1. What is an Engineering Manager at AvidXchange?

As an Engineering Manager at AvidXchange, you are at the forefront of transforming how middle-market companies manage their accounts payable and B2B payments. This role is not just about overseeing a team of developers; it is about driving the technical execution and strategic vision of products that process billions of dollars in transactions annually. You will operate at the intersection of technology, business strategy, and people leadership, ensuring your team delivers scalable, secure, and highly reliable financial software.

Your impact in this position will be felt across the entire organization. You will guide engineering squads through complex technical challenges, balancing the fluid nature of a high-growth fintech business with the rigorous demands of enterprise-grade security and performance. By fostering a culture of ownership and continuous improvement, you directly influence the quality of the software that our clients rely on to run their daily financial operations.

What makes this role particularly exciting is the blend of technical depth and human connection. You will not only shape the architecture and delivery pipelines but also mentor the next generation of engineering talent. At AvidXchange, we value leaders who are adaptable, deeply invested in their team's success, and capable of navigating shifting priorities with confidence and clarity.

2. Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation is the key to navigating the AvidXchange interview process successfully. We evaluate candidates holistically, looking beyond technical credentials to understand how you lead, how you adapt to change, and how you collaborate across functions. As you prepare, focus on demonstrating your proficiency in the following core evaluation criteria:

Leadership and People Development At AvidXchange, a strong engineering team is built on trust, mentorship, and clear communication. Interviewers will assess your ability to coach engineers, manage performance, and build a cohesive, motivated squad. You can demonstrate strength here by sharing specific examples of how you have grown talent, resolved team conflicts, and fostered an inclusive engineering culture.

Technical Delivery and Execution You are expected to guide your team in delivering high-quality software predictably and efficiently. This criterion evaluates your grasp of agile methodologies, technical debt management, and software development lifecycles. Show your strength by discussing how you balance rapid feature delivery with long-term architectural health, especially within a fluid, fast-paced business environment.

Problem-Solving and Adaptability The fintech landscape evolves rapidly, and our priorities can shift to meet new market demands. We look for managers who remain composed and strategic when faced with ambiguity. You can highlight your capability here by detailing past experiences where you successfully pivoted team priorities or solved complex, unexpected technical roadblocks without losing momentum.

Cross-Functional Collaboration You will regularly interface with product managers, business development managers (BDMs), and senior leadership. Interviewers will evaluate your communication skills and your ability to translate business requirements into technical execution. Prove your aptitude by explaining how you align engineering goals with broader company objectives and manage stakeholder expectations effectively.

3. Interview Process Overview

The interview process for an Engineering Manager at AvidXchange is designed to be thorough yet highly conversational and engaging. Candidates consistently report a positive, collaborative experience that moves at a brisk pace—often concluding within one to three weeks. Our goal is to ensure mutual fit; we want to get to know your leadership style, and we want you to fully understand the expectations and culture of the team you will be leading.

You will typically progress through a streamlined three-step process. It begins with an informative phone screen with a recruiter who will keep you well-updated throughout your journey. This is followed by a core panel interview via Microsoft Teams, where you will speak with two to three individuals, including your prospective manager and cross-functional peers. The discussions here are standard but deeply focused on behavioral scenarios and your approach to engineering leadership.

The final stage is uniquely tailored to give you a realistic preview of the role. You will meet with a senior leader to discuss strategic alignment, and you may also participate in a specialized one-hour shadow session with a prospective team member. This shadow session is a hallmark of our process, offering you an invaluable, transparent look into the day-to-day dynamics of the team before an offer is made.

This visual timeline outlines the typical progression from your initial recruiter screen to your final leadership and shadow sessions. Use this module to pace your preparation, focusing first on high-level leadership narratives for the initial rounds, and saving your deep-dive, team-specific questions for the final shadow session. Keep in mind that while the steps are structured, the conversations will feel fluid and relationship-driven.

4. Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed in your interviews, you must be prepared to speak deeply about your experiences across several key domains. Our interviewers use a mix of behavioral and situational questions to gauge how you would handle the realities of the Engineering Manager role at AvidXchange.

Leadership and Team Dynamics

Your ability to lead people is paramount. We want to know how you build trust, handle underperformance, and motivate a team during high-pressure sprints. Strong performance in this area means providing concrete examples of your management philosophy in action, focusing on empathy, accountability, and growth.

Be ready to go over:

• Performance Management – How you conduct 1-on-1s, deliver constructive feedback, and handle underperforming team members.
• Team Building – Strategies for hiring, onboarding, and retaining top engineering talent.
• Conflict Resolution – Navigating disagreements between engineers or between engineering and product teams.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Strategies for managing remote or distributed teams, handling compensation discussions, and designing career progression frameworks.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to manage an underperforming engineer. What steps did you take, and what was the outcome?"
• "Describe a situation where your team was facing burnout. How did you intervene and support them?"
• "How do you balance the need for delivering business features with allowing your team time to innovate or refactor?"

Technical Strategy and Delivery

While you may not be writing code every day, you must possess the technical acumen to guide architectural decisions and ensure reliable delivery. Interviewers will look for your ability to manage the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and uphold engineering standards within a B2B SaaS environment.

Be ready to go over:

• Agile Methodologies – Your approach to sprint planning, backlog grooming, and velocity tracking.
• Technical Debt Management – How you advocate for technical investments alongside product features.
• Incident Management – Your role during critical system outages and how you conduct post-mortems.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Cloud infrastructure scaling (Azure), CI/CD pipeline optimization, and compliance/security standards in fintech.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through a time when a critical project was falling behind schedule. How did you adjust your execution plan?"
• "How do you ensure your team maintains high code quality while meeting aggressive deadlines?"
• "Describe a technical disagreement within your team regarding architecture. How did you guide them to a consensus?"

Cross-Functional Communication

An Engineering Manager does not operate in a silo. You will partner closely with product management, business development, and senior leadership. We evaluate your ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and negotiate project scopes effectively.

Be ready to go over:

• Stakeholder Management – Keeping leadership informed of progress, risks, and blockers.
• Product Alignment – Partnering with Product Managers to define realistic roadmaps and MVPs.
• Resource Allocation – Pushing back on unrealistic deadlines while maintaining positive relationships.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Managing vendor relationships or integrating third-party APIs into core products.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to push back on a feature request from a senior stakeholder. How did you handle the conversation?"
• "How do you work with Product Management to prioritize technical debt against new feature development?"
• "Give an example of a time when requirements were highly ambiguous. How did you lead your team to clarity?"

5. Key Responsibilities

As an Engineering Manager, your day-to-day responsibilities are centered around empowering your team to deliver exceptional software. You will spend a significant portion of your time conducting one-on-one meetings, mentoring engineers, and removing blockers that impede their progress. You are the operational bridge between high-level business strategy and ground-level technical execution.

You will collaborate heavily with Product Managers to refine roadmaps, ensuring that engineering capacity is accurately represented and that technical debt is appropriately prioritized. You will lead agile ceremonies, track delivery metrics, and ensure that your squad adheres to best practices in coding, testing, and deployment. Because the nature of our business is fluid, you will frequently recalibrate priorities, requiring you to communicate changes clearly and keep team morale high.

Beyond team management, you will also play a key role in broader engineering initiatives. This includes participating in architectural reviews, driving hiring efforts to scale the engineering organization, and working with other managers to establish unified engineering standards across AvidXchange.

6. Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be a competitive candidate for this position, you need a strong blend of technical background, management experience, and interpersonal skills. We look for leaders who have "walked the walk" as engineers before stepping into management.

• Must-have skills – Proven experience managing software engineering teams (typically 2+ years of direct people management). A strong background in modern software development, agile methodologies, and SDLC management. Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders.
• Nice-to-have skills – Prior experience in the fintech, payments, or B2B SaaS industries. Familiarity with the Microsoft technology stack (C#, .NET, Azure) or similar enterprise cloud environments. Experience scaling teams during periods of rapid organizational growth.
• Experience level – Typically 5 to 8+ years of total software engineering experience, with a demonstrated progression into leadership roles.

7. Common Interview Questions

While the interview process is conversational, you will face standard behavioral and situational questions designed to test your leadership and delivery capabilities. Do not memorize answers; instead, use these examples to prepare flexible, STAR-method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) narratives.

Leadership & People Management

These questions test your emotional intelligence, coaching abilities, and how you build team culture.

• Tell me about the most difficult personnel decision you have had to make as a manager.
• How do you tailor your management style for a junior developer versus a senior architect?
• Describe a time when you successfully motivated a team that was suffering from low morale.
• How do you handle a situation where an engineer is technically brilliant but disruptive to team culture?
• Walk me through your process for setting goals and evaluating the performance of your direct reports.

Delivery & Execution

These questions assess your ability to manage projects, handle shifting priorities, and deliver results.

• Tell me about a time a project you were leading failed. What did you learn?
• How do you manage changing requirements from the business in the middle of a sprint?
• Describe your approach to measuring the success and productivity of your engineering team.
• What is your strategy for balancing the delivery of new features with the need to pay down technical debt?
• Give an example of how you identified a bottleneck in your team's development process and resolved it.

Cross-Functional & Stakeholder Collaboration

These questions evaluate your communication skills and your ability to partner with the wider business.

• Tell me about a time you disagreed with a Product Manager on the direction of a feature. How was it resolved?
• How do you communicate a significant technical delay to non-technical executive leadership?
• Describe a situation where you had to influence a peer or stakeholder over whom you had no direct authority.
• How do you ensure your engineering team understands the business value of the features they are building?
• Tell me about a time you had to secure buy-in for a major technical investment.

8. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How long does the entire interview process usually take? The process at AvidXchange moves relatively quickly. Most candidates complete all three steps—from the initial recruiter screen to the final leadership interview—within one to three weeks. Our recruiters are known for being highly communicative and keeping candidates in the loop.

Q: What is the "shadow session" mentioned in the interview process? The shadow session is a unique, one-hour meeting where you sit down with someone who would be on your future team or a peer manager. It is a highly informative, two-way conversation designed to give you a transparent look at the day-to-day realities of the role, the team's current challenges, and the working culture.

Q: How technical are the interviews for an Engineering Manager? While you will not be asked to write code on a whiteboard, you must demonstrate strong technical acumen. Interviewers will assess your ability to guide architectural discussions, manage technical debt, and understand the complexities of building scalable B2B software. You need to prove you can earn the technical respect of your team.

Q: What is the culture like for engineering leaders at AvidXchange? The culture is collaborative, fast-paced, and fluid. The business environment can shift, requiring leaders to be highly adaptable. However, management is solid and supportive. Leaders are expected to be empathetic, transparent, and focused on both delivering business value and developing their people.

9. Other General Tips

• Embrace the Conversational Style: Candidates frequently note that the interviews feel like genuine conversations rather than interrogations. Approach the interviews as collaborative discussions. Be authentic, listen actively, and do not be afraid to admit what you do not know.
• Prepare for Fluidity: The fintech space is dynamic, and AvidXchange is no exception. Highlight past experiences where you successfully navigated ambiguity, adapted to changing business requirements, and kept your team focused amidst shifting priorities.

• Quantify Your Impact: When using the STAR method to answer behavioral questions, always conclude with measurable results. Whether it is a reduction in bug rates, an increase in deployment frequency, or a successful retention metric, data validates your leadership effectiveness.

• Show Business Empathy: Demonstrate that you understand engineering does not exist in a vacuum. Speak to how you align technical decisions with business outcomes, customer needs, and financial realities.

10. Summary & Next Steps

Stepping into an Engineering Manager role at AvidXchange is an opportunity to lead impactful teams at a company that is fundamentally changing the B2B payments landscape. You will be challenged to balance technical excellence with empathetic people leadership, all while navigating a fast-paced and fluid business environment. The interview process is designed to be a two-way street, giving you ample opportunity to assess the team just as much as they are assessing you.

As you finalize your preparation, focus heavily on your behavioral narratives. Ensure you have clear, structured examples that highlight your ability to manage performance, drive agile delivery, and collaborate seamlessly with product and business stakeholders. Remember to approach the conversations with authenticity and curiosity, particularly during the shadow session.

This salary module provides insight into the compensation bands for Engineering Managers at AvidXchange, including base pay, bonuses, and equity components. Use this data to set realistic expectations and negotiate confidently when the time comes, keeping in mind that final offers will vary based on your specific experience level and location.

You have the leadership experience and the technical foundation required to excel in this process. Take the time to refine your stories, review the core evaluation areas, and explore additional interview insights and resources on Dataford. Walk into your interviews with confidence—you are well-equipped to show AvidXchange the value you will bring to their engineering organization.