Manager of Emerging Talent, AI Builder

Salesforce; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 155,000 - 263,000; Full time

Job summary

Salesforce in San Francisco is seeking a Manager of Emerging Talent for the AI Builder Program. You will lead and mentor a high-caliber team of AI-native graduates, channel their AI mindset into real-world customer transformations, and guide them through growth paths.

This role blends people leadership, technical direction, consulting mentorship, and program development, with emphasis on engaging customers, building production-grade solutions, and shaping a scalable graduate program across

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a highly technical discipline.
• 5+ years of technical consulting, solution architecture, software engineering, or similarly technical customer-facing work.
• 1+ year of people leadership, tech lead experience, or mentoring early-career engineers/consultants.
• Hands-on familiarity with Generative AI frameworks and LLM orchestration.

Responsibilities

• Lead a cohort of Emerging Talent AI Builders and oversee 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development.
• Guide graduates in designing agentic reasoning and safe production deployments.
• Coach graduates to translate technical work into business value with stakeholders.
• Oversee Grad Builder Program enablement, milestones, and university recruiting partnerships.

Skills

People leadership

Customer-facing

Consulting

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a highly technical discipline

Tools

Agentforce

LLM orchestration

Generative AI frameworks

Job description

As the Manager of Emerging Talent for the AI Builder Program, you will lead, mentor, and scale a high-caliber team of AI-native graduates, and bring a completely fresh approach to problem-solving.This is not a traditional engineering management role; it is a frontier-pushing leadership position designed to channel that native AI mindset into boundary-breaking, real-world customer transformations. It is a blend of people leadership, technical direction, consulting mentorship, and program development - with an exciting focus on pioneering AI approaches to delivering extraordinary outcomes.

We are looking for a strong people leader with reasonable technical fluency to guide and develop a team of new computer science graduates. In this role, you will focus on people leadership and business mentorship, helping your team navigate their early careers while ensuring operational excellence. You will confidently engage with customers across a diverse cross-section of accounts (from Mid-Market through Enterprise Strategic) and serve as a strategic partner

Your primary mission is to translate their unique, intuitive relationship with AI into enterprise-grade success and translate academic computer science excellence into real-world, customer-facing success. You will help your team navigate the frontier of generative AI and Agentforce, architect agent reasoning, and confidently engage with customers to drive business transformations. Additionally, you will play an active role in driving the architecture and execution of our Grad Builder Program, overseeing projects, managing development plans, and delivering advanced technical and consultative training.

Key Responsibilities

• Channel AI-Native Superpowers: Champion and harness the unique, fast-paced 'group chat' collaboration styles and intuitive AI habits of recent graduates, turning their fresh perspectives into a competitive advantage for our delivery teams.
• Manage & Mentor: Act as the direct people manager for a cohort of Emerging Talent AI Builders. Deliver regular 1:1s, performance reviews, career development planning, and compensation management.
• Bridge the Gap: Help AI natives pivot from 'building experimental side projects' to deploying production-grade, secure, and ethical enterprise software, showing them how to scale their boundary-pushing ideas responsibly.
• Consulting Coaching: Teach technical grads how to "translate tech into business value." Coach them on active listening, stakeholder management, discovery sessions, presentation skills, and handling pushback from customers.
• Cultivating Belonging and Long-term Engagement: Establish a vibrant, inclusive atmosphere. Provide guidance through the specific challenges of early-career excellence, including managing rapid advancement paths, addressing imposter syndrome, and meeting the distinct professional needs of high-potential recent graduates.

2. Technical Leadership & Project Governance (30%)

• Agentforce Guardrails: Guide graduates through the design of agentic reasoning, prompt engineering, and tool calls. Ensure they are evaluating AI outputs with strict engineering rigor rather than trial-and-error.
• Technical Coaching: Support Graduates in building scalable and secure agentic solutions. Act as an internal technical sounding partner when a Graduate encounters roadblocks, ensuring they are equipped to succeed.

3. Graduate Builder Program Enablement & Strategy (30%)

• Pioneer Continuous Upskilling: Foster an active, experimental lab culture where testing the absolute limits of generative AI and Agentforce is celebrated. You will use insights gained from your cohort's rapid experimentation to feed back into the broader organization's upskilling initiatives.
• Project Matching & Bench Management: Oversee the pipeline of customer work, strategically pairing Grads with projects that stretch their technical capabilities while balancing business needs.
• Development Milestones: Build, track, and optimize a 12-to-24-month competency matrix detailing when a Grad is expected to master specific technical tracks (e.g., Real-Time Infra) and consulting pillars.
• University Recruiting Partner: Collaborate with the University Recruiting team to interview, assess, and attract top-tier Computer Science talent from target universities.

The Ideal Profile

You can speak their language...

You have a deep background in computer science or software engineering. You understand object-oriented programming, data structures, and the current landscape of LLMs/prompt engineering.

...and you can teach them yours.

You are a seasoned consultant or customer-facing tech lead. You know how to read a room, handle a tough customer question during a live deployment, and unpack complex business requirements into technical user stories. You view communication, empathy, and business acumen as core engineering skills. Crucially, you are energized by working with early-career talent who naturally think AI-first. You know how to guide their ambition to push boundaries, helping them refine raw creativity into high-impact business strategy.

Qualifications & Requirements

Minimum Qualifications:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a highly technical discipline.
• Experience: 5+ years of experience in technical consulting, solution architecture, software engineering, or a highly technical customer-facing role.
• Leadership: 1+ years of experience managing technical teams, acting as a tech lead, or significantly mentoring early-career engineers/consultants.
• AI/LLM Curiosity: Practical, hands-on experience or profound familiarity with Generative AI frameworks, prompt engineering, and LLM orchestration.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience managing university graduate programs, technical rotation programs, or tech boot camps.
• Direct experience with the Salesforce ecosystem, Apex, or building on Agentforce.
• Background in Enterprise Agile delivery and technical scoping.

Why This Role is Unique

Unlike traditional engineering managers who operate strictly behind the scenes, or traditional consulting managers focused purely on utilization metrics, you are at the epicenter of a workforce revolution. You are not just teaching a syllabus, you are leading a generation of AI natives who will fundamentally rewrite how businesses operate. In this role, you have a blank canvas to push boundaries, experiment with leading-edge agentic technology, and serve as the premier showcase for Salesforce's company-wide up-skilling strategy. If you want to change the trajectory of early-career professionals while actively redefining the future of work itself, this is your platform.

Compensation

At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.

The typical base salary range for this position is $155,190 - $263,060 annually

There is a different range applicable to specific work locations. In California and New York, and select cities in the metropolitan areas of Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and Washington DC, the base pay range for this role in those locations is $170,660 - $289,380 per year. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you'll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we'll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love.

At Salesforce, we strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates.

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodation Request Form.

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Equal Opportunity Statement.

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment.