Software Engineer Manager - Tooling Team

Hobbsnews; Town of Yorktown (NY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Research is seeking an experienced Software Engineering Manager to lead our local tooling team, combining leadership with deep technical expertise in systems and cloud environments. This role focuses on agile processes, cross-functional collaboration, and driving architectural decisions across frontend and backend components.

You will mentor teams, manage projects, and partner with quantum experiment SMEs to advance our software ecosystem in a research setting.

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.

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 and contribute to architectural decisions across frontend and backend systems.

Skills

People management

Project management

Technical leadership

System programming

Cloud architectures

Quantum computing interest

Rust

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Node

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

Tools

Rust

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Node

Job description

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.

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.

Required education

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred education

Master's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

Experience

• 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.

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Research is the organic growth engine of IBM and an innovation engine for our customers and partners. As part of this mission, IBM Research anticipates and examines 'What's Next in Computing' to ultimately create and integrate the technologies the world relies upon to solve big challenges and unlock new opportunities. We create and pioneer new markets for IBM, our partners and customers as exemplified in our ongoing quest to reach practical and large-scale quantum computing. Across IBM Research, we realize the power and potential to accelerate discovery with our partners and clients by combining the power of high performance computing, AI, and Quantum, all integrated through the hybrid cloud.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on‑going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can‑do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

- Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being

- Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs

- Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law

- Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can grow skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals

- Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 21 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.

IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.