Company Description

Trupanion is a leading provider of medical insurance for cats and dogs across North America. Our mission is to help caring pet owners plan and budget for their pets’ medical needs. We offer a collaborative, casual, and pet-friendly environment where engineers are empowered to build reliable, mission-critical systems at scale.

*This position is open to candidates in the Seattle, WA area. You will have a hybrid remote/in-office schedule where you will work from our casual, pet-friendly office at least 3 days a week.*

Job Description

We are seeking a highly hands-on Software Engineering Manager to lead teams responsible for building, operating, and evolving mission-critical platforms. This role is ideal for a leader who remains deeply technical, actively contributes to architecture and code, and takes ownership of production outcomes.

This is not a purely managerial role. Success requires strong technical judgment, direct involvement in engineering execution, and a passion for building resilient systems while developing high-performing technical teams.

Key Responsibilities:

Hands-On Technical Leadership:

Serve as a hands-on technical leader, actively contributing to system design, architecture, code reviews, and implementation
Bring deep expertise in C#, .NET Framework, and .NET Core, applying best practices directly to production systems
Drive an AI-forward engineering culture, bringing demonstrated experience with AI tools such as Codex or Claude Code to improve developer efficiency and throughput
Apply SOLID principles, object-oriented design, and established design patterns to build maintainable, scalable software
Lead development of RESTful APIs and backend services
Guide teams in effective use of asynchronous programming patterns (async/await) and distributed processing
Leverage AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Codex, Copilot) to improve personal effectiveness and evangelize responsible usage across teams
Partner with senior engineers and architects to evolve systems while maintaining stability and operational excellence

Production Ownership & Incident Management:

Own the health, reliability, and operational readiness of production systems
Lead and personally contribute to production incident resolution, including hands-on debugging
Drive structured incident response, root cause analysis, and preventative actions
Establish and maintain monitoring, alerting, and observability practices using DataDog
Ensure teams are prepared for on-call rotations and production support responsibilities

Execution & Delivery:

Ensure work is well-scoped, well-designed, and delivered predictably
Hold teams accountable for quality, test coverage, and long-term maintainability
Ensure unit testing practices using MSTest and Moq are consistently followed
Drive a shift-left mindset, encouraging quality, security, and operational thinking early in development
Promote continuous improvement through innovation, experimentation, and adoption of new technologies (including AI)

Best Practices, Standards & Compliance:

Define and enforce coding standards and software development best practices
Ensure compliance with relevant security and regulatory frameworks (e.g., ISO, SOX, PCI DSS)
Stay current on evolving software, security, and data protection trends
Champion secure coding practices and operational excellence

Cross-Team Collaboration & Leadership:

Work effectively with engineering, product, operations, and business stakeholders
Navigate competing priorities and align teams toward clear technical outcomes
Influence through credibility, clarity, and technical leadership
Communicate technical risks, trade-offs, and production impacts clearly to leadership

Talent Leadership & Mentorship:

Recruit, hire, and retain high-performing engineers
Personally assess technical depth, problem solving, and ownership during interviews
Build a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous learning
Mentor engineers at all levels with strong emphasis on technical growth and system thinking
Develop senior engineers into future technical leaders

Qualifications:

Required:

3+ years as a Software Engineering Manager or Tech Lead with hands-on responsibilities
Strong expertise in C# / .NET, including .NET Framework and .NET Core
Solid understanding and applied experience with SOLID principles, Object-oriented design & design patterns, REST APIs, SQL and relational database design
Experience building and maintaining unit tests using MSTest and Moq
Experience with Azure DevOps for CI/CD
Production monitoring and alerting experience using DataDog
Strong system design and troubleshooting skills in live production environments
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Comfortable handling performance management, including difficult conversations when necessary
Experience working with Agile development methodologies

Strongly Preferred:

Experience with RabbitMQ or similar message-driven systems
Strong background in Azure, including: SQL Azure, Azure Web Apps / Services, Azure Service Bus
Nice to Have
Experience with containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes)
Some experience with JavaScript, Angular, and TypeScript
Exposure to or integration experience with marketing platforms such as Marketo
Experience in regulated or mission-critical domains such as insurance or financial services

Compensation: 

The base salary range for this position is $155,000,000 -$160,000, on a full-time schedule. 
Along with base salary, Trupanion employees may be eligible for monthly bonuses. 
We want all employees to be invested in Trupanion’s success, so we grant Restricted Stock Units to all new team members. Our new hire grants vest over 4 years.

Additional Information

Benefits and Perks:

Full medical, dental, and vision benefits at no cost to the employee
Four weeks of paid time off and 9 paid float holidays (you can decide which days are most important to you!)
Five-week sabbatical after five years of employment
Open, casual, pet-friendly, and fun office environment
Free medical health insurance for your pet (1 dog or cat)
Paid time off to volunteer at nonprofit organizations
Seattle Office Amenities: Free on-site gym, free dog walking services for office pets during business hours, free parking, and paid ORCA cards.

For more information about Trupanion, visit https://trupanion.com/about

Learn more about how Trupanion has revolutionized our industry and the reimbursement model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdWZ4KHiPTQ

Trupanion is an equal-opportunity employer and embraces diversity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, abilities, perspectives, and skills.

We will ensure that individuals are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodations.

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