1. What is an Engineering Manager at Hudl?

As an Engineering Manager at Hudl, you are the linchpin between technical execution and business strategy. Hudl is a global leader in sports technology, providing video analysis and data tools that help teams—from amateur high schools to elite professional clubs—make crucial decisions. In this role, you are not just managing code; you are building the teams that build the platforms empowering athletes and coaches worldwide.

Your impact spans across products, users, and internal business operations. Whether you are leading a team focused on high-scale video processing, competitive data analytics, or the internal business operations systems that keep Hudl running smoothly, your leadership directly affects the company's ability to scale. You will guide engineers through complex architectural decisions, ensure reliable delivery, and foster a healthy, inclusive remote culture.

Expect a role that balances deep technical context with high emotional intelligence. You will navigate the complexities of a highly distributed, remote-first workforce, ensuring your team remains aligned with cross-functional partners in Product, Design, and Operations. The scale is massive, the problems are complex, and your ability to lead with empathy and strategic foresight is what makes this position both challenging and deeply rewarding.

2. Common Interview Questions

Expect questions that dive deep into your past experiences. Hudl interviewers want to hear the specifics of what you did, the context of the situation, and the outcomes you achieved.

People and Team Leadership

• This category tests your empathy, your coaching frameworks, and your ability to build a healthy engineering culture.
• Walk me through your framework for conducting effective 1:1s.
• Tell me about a time you inherited a demotivated or struggling team. How did you turn it around?
• Describe a situation where you had to give difficult, critical feedback to a senior engineer.
• How do you assess and interview engineering talent to ensure both technical capability and culture fit?
• Give an example of how you have advocated for a team member's promotion or career transition.

Technical Strategy and Architecture

• These questions evaluate your ability to understand complex systems, guide technical choices, and manage infrastructure health.
• Tell me about a time you had to overrule your team on a technical decision. Why did you do it, and how did you handle the fallout?
• How do you balance the need to ship product features quickly with the necessity of maintaining robust, scalable architecture?
• Walk me through a time when a system your team owned failed in production. What was the root cause, and how did you fix the underlying process?
• Explain a complex architectural trade-off you recently had to make to a non-technical stakeholder.
• How do you track and manage technical debt within your team?

Execution and Cross-Functional Alignment

• This category focuses on your operational rigor, your relationship with Product, and your ability to deliver predictably.
• Tell me about a time you had to push back on a Product Manager regarding a deadline or feature scope.
• How do you handle shifting business priorities in the middle of a sprint or project cycle?
• Describe a project that failed to meet its objectives. What went wrong, and what did you learn?
• Give an example of how you have improved the software development lifecycle (SDLC) or agile processes for your team.
• How do you ensure your remote engineers stay aligned with the broader goals of the company?

3. Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation is about more than just reviewing your resume; it requires a strategic alignment of your past experiences with Hudl's core engineering values. Interviewers want to see how you think, how you support your people, and how you drive results in a highly collaborative environment.

Focus your preparation on these key evaluation criteria:

• People Leadership & Coaching – Hudl places a massive emphasis on team health and career growth. Interviewers evaluate your ability to mentor engineers, manage performance issues, and build psychological safety within a remote team. You can demonstrate strength here by sharing specific examples of how you have grown individual contributors into leaders.
• Technical Architecture & Strategy – While you won't be writing production code daily, you must be able to guide technical discussions. Interviewers look for your ability to evaluate architectural trade-offs, manage technical debt, and ensure systems are scalable and maintainable.
• Execution & Delivery – This measures how you turn product vision into shipped software. You will be evaluated on your mastery of agile methodologies, your approach to cross-functional alignment, and your ability to navigate shifting priorities while keeping your team focused.
• Culture & Values Alignment – Hudl is known for its low-ego, highly collaborative environment. Interviewers will assess your ability to navigate ambiguity, your willingness to roll up your sleeves, and how effectively you partner with Product and Operations stakeholders.

4. Interview Process Overview

The interview process for an Engineering Manager at Hudl is designed to be conversational, rigorous, and deeply reflective of the company's collaborative culture. You should expect a process that prioritizes your practical experience and leadership philosophy over theoretical puzzles. The pace is generally steady, with the entire timeline typically spanning three to four weeks from the initial screen to the final decision.

What makes Hudl's process distinctive is its intense focus on behavioral consistency and cross-functional empathy. You will not just speak with other engineering leaders; you will engage heavily with Product Managers, Operations partners, and the engineers who would report directly to you. The company values leaders who can bridge the gap between technical complexity and business value, so expect every round to touch upon the "why" behind your past decisions.

This visual timeline outlines the typical stages you will progress through, from the initial recruiter screen to the final onsite loops. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you are ready for technical deep-dives in the middle stages and highly behavioral, cross-functional discussions toward the end. Note that because Hudl operates with a strong remote culture, all interviews are typically conducted via video conference, requiring you to communicate clearly and build rapport through a screen.

5. Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

People Management and Team Building

• This area is critical because Hudl thrives on the strength and autonomy of its engineering teams. Interviewers want to see that you prioritize human beings over story points. Strong performance here means demonstrating a track record of hiring diverse talent, navigating difficult performance conversations, and fostering a remote-first culture where every voice is heard.
• Career Development – How you build progression plans for your engineers and support their long-term goals.
• Conflict Resolution – Your approach to de-escalating team friction and aligning differing technical opinions.
• Remote Culture Fostering – Tactics you use to maintain engagement, trust, and psychological safety in a distributed environment.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Managing out low performers, restructuring teams during organizational pivots, and handling compensation or promotion cycles.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to manage an underperforming engineer on a remote team. What steps did you take?"
• "How do you ensure your team maintains a healthy work-life balance during a high-pressure release cycle?"
• "Describe a situation where you had to mediate a deep technical disagreement between two senior engineers."

Technical Strategy and System Design

• As an Engineering Manager, you must command the respect of your engineers by understanding the systems they build. You are evaluated on your ability to guide architecture, sniff out bad design, and balance feature work with technical debt. A strong candidate speaks fluently about system constraints, data flow, and infrastructure trade-offs without getting bogged down in syntax.
• System Architecture – Designing scalable, highly available backend systems, particularly relevant for video processing or complex internal business operations.
• Technical Debt Management – How you prioritize refactoring and infrastructure upgrades against aggressive product roadmaps.
• Cross-System Integration – Ensuring seamless data flow between internal tools, third-party SaaS products, and core platforms.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Specific cloud infrastructure optimizations (AWS), microservices vs. monolith trade-offs, and data pipeline resiliency.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through the architecture of the most complex system your team recently delivered. What were the major bottlenecks?"
• "How do you decide when it is time to halt feature development to address mounting technical debt?"
• "Design a high-level architecture for a system that needs to ingest and process large volumes of competitive data in real-time."

Execution and Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Hudl relies heavily on the triad model (Engineering, Product, and Design/Ops) to drive value. This area evaluates your operational rigor and your ability to deliver predictably. Strong candidates show they can protect their team from thrash while maintaining transparent communication with stakeholders.
• Agile Delivery – Your mastery of sprint planning, velocity tracking, and continuous improvement.
• Stakeholder Management – How you negotiate scope, manage expectations, and push back on unrealistic deadlines.
• Incident Management – Your process for handling production outages, running blameless post-mortems, and implementing preventative measures.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – OKR setting, capacity planning models, and vendor/contractor management.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time when a critical project was falling behind schedule. How did you communicate this to stakeholders and course-correct?"
• "How do you align your engineering team's daily work with the broader business objectives of the company?"
• "Describe your approach to running a blameless post-mortem after a significant system failure."

6. Key Responsibilities

As an Engineering Manager at Hudl, your day-to-day work revolves around removing roadblocks, aligning priorities, and empowering your team. You will spend a significant portion of your time in 1:1s, coaching engineers, and ensuring they have the context needed to make independent decisions. You are the shield that protects the team from organizational noise, allowing them to focus on high-quality execution.

Collaboration is a massive part of the role. You will partner closely with Product Managers to define roadmaps, scope incoming initiatives, and balance technical investments with new feature requests. If you are in a specialized domain like Business Operations, you will also work heavily with internal stakeholders—such as Finance, Sales, or Support—to ensure internal systems and integrations scale alongside Hudl's global footprint.

You will drive the operational cadence of your team. This means leading agile ceremonies, refining delivery processes, and ensuring that engineering standards are upheld. You are responsible for the holistic health of the systems your team owns, meaning you will guide incident responses, advocate for necessary infrastructure upgrades, and ensure that your team's output meets Hudl's high bar for reliability and user experience.

7. Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be competitive for the Engineering Manager position at Hudl, you must bring a blend of hands-on technical background and proven leadership experience.

• Must-have skills – You need at least 2 to 3 years of direct people management experience, specifically leading software engineering teams. A strong foundation in software engineering is required, as you must be able to participate in architecture reviews and system design discussions. You must possess deep expertise in agile delivery methodologies and have a proven track record of managing remote or highly distributed teams.
• Nice-to-have skills – Experience with AWS cloud infrastructure, SaaS integrations, or large-scale data processing is highly valued. Background in sports technology, video streaming, or complex internal business operations (like ERP/CRM integrations) will set you apart. Familiarity with modern CI/CD practices and automated testing frameworks is also a strong plus.

Your soft skills are just as critical as your technical resume. Hudl requires leaders with exceptional written and verbal communication skills, high emotional intelligence, and a low-ego approach to problem-solving. You must be comfortable navigating ambiguity and leading through influence rather than sheer authority.

8. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How technical are the interviews for an Engineering Manager at Hudl? While you will not be asked to write code or solve LeetCode-style algorithmic puzzles, you will face rigorous system design and architecture discussions. You must be able to hold your own in high-level technical conversations, understand modern cloud infrastructure, and debate architectural trade-offs with senior engineers.

Q: What is the remote work culture like at Hudl? Hudl has heavily embraced a remote-first, distributed culture. Interviewers will specifically look for your ability to manage, motivate, and build trust with team members you rarely see in person. Be prepared to discuss your strategies for asynchronous communication and remote team building.

Q: What differentiates a good candidate from a great candidate? Great candidates at Hudl show a deep sense of ownership and a low-ego mindset. They don't just talk about managing processes; they talk about empowering people and driving tangible business outcomes. A great candidate seamlessly translates technical challenges into business impact and demonstrates genuine empathy for both their team and the end-user.

Q: How long does the interview process typically take? The process usually spans 3 to 4 weeks. Hudl is generally respectful of candidates' time and aims to consolidate the final rounds into a single, well-organized onsite (virtual) loop.

Q: How should I prepare for the cross-functional interviews? You will likely speak with Product Managers or Operations leaders. Focus on your ability to collaborate, communicate technical concepts simply, and negotiate scope. They are looking for a true partner, not just an order-taker or a technical gatekeeper.

9. Other General Tips

• Master the STAR Method: Hudl interviewers rely heavily on behavioral questions. Structure your answers using Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Always emphasize the "Result" and tie it back to business or team impact.
• Use "I" for actions, "We" for successes: Be specific about your individual contributions as a manager (e.g., "I implemented a new triage process"), but share the credit for the actual delivery with your team. This demonstrates the low-ego leadership Hudl values.

• Focus on the "Why": Whether discussing architecture or team structure, always be ready to explain your underlying reasoning. Hudl values leaders who make deliberate, data-informed decisions rather than those who just follow trends.

• Lean into your remote expertise: Since these roles are remote, proactively bring up your strategies for asynchronous work, documentation, and managing across different time zones.

10. Summary & Next Steps

Stepping into an Engineering Manager role at Hudl is an opportunity to lead high-performing teams at the intersection of sports, data, and technology. You will be challenged to build resilient systems, foster an inclusive remote culture, and drive operational excellence across the organization. The work you do here will directly empower teams and athletes globally, making your leadership highly visible and deeply impactful.

To succeed in these interviews, center your preparation on your real-world experiences. Reflect deeply on how you have grown engineers, navigated technical trade-offs, and partnered with product teams to deliver value. Hudl is looking for authentic, low-ego leaders who care as much about their people as they do about the code. Be confident in your leadership philosophy, speak candidly about your past failures and learnings, and demonstrate your passion for building great teams.

This compensation data provides a baseline for what you can expect regarding base pay and equity components for management roles. Keep in mind that Hudl evaluates compensation based on your specific location, experience level, and the scope of the team you will be leading. Use this information to anchor your expectations and prepare for transparent compensation discussions with your recruiter.

Your journey to joining Hudl starts with focused, deliberate preparation. Take the time to review your past projects, refine your behavioral narratives, and explore additional interview insights and resources on Dataford. You have the experience and the leadership skills required to excel—now it is time to showcase them. Good luck!