Engineering Manager

About Ortho2 

Ortho2 is the industry leader in orthodontic practice management software, serving thousands of practices that depend on our platform for their day-to-day success. We’re a small, close-knit company where engaged employees are the foundation of everything we do. Our atmosphere is laid back, roles are flexible, and ownership is readily available. 

About the role 

This is a relatively new position, which means you won’t inherit a playbook. You’ll help define the role as you grow into it. 

As Engineering Manager, you’ll lead a ~10-person team of Software Developers, Senior Engineers, and a UI/UX. We have additional positions to fill, so you’ll likely be shaping the team from your first weeks. You’ll own their growth, their performance, and the health of how they work. This is a hands-on role. You’ll be in design discussions regularly, and technical credibility with senior engineers is a core requirement, not a nice-to-have. 

The VP of Development will drive architecture and technical strategy. You own the team that executes it, and the partnership between those two seats is the backbone of this job. 

What you’ll do 

• Lead, coach, and grow the development team: 1:1s, growth plans, performance management, and hiring 

• Stay hands-on: participate in architecture discussions, review code, and occasionally deploy 

• Own team capability: honestly assess skills against where our platform is heading, invest heavily in developing people, and make the hard calls when investment isn’t working, including hiring the engineers the platform needs 

• Champion modern engineering practice: strong review culture, a real quality bar, and AI-assisted development as a first-class part of how the team works 

• Keep delivery healthy with lightweight, adaptive process; fit the process to the team and the moment, not the other way around 

• Occasionally represent engineering in technical conversations with vendors and enterprise customers 

Our environment 

Our cloud platform has been actively developed for over 20 years. A large share of functionality still lives in .NET Framework, WPF, and WCF, and we’re migrating side-by-side to modern .NET microservices, React and SvelteKit web apps, and Kubernetes on Azure. You’d lead a team that works across that entire spectrum. Legacy and greenfield in the same week, sometimes the same day. 

We’re small, so everyone wears multiple hats and roles flex with the need. Priorities shift with customer dynamics. If you thrive on structure someone else defined, rigid ceremonies, strict processes, tightly bounded roles - you will not enjoy this job. If ambiguity reads as freedom to you, you will. 

What we’re looking for 

• 8+ years building software, with meaningful depth in .NET and React a plus. Recent enough hands-on work to earn the respect of senior engineers in a code review 

• 3+ years managing software engineers, including real hiring and performance-management outcomes 

• A track record of raising a team’s productivity bar. Coaching people to new skill levels, and when necessary, managing people out with honesty and dignity 

• Comfort operating without a playbook: adapting process, priorities, and your own role as needs change 

• Fluency with AI-assisted development and what it changes about how teams work 

Bonus points for 

• Modernizing a long-lived product while it stayed in production 

• Multi-tenant B2B SaaS experience 

• Leading a team’s adoption of AI development tooling 

• Experience partnering closely with UI/UX designers 

• WPF or desktop application background 

We don’t require specific degrees, certifications, or agile credentials. We’d rather hear about what your teams shipped and who you grew. 

What we offer 

• A flexible work arrangement.  Fully remote or in-person/hybrid based out of our Ames, IA office.
• Competitive salary and opportunity for bonuses
• Health benefits package (medical, dental, vision)
• Life and disability coverage
• EAP services
• 401k with company match
• PTO and volunteer time off

If this sounds like the kind of role you’d help build rather than fill, we want to talk.