Senior Engineering Manager

About Nirvana

Nirvana is on a mission to harness the power of data to revolutionize commercial insurance and enable a safer world. We are bringing much-needed innovation into the legacy, trillion-dollar commercial insurance industry. We have developed cutting-edge predictive models that use real-time IoT data from billions of connected devices, allowing us to better understand and price risk.

Our AI-driven platform fundamentally changes the way an insurance company operates with personalized risk scoring, faster underwriting, modernized claims, and proactive, data-driven insights to help customers prevent accidents.

We've already proven the scale—reaching well over $100 million in premiums and more than doubling year over year. Our data moat is growing exponentially with more than 20 billion miles of telematics data, leading to more predictive models and new insights into how we can better understand and reduce risk.

With $170+ million raised, including an industry-leading Series C round in January 2025, we're only accelerating our growth, with strong support from top-tier VCs including Lightspeed, General Catalyst, and Valor. Nirvana's leadership team has previously helped scale multi-billion-dollar companies from scratch, including Samsara, Rubrik, and Flexport, and includes industry veterans from Hiscox, The Hartford, and RLI.

The Opportunity

We're building the next generation of insurance technology: agentic systems powered by reasoning models that can auto-resolve claims and transform underwriting. Imagine a minor car claim getting automatically resolved by an AI claims adjuster and payment posted instantly  – that's what we're building, using advanced techniques in reinforcement learning and post-training optimization to bring 10X improvements in customer experience and operational efficiency.

About the Role

As Senior Engineering Manager - AI Lead, you will be at the forefront of Nirvana's AI strategy, leading the teams responsible for both groundbreaking AI applications and the platform that enables them. You will own:

• AI Frontier Team: Lead the team tackling the most challenging problems in insurance through cutting-edge AI. This includes developing sophisticated agentic systems, leveraging advanced reasoning models, and applying novel techniques to domains like claims and underwriting automation. You'll drive the 0-to-1 development of AI solutions that redefine industry standards.

• AI Platform Team: Build and scale the core AI/ML platform that empowers engineering and data science teams across Nirvana. This involves creating robust infrastructure for training, fine-tuning, evaluating, and deploying large language models (LLMs), reasoning engines, and other generative AI systems. You'll focus on enabling rapid experimentation, efficient model serving, and seamless integration of AI capabilities into our products.

You'll collaborate closely with our Data Science, Product, Business, and broader engineering teams to translate our vast data assets and AI capabilities into tangible competitive advantages that directly impact our growth trajectory and operational efficiency.

About You

You are a strategic thinker and technical leader passionate about applying advanced AI to solve complex, real-world problems. You can architect, design, and lead the implementation of innovative AI solutions that drive significant business value. Comfortable with ambiguity, you excel at navigating the frontiers of AI capabilities and translating cutting-edge techniques into practical applications.

Your ability to delve deeply into technical details (from model architecture to MLOps) while maintaining a clear vision of the broader AI strategy inspires your teams. With a proven track record in delivering complex AI/ML projects, you excel at leading engineering efforts and fostering collaboration between research, engineering, and product.

You have a keen eye for talent and strong hiring capabilities, able to attract, mentor, and retain AI/ML engineers in a competitive market. Your excellent organizational skills allow you to manage multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously while maintaining focus on team development and strategic outcomes.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in software development, with significant experience in AI/ML systems.

• 3+ years managing engineering teams, preferably focused on AI/ML.

• Deep expertise in designing, building, and deploying machine learning models and systems in production.

• Strong background in AI/ML infrastructure, MLOps, and modern AI tooling (e.g., LLMs, eval platforms, inference optimization).

• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and leveraging cloud services for AI workloads.

• Proficiency in relevant programming languages (e.g., Python) and ML libraries/frameworks.

• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional AI projects from conception to deployment.

Preferred Skills

• Hands-on experience with generative AI, LLMs, and agentic systems

• Experience building and scaling ML platforms.

• Experience with AI model optimization, serving infrastructure, and observability for AI systems.

• Familiarity with data engineering pipelines and large-scale data processing.

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, or a related field.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation & meaningful equity

• Health insurance for you and your family

• Monthly wellness stipend

• Hybrid work culture

• Flexible vacation policy

• Autonomy to make a tangible impact in a fast-growing startup

• #LI-Hybrid

We set our salary ranges using compensation data from companies similar to our stage and size. For this role, the estimated salary range for this position is $231,000 - $266,000. The actual base salary will vary depending on multiple factors unique to each candidate, including location, job-related knowledge, transferable skills, work experience and our assessment of your level during the interview process. Nirvana offers equity for all full-time employees, which is not included in the range listed above and will have an impact on your overall compensation.

Nirvana offers a wide range of best-in-class, comprehensive benefits including 100% employer paid healthcare plans, an up to 4% 401k match program, paid time off, parental leave, wellness reimbursement, work-from-home stipend and more.Nirvana is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you’re interested in this role, but do not meet 100% of the qualifications listed above, we encourage you to apply. We'd like to consider you for this position and roles that may be a fit in the future.

Nirvana is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetics or any other basis forbidden under federal, state, or local law. Nirvana considers all qualified applicants in accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.