Application Guide
How to Apply for Engineering Manager
at Overstory
🏢 About Overstory
Overstory uses real-time satellite data to combat climate change by reducing wildfire risk and improving grid reliability. This mission-driven company offers the unique opportunity to apply engineering leadership skills toward solving urgent environmental problems. Working here means contributing directly to technology that protects communities and ecosystems from climate disasters.
About This Role
As Engineering Manager at Overstory, you'll lead web engineering teams to ship high-quality products daily while fostering an inclusive, caring culture. This role is impactful because you'll directly enable teams that build the satellite data platform helping prevent wildfires and ensure grid stability. You'll balance technical architecture decisions with people leadership to support both immediate product delivery and longer-term climate goals.
💡 A Day in the Life
A typical day involves morning check-ins with web engineering teams to unblock immediate product delivery, followed by architecture discussions to ensure solutions support longer-term climate goals. You might conduct 1:1 coaching sessions with engineers, collaborate with product leaders on strategy, and interview candidates to grow the team while maintaining an inclusive culture. The day balances technical decisions with people leadership, all focused on enabling teams that prevent wildfires through satellite data.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Overstory Is Looking For
- Has 2+ years managing engineers across multiple teams in high-growth scaleup environments, ideally in climate tech or mission-driven organizations
- Demonstrates hands-on experience with Overstory's tech stack: React/TypeScript for frontend, Python/fastAPI for backend, Postgres DB, and data pipelines
- Shows genuine passion for climate solutions through previous work, projects, or advocacy, not just general environmental interest
- Balances strong technical architecture skills with exceptional people leadership, evidenced by specific examples of mentoring engineers and building inclusive teams
📝 Tips for Applying to Overstory
Quantify your impact managing multiple teams in scaleup environments - include metrics like team growth, productivity improvements, or deployment frequency increases
Explicitly connect your technical experience to Overstory's stack: mention specific projects using React/TypeScript, Python/fastAPI, Postgres, or data pipelines
Demonstrate climate passion concretely - reference Overstory's wildfire/grid focus and how your experience aligns with their mission
Highlight cross-functional collaboration examples with product/other leaders, showing how you've worked on strategy beyond just engineering
Include specific examples of creating inclusive cultures where team members thrived, not just generic diversity statements
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
["Your experience managing engineers in high-growth environments and how it prepares you for Overstory's scaleup context", 'Specific examples of enabling teams to ship quality products daily while maintaining sustainable engineering practices', 'How your technical background with their stack (React/TypeScript, Python/fastAPI, Postgres, data pipelines) supports architecture decisions', 'Your genuine motivation for applying climate-focused engineering leadership to wildfire prevention and grid reliability']
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Overstory's specific wildfire prevention and grid reliability use cases - understand their satellite data applications
- → Their engineering blog or tech talks to grasp their current technical challenges and stack implementation
- → Recent news about their funding rounds, partnerships, or product launches to understand growth trajectory
- → Their team culture through employee reviews or social media to align with their inclusive, caring environment
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Focusing only on management experience without demonstrating hands-on knowledge of their specific tech stack
- Treating climate passion as a checkbox rather than showing genuine understanding of wildfire/grid challenges
- Emphasizing process over outcomes - Overstory values shipping daily, so avoid overly bureaucratic approaches
📅 Application Timeline
This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!