Engineering Manager

About the Role

Descript is revolutionizing how traditional editing methodologies and AI technologies come together in every part of the creation process (recording, transcribing, editing, and sharing) to make it faster and easier than ever to create high‑quality content.

We are hiring an Engineering Manager to lead our Agent team, focused on building the world’s best Agentic Video Editor, Underlord. You will manage a team of 5‑6 software engineers, report to the Head of AI Engineering, and partner closely with others across engineering, product, design, and AI research teams.

Agent‑driven editing is a major company focus and this role requires strong product thinking and strategic partnership skills as the team continues to develop novel, high‑quality experiences around Agentic Video Editing.

About the Team

• Descript's Agent launched in Open Beta in July 2025.
• Ongoing work includes improving the user experience for chat‑based editing, adding capabilities, and scaling agent infrastructure.
• The Agent product engineering team partners closely with the AI Research team to make video editing accessible to anyone.
• Management peers and direct reports are based in San Francisco, New York, and distributed across the US and Canada.

What You’ll Do

• Own execution: Manage team priorities, drive alignment across stakeholders, adapt plans to maximize outcomes, and hold a high bar for delivery through active planning, prioritization, and follow‑through.
• Define team direction: Connect customer needs, product vision, and technical realities in close collaboration with Product, Design, and AI Research; set clear priorities and make trade‑offs to deliver results.
• Develop your team: Recruit, mentor, and grow engineers; foster a culture of continuous learning and high performance; create stretch opportunities, deliver clear feedback, and manage underperformance early.
• Drive operational excellence: Ensure execution is predictable, reliable, and sustainable; implement best practices in project management and engineering processes.
• Maintain the technical bar: Guide architectural decisions, ensure sound design trade‑offs, address tech debt that slows execution, and deliver high‑quality, reliable systems.

What You Bring – Minimum Qualifications

• Engineering Leadership Experience: 5+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years of engineering management delivering complex, cross‑functional product work with high velocity and quality.
• Team Builder: Excels at hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineering talent; creates collaborative, empowering, high‑performing team environments.
• Technical Judgment: Strong technical background with the ability to guide architectural decisions, evaluate trade‑offs, and maintain engineering excellence without being hands‑on day‑to‑day.
• Effective Communicator: Communicates clearly across technical and non‑technical audiences; thrives in collaborative environments with Product, Design, and Research partners.
• Strategic Thinker: Plans on a 12+ month horizon, but prioritizes and re‑prioritizes aggressively as new information emerges; makes and communicates calculated bets.
• Adaptable and Resilient: Thrives in fast‑paced, rapidly changing environments; navigates ambiguity, drives results, and maintains high ownership and bias toward action.

Extra Credit

• Experience building agents, developing evals, or leading teams building LLM‑powered products.
• Experience building creative tools or frequent use of creative media tools (you’ll end up making lots of videos!).

Compensation

• Base salary range: $222,431 – $261,684 per year (final offer will consider experience, expertise, location, level, and other factors).

Benefits

• Generous healthcare package
• 401(k) matching program
• Catered lunches
• Flexible vacation time
• Headquarters in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA; mix of remote and hybrid roles with occasional in‑person collaboration opportunities.

About Descript

Descript is building a simple, intuitive, fully‑powered editing tool for video and audio—an editing tool built for the age of AI. The company has ~150 employees and backing from investors such as OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, and Spark Capital.

Descript is an equal‑opportunity workplace dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or veteran status. The company actively builds a team rich in diverse backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to help employees, products, and the community thrive.