Engineering Manager, State (Stateful Services)

We're humans who simply think computers should do more work.

At Zapier, we’re not just making software—we’re building a platform to help millions of businesses globally scale with automation and AI. Our mission is to make automation work for everyone by delivering products that delight our customers. You’ll collaborate with brilliant people, use the latest tools, and leverage the flexibility of remote work. Your work will directly fuel our customers’ success, and as they grow, so will you.

Zapier is on a mission to make automation accessible to everyone—empowering people and businesses to be more efficient and productive. With millions already benefiting from automation, we’re excited to continue expanding our product and team.

Customers trust Zapier because they know their data is safe, secure, and accessible. We’re looking for a dynamic and experienced Engineering Manager to lead our State team. This team is critical in building that trust—advising other teams on how to design stateful services, anticipating scalability challenges at the storage layer, and enabling data-informed decision-making.

This role emphasizes strategic management, database system scaling, and strong cross-functional collaboration. It requires deep technical expertise in database systems, as well as proven leadership experience to manage architectural changes and lead teams through transitions at scale.

The ideal candidate will drive initiatives to improve database performance, including strategies like migrating workloads across data stores. We're especially interested in those who have led enterprise-scale database scaling efforts.

This role is pivotal in managing all of Zapier’s data stores—including our monolith MySQL database, Postgres, ElastiCache, and Redis—and ensuring they meet the performance needs of a rapidly growing user base and business.

As an Engineering Manager, you’ll lead a team of engineers focused on building, scaling, and optimizing our data storage infrastructure. In this role, you will:

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers and SREs, fostering a collaborative, high-performance culture.

• Manage and optimize our data stores, ensuring high availability and performance across MySQL, Postgres, ElastiCache, and Redis.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align engineering efforts with business objectives.

• Drive continuous improvement in engineering and SRE practices—including code quality, testing, deployment processes, observability, and resource utilization.

• Oversee robust incident management and on-call practices to ensure system reliability and performance.

You'll collaborate with cross functional partners and various product teams to ensure our systems are reliable, scalable, and aligned with business goals.

If you're eager to lead high-impact projects at a fast-growing, profitable, and remote-first company, read on!

• Our Commitment to Applicants

• Culture and Values at Zapier

• Zapier Guide to Remote Work

• Zapier Code of Conduct

• Diversity and Inclusivity at Zapier

• Proven experience managing engineering teams, preferably in a remote environment.

• Strong background in large-scale distributed systems and data infrastructure.

• Deep understanding of database management, including MySQL, Postgres, ElastiCache, and Redis.

• Excellent leadership and communication skills, with a track record of building and leading high-performing teams.

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment while managing multiple priorities effectively.

• Lead and support the State team, ensuring they have the resources, clarity, and psychological safety to thrive. You'll invest in each team member’s growth through regular feedback, coaching, and opportunities that stretch their skills and support their long-term career goals.

• Oversee the reliable operation and thoughtful scaling of our data storage systems.

• Collaborate closely with other engineering managers and cross-functional partners to align on goals and drive improvements that matter.

• Champion best practices around reliability, performance, and security—balancing technical excellence with practical impact.

• Foster a team culture grounded in trust, continuous learning, and a growth mindset.

• Help the team plan intentionally—shaping roadmaps, organizing sprints, and removing blockers to support meaningful progress.

• Offer honest, supportive feedback and performance guidance to help team members grow while maintaining high standards.

• Work alongside Staff and Senior Engineering Managers and Directors to stay aligned on priorities and support each other in delivering great outcomes.

At Zapier, we believe that diverse perspectives and experiences make us better, which is why we have a non-standard application process designed to promote inclusion and equity. We're looking for the best fit for each of our roles, regardless of the type of companies in your background, so we encourage you to apply even if your skills and experiences don’t exactly match the job description. All we ask is that you answer a few in-depth questions in our application that would typically be asked at the start of an interview process. This helps speed things up by letting us get to know you and your skillset a bit better right out of the gate. Please be sure to answer each question; the resume and CV fields are optional.

Education is not a requirement for our roles; however, if you receive an offer, you will need to include your most recent educational experience as part of our background check process.

After you apply, you are going to hear back from us—even if we don’t see an immediate fit with our team. In fact, throughout the process, we strive to never go more than seven days without letting you know the status of your application. We know we’ll make mistakes from time to time, so if you ever have questions about where you stand or about the process, just ask your recruiter!

Zapier is an equal-opportunity employer and we're excited to work with talented and empathetic people of all identities. Zapier does not discriminate based on someone's identity in any aspect of hiring or employment as required by law and in line with our commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity. Our code of conduct provides a beacon for the kind of company we strive to be, and we celebrate our differences because those differences are what allow us to make a product that serves a global user base. Zapier will consider all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, consistent with applicable laws.

Zapier prioritizes the security of our customers' information and is dedicated to adhering to all applicable data privacy laws. You can review our privacy policy here.

Zapier is committed to inclusion. As part of this commitment, Zapier welcomes applications from individuals with disabilities and will work to provide reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodations are needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact [email protected].

The anticipated application window is 30 days from the date job is posted, unless the number of applicants requires it to close sooner or later, or if the position is filled.

Even though we’re an all-remote company, we still need to be thoughtful about where we have Zapiens working. Check out this resource for a list of countries where we currently cannot have Zapiens permanently working.

Compensation Range: $188K - $281.7K