DevEX Manager (Hybrid)

Kelly Services; Waltham (MA); Hybrid; USD 234,000 - 322,000; Full time

Job summary

Motion Recruitment Partners in Waltham, MA seeks an Engineering Manager to build and lead a new Developer Experience (DevEx) team on a full-time hybrid basis. Onsite Mon/Tue/Thu with remote Wed/Fri, you will blend people leadership with deep technical guidance across Backend, DevOps, CI/CD, Kubernetes, and IaC to drive AI-enabled developer productivity initiatives.

You will shape vision and culture, partner with distributed teams including Israel, and enable reliable high-frequency production

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering in Backend/Platform/DevOps or related disciplines.
• 2+ years of engineering leadership and people management.
• Hands-on backend engineering experience and architecture-to-production expertise.
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes, IaC, and containerized environments.
• Experience with build tools such as Maven, Gradle, or Nx.
• Understanding of testing, quality, observability, and developer productivity.
• Strong communication, planning, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Interest in AI-enabled tooling and automation for development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Developer Experience team and set its direction and culture.
• Mentor engineers and support professional development across teams.
• Improve developer productivity across the software lifecycle.
• Introduce AI and automation into design, coding, testing, and deployment workflows.
• Identify bottlenecks and create scalable self-service tooling.
• Improve CI/CD pipelines, build systems, testing, infra, and observability.
• Support reliable hourly production releases with quality.
• Coordinate with Israel DevEx team on standards and strategy.
• Lead initiatives from planning through production deployment and reporting.

Skills

Backend engineering

DevOps

Developer Experience

People leadership

Communication

Planning

Stakeholder management

AI & automation interest

Tools

Kubernetes

CI/CD tooling

Infrastructure as Code

Maven

Gradle

Nx

Job description

$170 - $234

We are seeking an experienced Engineering Manager to build and lead a newly formed Developer Experience (DevEx) team based in Waltham, Massachusetts. This is a full-time hybrid opportunity requiring onsite collaboration Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, with remote work typically available Wednesday and Friday. The role combines people leadership and deep technical expertise across Backend Engineering, DevOps, CI/CD, Kubernetes, Infrastructure-as-Code, and AI-driven developer productivity initiatives.

This is an opportunity to have a significant impact on engineering effectiveness at scale. You will establish the vision, culture, and technical direction for a growing DevEx team while partnering closely with distributed engineering teams, including a Developer Experience organization in Israel. If you are passionate about improving developer workflows, introducing automation and AI-enabled tooling, and enabling reliable high-frequency production releases, this role offers both strategic influence and hands-on technical leadership.

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of software engineering experience in Backend Engineering, Platform Engineering, DevOps, Developer Experience, or related disciplines
• 2+ years of engineering leadership and people management experience
• Strong hands-on background in Backend Engineering
• Experience leading technical initiatives from architecture and design through production deployment
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes, Infrastructure-as-Code, and containerized environments
• Experience with build tools such as Maven, Gradle, or Nx
• Understanding of automated testing, software quality practices, and observability
• Experience improving developer productivity and software development workflows
• Strong communication, planning, stakeholder management, and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Interest in applying AI and automation to software development processes

Desired Skills & Experience

• Experience building or leading a Developer Experience, Platform Engineering, or Developer Productivity team
• Experience managing both Backend and DevOps engineers
• Background developing internal developer platforms and self-service engineering tools
• Experience with AI-assisted development, Generative AI, or automated testing solutions
• Experience working with distributed and globally distributed engineering organizations
• Background in high-growth technology environments with frequent production releases

What You Will Be Doing

Tech Breakdown

• Backend Engineering
• CI/CD and Automated Deployment
• Kubernetes and Containerization
• Infrastructure-as-Code
• Build Systems (Maven, Gradle, Nx)
• Automated Testing and Observability
• AI-Assisted Development and Workflow Automation

Daily Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Developer Experience team, establishing its technical direction and culture
• Mentor engineers and support their professional development
• Improve developer productivity across the software development lifecycle
• Introduce AI and automation into design, coding, testing, and deployment workflows
• Identify development bottlenecks and create scalable self-service tools
• Improve CI/CD pipelines, build systems, testing, infrastructure, and observability
• Support reliable hourly production releases without compromising quality
• Partner with engineering, infrastructure, and platform teams to prioritize improvements
• Coordinate with the Developer Experience team in Israel on shared standards and strategy
• Lead technical initiatives from planning through implementation and production
• Communicate priorities, progress, and risks to engineering leadership

Motion Recruitment Partners (MRP) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants must be currently authorized to work on a full-time basis in the country for which they are applying, and no sponsorship is currently available. Employment is subject to the successful completion of a pre-employment screening. Accommodation will be provided in all parts of the hiring process as required under MRP’s Employment Accommodation policy. Applicants need to make their needs known in advance.