Software Engineer Manager - Tooling Team

IBM; Town of Yorktown (NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Research seeks an experienced Software Engineering Manager to lead our local tooling team, combining strong systems and cloud expertise with leadership excellence in a research setting.

You will establish agile practices, oversee complex software components, and foster collaboration with quantum experiment SME while guiding frontend and backend architectural decisions.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years of experience as a people manager in software engineering.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in project management.
• At least 5 years of technical leadership, managing complex software.
• Experience with cloud architectures and system programming is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain an agile and high performance practice of software engineering discipline.
• Project manage the different components of a complex software ecosystem.
• Foster a strong software engineering culture and address team challenges.
• Foster collaboration with quantum experiment SME.
• Contribute to technical strategy and architectural decisions across frontend and backend systems.

Skills

People management

Project management

Technical leadership

Cloud architectures

Education

Master's Degree

Tools

Rust

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Node.js

Job description

Introduction

At IBM Research, we are the innovation engine of IBM. Exploring what’s next in computing and shaping the technologies the world will rely on tomorrow. From advancing AI and hybrid cloud to pioneering practical quantum computing, we anticipate challenges and unlock new opportunities for clients, partners, and society. Working in Research means joining a team that accelerates discovery at the intersection of high-performance computing, AI, quantum, and cloud. You’ll collaborate with leading scientists, engineers, and visionaries to push boundaries and turn ideas into reality. With a culture built on curiosity, creativity, and collaboration, IBM Research offers the opportunity to grow your career while contributing to breakthroughs that transform industries and change the world.

Introduction

At IBM Research, we are the innovation engine of IBM. Exploring what’s next in computing and shaping the technologies the world will rely on tomorrow. From advancing AI and hybrid cloud to pioneering practical quantum computing, we anticipate challenges and unlock new opportunities for clients, partners, and society. Working in Research means joining a team that accelerates discovery at the intersection of high-performance computing, AI, quantum, and cloud. You’ll collaborate with leading scientists, engineers, and visionaries to push boundaries and turn ideas into reality. With a culture built on curiosity, creativity, and collaboration, IBM Research offers the opportunity to grow your career while contributing to breakthroughs that transform industries and change the world.

Leaders are expected to spend time with their teams and clients and therefore, are generally expected to be in the workplace a minimum of three days a week subject to business needs.

Your Role And Responsibilities

We are seeking an experienced Software Engineering Manager to lead our local tooling team. This role combines strong technical expertise in systems and cloud environments, with leadership excellence, maintaining agile and high-performant engineering processes in a research team environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain an agile and high performance practice of software engineering discipline.
• Project manage the different components of a complex software ecosystem.
• Foster a strong software engineering culture and proactively address team-internal challenges and conflicts.
• Foster a strong and seamless collaboration with quantum experiment SME.
• Contribute to technical strategy and architectural decisions across frontend and backend systems.

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Minimum 2 years of experience as a people manager in software engineering.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in project management.
• At least 5 years of technical leadership, managing complex software.

Technical Skills

• Background in software engineering or a comparable technical field.
• Hands-on experience and solid understanding of system programming.
• Hands-on experience and solid understanding of cloud architectures.
• Exposure to or interest in quantum computing is a plus.

Personal Skills

• Ability to cultivate psychologically safe spaces within their teams and across teams.
• Capacity to enable direct feedback among team members.
• Demonstrated ability for cross-functional thinking and collaboration
• Excellent stakeholder expectation management skills.
• Strategic mindset combined with hands‑on execution capability

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Experience implementing team performance frameworks such a DORA metrics.
• Experience applying management and communication methodologies such as radical candor or non-violent communication.
• Demonstrated experience working on technologies such as Rust, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript and Node.