People Management & Team Leadership

At Navan, engineering managers are expected to be empathetic leaders who can build cohesive, high-performing teams. This evaluation area focuses on your ability to recruit talent, develop engineers, manage performance, and resolve conflicts.

Be ready to go over:

• Performance Management – Setting clear expectations, delivering constructive feedback, and designing performance improvement plans (PIPs).
• Career Development – Mentoring junior and senior engineers, identifying growth opportunities, and preparing team members for promotions.
• Conflict Resolution – Navigating disagreements within the team or with external stakeholders while maintaining a collaborative environment.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Scaling engineering organizations, managing managers, and building distributed or remote-first team cultures.

Example scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to deliver difficult, critical feedback to a senior engineer who was missing deadlines but technically gifted."
• "Describe how you managed a team through a significant organizational restructure or sudden change in product direction."

Product & Execution Strategy

An Engineering Manager must partner effectively with product management to define roadmaps and execute projects efficiently. This area evaluates how you translate product requirements into technical execution plans, manage risk, and ensure high-quality delivery.

Be ready to go over:

• Agile Methodologies – Sprint planning, backlog grooming, retrospectives, and optimizing team velocity.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration – Working with Product, Design, QA, and Support teams to align goals and manage dependencies.
• Technical Debt vs. Features – Frameworks for prioritizing engineering health alongside product feature delivery.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Launching large-scale platform migrations with zero downtime and managing complex third-party vendor integrations.

Example scenarios:

• "How do you handle a situation where the product roadmap requires a feature that your team's current architecture cannot support without a major rewrite?"
• "Describe a time when you had to make a tough trade-off between shipping a product on time with known bugs versus delaying the launch to ensure quality."

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The day-to-day responsibilities of an Engineering Manager at Navan center around three main pillars: people, technology, and delivery. You will lead a team of talented software engineers, guiding their professional development while ensuring they remain motivated and aligned with the company’s mission. You will conduct regular one-on-ones, provide actionable feedback, and help define clear career paths for your team members.

From a technical perspective, you will oversee the architectural integrity and code quality of your team's deliverables. While you may not write code daily, you will actively participate in design reviews, help unblock technical challenges, and ensure your team adheres to engineering best practices. You will work closely with staff engineers and architects to ensure the systems your team builds are scalable, secure, and maintainable.

On the execution front, you will partner with Product Managers and Program Managers to plan sprints, manage dependencies, and deliver key features. You will be responsible for setting realistic timelines, mitigating risks, and maintaining a high level of operational excellence. Additionally, you will play a key role in recruiting and interviewing to help scale the engineering organization with top-tier talent.

To be competitive for the Engineering Manager position at Navan, you should possess a strong foundation in software engineering combined with proven leadership experience in a fast-paced environment.

• Must-have skills & qualifications:

  • Technical Background – A strong foundation in computer science fundamentals, distributed systems, and modern software development practices.
  • Leadership Experience – At least 3+ years of experience directly managing software engineering teams, including hiring, mentoring, and performance management.
  • Delivery Track Record – Proven experience delivering complex, highly scalable software products using agile methodologies.
  • Communication Skills – Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

• Nice-to-have skills & qualifications:

  • Industry Domain Knowledge – Prior experience in travel technology, fintech, corporate expense management, or transactional SaaS platforms.
  • Global Team Management – Experience managing distributed or remote teams across different time zones and cultures.
  • Scale Experience – Experience working in high-growth startups or mid-sized companies undergoing rapid scaling phases.

Q: What is the typical timeline for the Navan Engineering Manager interview process? A: The entire process generally takes between 3 to 5 weeks, depending on candidate availability and scheduling coordination across global offices. Be proactive in communicating your availability to keep the process moving smoothly.

Q: How technical are the interviews for Engineering Managers? A: You will face a dedicated system design interview. While you are generally not required to write production code during the interview, you must demonstrate strong technical architecture instincts, a deep understanding of distributed systems, and the ability to lead deep technical discussions.

Q: How does Navan view remote work and office expectations for this role? A: Navan values collaboration and often operates on a hybrid model, depending on the specific location and team structure. It is highly recommended to clarify the specific office presence expectations with your recruiter during your initial call.

Q: What is the most common reason candidates do not pass the interview? A: Candidates often struggle when they fail to balance technical depth with people leadership. Showing too much focus on coding without demonstrating strong team building, mentorship, and product execution frameworks can be a red flag, as can the reverse.

• Structure your behavioral answers: Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for all leadership and behavioral questions. Be specific about your personal actions and the quantifiable impact of those actions on the team and business.
• Emphasize collaboration and alignment: Show how you build strong relationships with product managers, designers, and other engineering teams. Navan values cross-functional execution and a unified approach to solving customer problems.

• Showcase your adaptability: Highlight experiences where you successfully navigated ambiguity, managed changing requirements, or led teams through organizational transitions.
• Prepare thoughtful questions: At the end of each interview, ask insightful questions about the team's current technical challenges, product roadmap, and engineering culture. This demonstrates your genuine interest and strategic thinking.

The Engineering Manager role at Navan offers a unique opportunity to lead high-performing teams and build scalable systems at the intersection of travel technology and fintech. By driving technical excellence and fostering a collaborative team culture, you will play a critical role in shaping the future of corporate travel and expense management.

To maximize your performance, focus your preparation on system design fundamentals, structured behavioral examples of your leadership experiences, and your frameworks for project delivery. Approach the interview process with a proactive, adaptable, and collaborative mindset.

For additional resources, practice questions, and detailed candidate insights, you can explore further preparation materials on Dataford.

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The compensation data above reflects the competitive salary structures offered at Navan for engineering leadership roles. When preparing your final expectations, consider how your specific experience in distributed systems, global team management, and transactional platforms aligns with the value you will bring to the organization.