Engineering Manager - Wireless Network

Job description

ABOUT HALTER At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers and graziers to run the most productive and sustainable operations. Our customers are using Halter to break free from the time-intensive constraints of conventional practices. Imagine watching 500 cattle stand up and walk calmly towards their next break? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a group of cattle walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing grazing with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry. People join Halter to do meaningful work. By joining us you’ll be solving challenging problems within a talented team and a culture built for high performance. Our team out-think, out-work and out-care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world - this isn’t easy, and in truth, we love that it’s hard. We’re backed to deliver on a mission that matters by Tier 1 investors including Founders Fund https://foundersfund.com, Bessemer Venture Partners https://www.bvp.com/, BOND, https://www.bondcap.com/ DCVC https://www.dcvc.com/, Blackbird https://www.blackbird.vc/, Promus Ventures https://www.promusventures.com/, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse ventures https://www.icehouseventures.co.nz/?utm_term=icehouse%20ventures&utm_campaign=Brand+Keywords&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=4064636360&hsa_cam=16902737884&hsa_grp=134004309485&hsa_ad=592971340272&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-1082530126230&hsa_kw=icehouse%20ventures&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2v-gBhC1ARIsAOQdKY0J0DepRVFDmjQlAkJPbZuQnLSA5UVzUzOXYiPxkjX-SeVa513_BhkaAr-MEALw_wcB. To find out more, visit our LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/halter-limited & Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lifeathalter/. ABOUT THE ROLE We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead our wireless network engineering team - the team that keeps one of the world's largest private IoT networks connected. Over a million devices across New Zealand, Australia, the US and Canada, spanning LoRa, cellular, and satellite direct-to-device, running on remote infrastructure in some of the hardest terrain there is. This isn't a pure delivery or pure people role. You'll be in the work: shaping the network architecture, weighing in on spectrum strategy and link budgets, reviewing the automation that runs our tower fleet, and helping your team do the best work of their careers. You'll need to hold the technical bar high while creating the space for others to grow. We're solving connectivity problems that haven't been solved before - keeping livestock connected hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town, where there's often no coverage at all. It's a role that demands absolute ownership: someone who can take a blurry problem, create clarity, and lead a team to nail it. THE KIND OF PROBLEMS YOUR TEAM SOLVES Halter is one system: hardware, software, and AI, running live on real farms. The wireless network team owns the connectivity layer everything else depends on: - Keeping over a million collars connected across LoRa, cellular, and satellite direct-to-device - in valleys, over ridgelines, and far beyond the edge of conventional coverage. - Planning coverage with real RF engineering: link budgets, path loss modelling, antenna selection, and spectrum strategy across multiple regulatory regimes. - Running a fleet of thousands of remote towers with zero-touch provisioning, configuration automation, and remote diagnostics - a truck roll to a hill-country site is expensive, so software has to do the work. - Squeezing every byte: our devices are power and bandwidth constrained, so protocol efficiency and data optimisation directly shape the product. - Making network health visible - turning telemetry from millions of radio links into signals engineers and field teams can act on. Every team here ships systems that have to work in a paddock, not just a browser tab. As an engineering manager at Halter, you're in the work, not above it: coaching engineers, shaping the technical bets, and staying hands-on. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Lead a team of wireless network engineers - supporting their growth, giving great feedback, running performance conversations, and helping them focus on what matters. - Own the technical direction and delivery of the network: architecture, reliability, and scalability across collar-to-tower-to-cloud connectivity. - Stay close to the technical details - spectrum allocation and compliance, LoRa and cellular behaviour, tower infrastructure, fleet configuration automation, and the software tooling that ties it together - and bring a strong point of view. - Own network reliability outcomes: uptime, incident response, and the on-call practices that keep a 24/7 physical network healthy without burning the team out. - Drive tower deployment and coverage strategy as we scale into new regions - site selection, RF planning, and delivery of critical infrastructure. - Hire and grow the team. Wireless network engineering is a rare skill mix, and you'll be building a world-class bench of it. - Work closely with firmware, backend, hardware, and field operations to shape what we build, not just how. You'll be in the room when requirements are fuzzy and you'll help make them clear. - Back engineering-led initiatives and look for opportunities to use AI tools to accelerate development or unlock entirely new ways of working. - Get out on farm. Deep domain knowledge matters and you'll be expected to develop it. - Contribute to the broader engineering culture and practices that make Halter a great place to build. YOU'LL BE GREAT IF YOU - Have led engineers directly - performance conversations, mentoring, hiring, the lot. - Have strong wireless networking fundamentals - you're credible on spectrum allocation, path loss, link budgets, and antenna behaviour, and can hold a high technical bar with specialists in these areas. - Have hands-on experience with LoRa/LoRaWAN, cellular, or other long-range wireless technologies deployed at scale. - Understand platform infrastructure - configuration management (Ansible or similar), fleet automation, and what it takes to run thousands of remote devices reliably. - Are comfortable in code (Go, Python, C++) - enough to review the team's tooling, dig into a data question yourself, and keep your technical judgement sharp. - Know how to shape and structure work without being overly prescriptive, and balance speed with quality. - Stay calm under pressure, have a low ego, and can rally a team through tough or complex work - including incidents on live infrastructure. - You've worked in fast-moving startups, seen growth, and tackled ambiguous problem spaces. Bonus points for experience with satellite direct-to-device or NTN, spectrum regulatory work (FCC, ACMA, ComReg, or similar), embedded systems or firmware exposure, and building or operating infrastructure in harsh, remote environments. OUR BENEFITS - Delicious snacks and drinks are available for your daily flow. - Healthy body, healthy mind. We're partnered with Southern Cross Health Insurance to support your well-being. - We offer 6 months of fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers, 4 weeks of fully paid secondary caregiver leave and many other parental benefits that support you and your family. - Our personal growth is important. Halter offers an annual $1000 self-development budget to be used for anything that fuels personal growth. - Our time to recharge is valued, we're offered wellness leave and unlimited paid annual leave. - Importantly, we offer an inclusive and attractive remuneration package made up of salary, benefits and an employee stock ownership plan. OUR OFFICE FIRST APPROACH There's a reason you visit your friends in person, live with your family and don't do dinners over Zoom. Humans are wired for connection. We believe a world-class, in-person office culture is the best way for high-performing teams. Being office first is a core pillar of our culture. We believe in-person connections are key to driving your own growth, learning, impact, and building genuine long-lasting relationships. Strong relationships make it easier to disagree, give feedback, and do meaningful and aligned work. We don't like having heaps of rules or policies, but this means having strong, trusted relationships is critical. We're office first, not office only. This means working from the office everyday is our default setting, but we flex when we need to. We have a high-trust culture, so everyone is trusted to do what's best for Halter. Our office vibe is something special, it's hard to describe until you're here, but people at Halter who have come from fully remote or hybrid companies say they could never go back - the high energy and spectacular people they are now surrounded by everyday makes work so enjoyable. Your growth, your learning and your impact is truly unlimited here, and a big part of that comes from being together solving problems, innovating, building context, and constantly learning from each other. JOIN OUR TEAM Halter is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace — a place where we can each be ourselves and do the best work of our lives. Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the requirements, women and under-represented groups of candidates tend to only apply when they meet every requirement. If you think you have what it takes but don’t necessarily tick every requirement on this job description, please still get in touch and apply to Halter. We’d love to chat to see if you’ll be an epic fit! If this opportunity sounds like you, please apply below by sending through your cover letter explaining why you’re excited about this role and working at Halter, along with your CV, and we’ll be in touch! Please also feel free to check out the careers page https://www.halterhq.com/careers for more information on working at Halter and don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/halter-limited & Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lifeathalter/. WHY OUR TEAM LOVES WORKING AT HALTER: - Work that genuinely matters. Every now and again a company comes along that transforms an entire industry and leaves the world in a better place. Our team gets to be part of something truly meaningful, helping farmers improve their livelihoods, spend more time with their families, and build more sustainable operations. - Spectacular people solving hard problems. Our culture is designed for talented people to do work that changes lives. The team is filled with diverse, kind, and driven people who push each other to do their best work. You'll be thrown into the deep end, tackling complex challenges and building something tangible that solves real problems. - You'll grow here. Autonomy, mastery, and learning define how we work. You'll have the freedom to work on interesting problems, master new skills, and continuously develop yourself, both through your role and our $1,000 personal growth fund. - This isn't easy, and we love that it's hard. Working at Halter will be the most rewarding and the most challenging work of your life. We move fast, take bold bets, and work hard to reshape an entire industry. As one team member put it: "Joining Halter is a bit like strapping yourself to a rocket ship, but it's an epic journey to be a part of!"