Sr. Engineering Manager

Please Note: This is a Utah-based hybrid position which will require some regular in-office days each week. Additionally, employment with BambooHR is contingent on passing both a background and credit check.

AI at BambooHR
At BambooHR, we’re all about setting people free to do great work, and we believe AI is a powerful partner in that mission. We’re leaning into intelligent tools to streamline our workflows, giving us more time for high-impact innovation. We look for curious, forward-thinking people who are ready to explore how AI can elevate their work and help us reimagine the future of HR.

Essential Job Duties

The Senior Engineering Manager will lead a software engineering team responsible for core employee lifecycle services that power BambooHR’s Employee Journey. This includes domain-level backend services, lifecycle orchestration, employee data extensions, and foundational capabilities that support hiring, onboarding, growth, and engagement experiences.

This role sits at the intersection of product domains and platform capabilities. The team acts as a domain-layer service provider, building capabilities specific to the employee lifecycle while leveraging shared platform primitives such as the Unified Data Model, workflows, and AI agent infrastructure.

A typical day includes partnering with Product, Design, and Architecture to define domain boundaries and capabilities; coaching engineers and tech leads; reviewing architecture and integration decisions; unblocking cross-team dependencies; and ensuring high-quality delivery across evolving priorities.

This leader will play a key role in BambooHR’s transition to an AI-native, outcome-driven platform, ensuring that employee lifecycle services are consistent, extensible, and ready to support agent-driven workflows and automation.

You will:

• Recruits, interviews, hires, and develops engineers, senior engineers, and staff-level engineers.
• Oversee the daily workflow, delivery cadence, and execution practices of the team.
• Provide structured, actionable feedback; performs timely and growth-oriented evaluations.
• Handle coaching, performance concerns, and disciplinary processes in partnership with HR.
• Manage up to two scrum teams or 12–18 engineers across backend and frontend disciplines.
• Lead the Employee Services team responsible for lifecycle-specific backend capabilities, including employee lifecycle orchestration, job object, and domain-level services
• Define and enforce domain ownership boundaries, ensuring the team owns outcomes without duplicating platform capabilities
• Drive alignment between Employee Services and adjacent domains (Hiring, Growth, Engagement) to ensure consistent data and experience across the lifecycle
• Partner with Product, Design, and Architecture to shape domain strategy, especially as the org moves toward AI-native experiences and agent-driven workflows
• Ensure the team leverages shared platform capabilities (UDM, workflows, AI agent infrastructure) rather than building redundant systems
• Manage delivery of multi-team initiatives with predictable execution, clear prioritization, and proactive risk management
• Coach engineers and technical leaders to think in terms of outcomes over features and domain ownership over application ownership
• Establish strong engineering practices around service design, data modeling, API quality, observability, and system reliability
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement within the team

What You Need to Get the Job Done

• 7+ years in software engineering with 5+ years managing engineering teams
• Experience managing backend or service-oriented teams in a SaaS environment
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, APIs, data modeling, and service architecture
• Experience working across domain boundaries and integrating with shared platform systems
• Proven ability to operate in environments with evolving ownership, ambiguity, and cross-team dependencies
• Strong partnership skills with Product and Design, especially in shaping unclear or emerging domains
• Ability to translate high-level strategy into clear execution plans for teams
• Experience leading teams through organizational or architectural transitions