Role
Engineering Manager
Location
Bengaluru
About Tekion
At Tekion, we are building the only cloud-native platform that is transforming the automotive retail industry, leapfrogging it into the future, and providing unparalleled customer experience. We create seamlessly integrated, elegant, and intuitive solutions built with innovative technology and powered by Big Data, Machine Learning (ML)/ AI, and Internet of Things (Connected vehicle to connected devices). We harness our passion, entrepreneurial spirit, deep industry expertise, and the latest technologies to create something incredibly special. We are inventing modern technology along the way to overcome barriers and solve big problems, all while having a blast doing it!
Job Summary
We are looking for an Engineering Manager or Senior Engineering Manager who leads from the
codebase, not just from meetings. You will take ownership of an existing AI team of engineers and
grow it to 58 while remaining a core hands-on contributor writing production code, owning critical architecture decisions, and setting the technical bar through your own work. Your two missions: embedding AI/ML capabilities across Tekion's products, and building applied GenAI and agentic systems that transform dealership workflows.
This is a player-coach role. We expect you to spend roughly half your time in code and architecture, and the other half managing the team, hiring, mentoring, and driving delivery. We actively use AI- powered development tools Claude, Augment, and similar as part of our daily engineering workflow, and we expect you to do the same. You should be fluent in AI-augmented development: using LLM-based coding assistants, agentic workflows, and AI-driven code review to ship faster and at higher quality. You'll report to the Director of Engineering, who operates the same way hands- on, deeply technical, and AI-native in how they build
Responsibilities
Architecture & Technical Leadership
- Design the end-to-end AI architecture for Tekion's platform: model serving, data pipelines, LLM orchestration layers, and integration patterns with existing microservices.
- Make build-vs-buy and model selection decisions (open-source vs. API-based, RAG vs. fine-tuning, agentic vs. deterministic) and own the tradeoffs.
- Write production code in critical-path areas you are the technical anchor of the team, not areviewer-only manager. Conduct deep code reviews and architecture reviews;raise the engineering bar by example, not just by mandate.
- Own technical debt prioritization and system reliability for AI components in production.
AI-Powered Product Features
- Design and ship ML/AI features embedded in Tekion's DMS, CRM, and Fixed Ops products (e.g., predictive service scheduling, intelligent parts recommendations, smart deal scoring).
- Partner with Product and Data teams to identify high-impact AI use cases and translate them into engineering roadmaps.
- Own the full lifecycle: problem framing, data strategy, model selection, integration, monitoring, and iteration.
- Leverage existing platform tools and infrastructure to accelerate development rather than building internal tooling from scratch.
Applied GenAI & Agentic Systems
- Build LLM-powered agents, RAG pipelines, and conversational AI for dealership workflows
- (service advisor copilot, F&I assistant, customer communication agents).
- Define the agentic architecture: tool-calling patterns, orchestration frameworks, memory and
- context management, guardrails, and evaluation harnesses.
- Stay current with the rapidly evolving GenAI landscape and make pragmatic build-vs-integrate decisions (open-source models, fine-tuning, API-based, hybrid).
- Design robust evaluation and observability systems for LLM-powered features to ensure accuracy, safety, and reliability in production.
Team Building & Leadership
- Take ownership of the existing AI engineering team; quickly build trust, understand current work streams, and identify gaps in capability or capacity.
- Drive targeted hiring to grow the team to 58 engineers; define roles, source candidates, and close strong AI/ML talent in a competitive market.
- Lead by doing: your commits, design docs, and technical decisions set the standard for the team.
- Provide hands-on technical mentorship through pairing, mob programming, and architecture deep-dives not just 1:1s.
- Set clear goals, run effective sprint ceremonies, and maintain delivery velocity while protecting space for research and exploration.
- Foster a culture of craftsmanship, experimentation, and demo-driven development
Qualifications:
Must Have
- 1014 years of software engineering experience, with at least 1+ year in AI/ML-focused roles
- (applied ML, NLP, or GenAI).
- Currently writing production code
- 3+ years of engineering management experience, with a track record of inheriting and growing engineering teams.
- Deep hands-on experience with LLMs in production: RAG architectures, prompt engineering at scale, agentic tool-calling, evaluation and observability.
- Strong software engineering fundamentals: system design, API design, distributed systems,
- CI/CD, and production operations.
- Track record of personally architecting and shipping AI-powered features in a product company(not just overseeing others who did).
- Excellent hiring instincts: ability to source, evaluate, and close strong AI/ML talent in a
- competitive market.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills: experience partnering closely with Product, Design,and Data teams
Nice to Have
- Experience in automotive, ERP, or complex vertical SaaS domains with messy real-world data.
- Familiarity with cloud-native, microservices-based architectures at scale.
- Contributions to open-source AI/ML projects or published research in applied AI.
- Experience with ML platform/infra: model serving, feature stores, experiment tracking, A/B testing frameworks.
- Understanding of responsible AI practices: bias detection, hallucination mitigation, data privacy,and auditability
Perks and Benefits
- Competitive compensation and stock options
- Great benefits including PTO, parental leave and free snacks and beverages.
- The opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds, a dynamic work environment with a keen sense of community and collaboration
- Be part of an early stage, hyper-growth start-up with the opportunity to grow and prosper.
- Work on the latest and coolest technologies in HR.
- Exciting opportunities for career growth and development
Tekion is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Address
Bangalore Office
Tekion India Private Limited
6th, 7th & 8th Floor, Helium, Bagmane Solarium City, Doddanekkundi Village, KR Puram Hobli, East Taluk, Bangalore - 560037
