Software Engineering Manager (Developer Experience)

ClickUp; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

MacBook Pro

Moving expenses

Commuter benefits

Team lunches

401(k) match

Snacks & beverages

Health insurance

Dental insurance

ClickUp swag

Recognition rewards

Flexible PTO

Job summary

ClickUp is seeking an Engineering Manager - Developer Productivity to lead a high-impact team focused on improving developer workflows, reducing friction, and enhancing the engineering experience.

You will oversee CI/CD pipelines, internal tooling, and AI-powered tooling, ensuring scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure while guiding AI adoption and governance across the org.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in software engineering with leadership experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead a high-impact team focused on developer productivity.
• Nurture AI-native development workflows and tooling.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and design to align priorities.
• Define metrics to measure productivity and AI impact.
• Coach engineers on AI fluency and growth.

Skills

AI tooling experience

CI/CD pipelines

AI fluency

Leadership

Cross-team collaboration

Tools

Cursor

Brain

Copilots

Job description

• As the Engineering Manager - Developer Productivity, you will lead a high-impact team focused on improving developer workflows, reducing friction, and enhancing the overall engineering experience
• You’ll collaborate across teams to identify bottlenecks, implement scalable solutions, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Your work will directly influence the speed, quality, and happiness of our engineering organization
• Infrastructure & Tooling
• Oversee the development and maintenance of CI/CD pipelines, build systems, and internal tools, including AI-powered internal tooling and agents
• Ensure our developer infrastructure is scalable, reliable, and secure
• Evaluate and implement new AI-native technologies, considering token economics, compute costs, and AI spend alongside productivity gains
• Team Leadership & AI People Development
• Build, mentor, and lead a team of engineers focused on developer productivity
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability
• Set clear goals and provide regular feedback to drive team performance in partnership with your Director
• Assess each report's AI fluency level (Assisted, Augmented, Native) and set individual growth targets
• Include AI fluency as a coaching topic in 1:1s; pair less AI-fluent engineers with AI-native peers for knowledge transfer
• Create space for AI experimentation: dedicated time, safe-to-fail projects, and learning sprints
• Recognize and reward AI-driven improvements in performance conversations
• Collaboration & Communication
• Work closely with engineering, product, and design teams to align priorities
• Advocate for developer needs and ensure alignment with company goals
• Communicate capabilities and limitations to non-technical stakeholders
• Write specs, rules files, and documentation that make AI more effective for the whole team
• Metrics & Continuous Improvement
• Define and track key metrics to measure developer productivity, satisfaction, and AI-driven productivity gains
• Use data-driven insights to prioritize initiatives and demonstrate impact
• Track team-level AI adoption metrics and report on AI-augmented workflow effectiveness
• Continuously iterate on processes to improve engineering velocity and quality
• AI-Native Developer Experience
• Identify and eliminate pain points in the development lifecycle, with a focus on AI-augmented workflows
• Drive adoption of AI coding tools (Cursor, Brain, copilots) as the default across engineering teams
• Ensure every team member has access to and is actively using AI tools; track adoption and remove blockers (tooling, access, training)
• Partner with engineering teams to design AI-augmented development workflows that multiply team velocity
• Coach engineers on the Builder model: planning, delegating to agents, reviewing with judgment, and shipping with velocity
• AI Governance & Risk
• Ensure the team follows AI usage guidelines (data handling, code review, IP considerations)
• Flag risks from AI-generated code (security, correctness, licensing) proactively
• Maintain visibility into what AI tools the team is using and how they're using
• Run regular retros and feedback loops on AI-related outcomes
• Review AI-generated outputs alongside the team to build shared quality standards

Benefits

• 16" MacBook Pro
• Moving Expenses
• $200/mo commuter benefits
• Team lunches each week
• 401(k) match up to 2%
• Unlimited snacks, kombucha, and cold brew
• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• ClickUp swag
• Teammate recognition rewards
• Flexible PTO

Technical Expertise: Strong understanding of developer tools, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software development practices. Hands‑on experience with AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or similar) and an understanding of how to integrate them into engineering workflowsCollaboration: Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills. Ability to translate AI capabilities and limitations to non-technical audiencesBuilder Mindset: Comfortable with the 80/20 model (planning and review vs. direct execution). Experience orchestrating work across humans and AI agents, with strong judgment on when to delegate to AI vs. when human decision‑making is criticalProblem‑Solving: Track record of identifying inefficiencies and implementing scalable solutions, including building or adopting AI‑powered tooling and eval frameworksGovernance Awareness: Understanding of AI & non‑AI related risks (security, correctness, licensing, data handling) and experience establishing quality standards for outputsMindset: Passion for improving developer experiences and driving organizational impact through AI‑native practices with a customer first mentalityAI Fluency: Demonstrated ability to operate at the AI Augmented level or above: you personally use AI tools daily and have coached others on effective AI‑assisted development. Familiar with prompt engineering, context engineering, and token economicsLeadership Skills: Proven ability to build and lead high‑performing teams. Experience assessing and developing AI fluency across a teamExperience: 7+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years in a leadership role managing engineering teams