Engineering Manager, Marketing Enablement & Technology

Overview of the Engineering Manager, Marketing Enablement & Technology Role at Instacart

The Marketing Enablement & Technology (MET) team at Instacart operates within the Marketing organization, dedicated to building systems that fuel company growth. This team uniquely bridges Marketing, Product, and Engineering, taking ownership of platforms for campaign feeds, audience targeting, event pipelines, and QA automation.

We are seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the Paid MarTech team. This pivotal role blends people leadership with technical strategy, focusing on building and scaling the crucial systems, data infrastructure, and mobile capabilities that power our Paid Marketing channels—a significant growth driver for Instacart. The Paid MarTech pod is responsible for creating unified, intelligent infrastructure, empowering marketers to activate campaigns faster, measure accurately, and optimize confidently across various channels including Paid Social, Display, SEM, Online Video, Linear Television, and Streaming Audio.

As an Engineering Manager, Marketing Enablement & Technology, you will manage a team of approximately 9 engineers spanning backend, data engineering, and mobile disciplines. You will drive technical roadmap ownership while cultivating a culture of collaboration, growth, and exceptional execution. Success in this role requires close partnership with Marketing leadership, Product teams, and various cross-functional stakeholders to scale existing systems, develop new self-serve tooling, and ensure your team delivers tangible business impact.

About the Job

• Lead and nurture a team of 9+ engineers across backend, data engineering, and mobile, offering coaching, feedback, and career development to foster individual and team success.
• Own the technical roadmap for Paid MarTech, strategically balancing priorities between scaling current systems (backend services, data pipelines, mobile attribution) and innovating new self-serve tools for marketing teams.
• Drive execution excellence by setting clear objectives, proactively removing impediments, and ensuring the team consistently delivers high-quality work on schedule, all while maintaining a sustainable pace and healthy team dynamics.
• Cultivate robust cross-functional relationships with Marketing leadership, Product, Analytics, and other engineering teams to ensure alignment on priorities, effective requirement gathering, and the delivery of technical solutions that generate significant business impact.
• Champion a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement through regular 1:1s, team rituals, and by creating an inclusive environment where every team member is supported, challenged, and empowered to excel.
• Collaborate with Senior Engineering Managers and cross-functional leaders on strategic planning, resource allocation, and organizational initiatives that directly contribute to the MET mission and Instacart's overarching growth objectives.
• Guide critical technical decision-making across backend (Python, Ruby, APIs), data (SQL, Snowflake, DBT, Airflow), and mobile (iOS, SDK integrations) domains, ensuring architectural consistency and adherence to quality standards.

About You

Minimum Qualifications:

• 5–8+ years of hands-on software engineering or data engineering experience, demonstrating a strong technical foundation in backend, data, or mobile domains.
• 2+ years of engineering management experience, successfully leading teams of 6+ engineers, with a proven ability to coach, develop, and retain high-performing technical talent.
• A strong track record of owning technical roadmaps, effectively prioritizing competing demands, and achieving measurable business outcomes through team execution.
• Demonstrated experience in building strong cross-functional partnerships with non-engineering stakeholders (Marketing, Product, Analytics) and adeptly translating business requirements into robust technical solutions.
• Proven ability to create inclusive, collaborative team environments where engineers feel supported, challenged, and motivated to advance their careers.
• Exceptional communication skills, including the ability to provide clear, actionable feedback and navigate difficult conversations with both empathy and directness.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience managing engineers across multiple technical disciplines (backend, data engineering, mobile) or leading full-stack teams.
• A background in marketing technology, ad tech, or growth engineering, coupled with a deep understanding of paid marketing operations, attribution models, and campaign optimization strategies.
• Hands-on technical expertise with relevant technologies such as Python, Ruby, SQL, Snowflake, Airflow, DBT, iOS development, and third-party SDK integrations.
• Experience in scaling systems and teams within fast-paced, high-growth environments, while consistently upholding engineering quality, team well-being, and a sustainable pace of work.
• A track record of successfully building self-serve tooling or internal platforms that empower non-technical stakeholders to operate autonomously and significantly boost organizational efficiency.
• Strong product sense, with the ability to identify opportunities for technical innovation that can deliver substantial business impact and cultivate a competitive advantage.
• Proficiency with agile methodologies, sprint planning, OKR setting, and establishing effective team rituals that drive execution excellence and foster strong cross-functional collaboration.

Key skills/competency

• Engineering Management
• Marketing Technology (MarTech)
• AdTech
• Data Engineering
• Mobile Development
• Technical Roadmap Ownership
• Cross-functional Leadership
• Team Development
• Python
• SQL