.