Software Development Manager, MCP/AI

Autodesk; Toronto; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 206,000; Full time

Job summary

Autodesk is forming a new Canada-based team to bring agentic AI to Viewer MCP, expanding from a core capability to a production-grade platform that lets users interact with models in natural language and receive intelligent assistant guidance inside Autodesk products.

As Software Development Manager, MCP/AI you will hire and grow the team, set technical direction, and partner with product, UX and Applied AI to deliver reliable capabilities with scalable architecture, governance, and responsible

Qualifications

• 3+ years leading or managing software engineers, plus 7+ years of industry software engineering experience.
• Proven track record delivering complex, production-grade systems and services.
• Experience building or leading teams that ship AI/ML-powered products — e.g. LLM/agentic workflows, recommendation/insights systems, or ML in production.
• Working understanding of LLMs and agentic workflows, and of how to evaluate AI systems.
• Strong grounding in modern software practices: cloud-native architectures, APIs, CI/CD, automated testing, and Agile delivery.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills.

Responsibilities

• Hire, build, and grow a diverse engineering team — including ML/AI talent new to the organization — through coaching, feedback, and performance management.
• Foster a culture of ownership, quality, experimentation, and responsible AI.
• Own delivery of team commitments: plan, prioritize, and ship the Viewer MCP and agentic capabilities predictably and at high quality.
• Set and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for the agentic platform, partnering with your Principal/Senior engineers on architecture and trust models (human-in-the-loop, review gates, traceability, confidence signaling).
• Partner across the Visualization Solutions Org — and with Product, UX, Applied AI, and other platform teams — to expose their capabilities through a shared agentic layer and align on a common direction.
• Establish how the team evaluates AI systems — quality, safety, latency, and cost — and embed evaluation into the delivery process.
• Ensure engineering best practices: code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, and production support for AI-powered services.
• Identify risks, remove blockers, and communicate progress, trade-offs, and outcomes clearly to stakeholders and leadership.
• Define approaches in a green-field space where established procedures don’t yet exist.

Skills

Leadership experience

Communication

Stakeholder management

Team building

Agile delivery

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/CE

Tools

Cloud-native architectures

CI/CD pipelines

APIs

Agile tooling

Job description

Job Requisition ID # 26WD98804

Position Overview

Autodesk's Visualization Solutions power high-performance 2D and 3D visualization experiences across our product portfolio. We are standing up a new team in Canada to bring agentic AI to that experience — expanding our Viewer MCP from a basic capability layer into a production-grade agentic platform that lets users interact with their models in natural language and get intelligent assistance directly inside Autodesk products.

As the Software Development Manager, MCP/AI for this team, you will build it from the ground up and lead it to deliver agentic capabilities that other Visualization Solutions teams — and our customers — build on. You operate at the intersection of engineering execution, people leadership, and AI strategy. You will hire and grow a team that brings machine-learning depth new to the organization, set the technical direction for the agentic platform alongside your senior engineers, and forge the cross-team partnerships that turn it into a true platform.

Success is measured by your ability to build a high-performing team, ship reliable agentic capabilities at a predictable pace, and establish AI/ML as a durable, trusted competency across the org.

Responsibilities

• Hire, build, and grow a diverse, high-performing engineering team — including ML/AI talent new to the organization — through coaching, feedback, and performance management.
• Foster a culture of ownership, quality, experimentation, and responsible AI.
• Own delivery of team commitments: plan, prioritize, and ship the Viewer MCP and agentic capabilities predictably and at high quality.
• Set and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for the agentic platform, partnering with your Principal/Senior engineers on architecture and trust models (human-in-the-loop, review gates, traceability, confidence signaling).
• Partner across the Visualization Solutions Org — and with Product, UX, Applied AI, and other platform teams — to expose their capabilities through a shared agentic layer and align on a common direction.
• Establish how the team evaluates AI systems — quality, safety, latency, and cost — and embed evaluation into the delivery process.
• Ensure engineering best practices: code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, and production support for AI-powered services.
• Identify risks, remove blockers, and communicate progress, trade-offs, and outcomes clearly to stakeholders and leadership.
• Define approaches in a green-field space where established procedures don't yet exist.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years leading or managing software engineers, plus 7+ years of industry software engineering experience.
• Proven track record delivering complex, production-grade systems and services.
• Experience building or leading teams that ship AI/ML-powered products — e.g. LLM/agentic workflows, recommendation/insights systems, or ML in production.
• Working understanding of LLMs and agentic workflows, and of how to evaluate AI systems.
• Strong grounding in modern software practices: cloud-native architectures, APIs, CI/CD, automated testing, and Agile delivery.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience standing up or scaling a new team or a new technical competency in an organization.
• Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), agent orchestration frameworks, or composable tool/capability architectures.
• Experience with data platforms and ML infrastructure (eval pipelines, feature/data stores, model serving) and with cloud (AWS, containers).
• Familiarity with 2D/3D visualization, CAD/BIM, rendering, or graphics technologies.
• Experience partnering with Applied AI / research teams to bring models into production.

The Ideal Candidate

You are an engineering leader who pairs delivery focus with genuine enthusiasm for AI. You can hire and grow people in a domain that is new to the org, create clarity in an ambiguous green-field space, and partner across teams to build something larger than any one team owns. You balance shipping with responsible-AI rigor, you let your technical leaders drive architecture while you ensure alignment and execution, and you are motivated by establishing a trusted, durable AI capability that powers real customer workflows.

Learn More

About Autodesk

Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software – from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.

We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk – it’s at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, informs how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.

When you’re an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!

Salary transparency

Salary is one part of Autodesk’s competitive compensation package. For Canada based roles, we expect a starting base salary between $140,000 and $205,700. Offers are based on the candidate’s experience and geographic location, and may exceed this range. In addition to base salaries, our compensation package may include annual cash bonuses, commissions for sales roles, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Belonging

We take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Learn more here: https://www.autodesk.com/company/global-belonging

In-Person Onboarding and Identity Verification

This role may require in-person onboarding and/or in-person ID verification.

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