Senior Manager, Software Engineering - AI Developer Productivity (Dev Agents and SRE AI)

About the role

Leads the Dev Agents and SRE AI efforts, owning AI across Samsara's R&D software development lifecycle, including agent infrastructure, vendor build/integrate/buy decisions, and rollout of SRE AI to more teams. Manages a team of five to 10 senior engineers, from senior to principal, working directly with R&D leaders and developers without a product manager. Suits a senior engineering leader with 5+ years of people management and experience setting direction where no playbook exists.

What you'll do

• Lead Dev Agents and SRE AI and decide what comes next.
• Set direction and choose experiments for agent infrastructure: the gateway, internal MCPs, skills and cloud runners.
• Make build, integrate and buy decisions across vendors such as Claude and Codex as models change.
• Drive cost per pull request down while output goes up.
• Take SRE AI from two teams to every team and build the trust that lets it take more automated actions.
• Work directly with every R&D leader and with the developers who use what you build, without a product manager.
• Champion, role model and embed Samsara's cultural principles as the company scales globally and across new offices.
• Manage and grow a team of five to 10 senior engineers, setting a high bar and clear priorities without a roadmap.
• Hire, develop and lead an inclusive, engaged and high-performing team.
• Choose which experiments to run for a root cause analysis agent when no playbook exists.
• Earn trust for automated actions such as severity escalation and rollbacks.
• Raise output without raising load on engineers, measured by cost per pull request (token spend plus infrastructure).
• Stand up an end-to-end system for AI agent campaign-style work within three months, such as backfilling tests and fixing recurring logging problems.
• Make SRE AI first responder for five teams and the default for every team by the end of 2027.
• Work to ensure the median developer ships as fast as today's 90th percentile within 12 months.

What you'll need

• 8+ years of software engineering experience.
• 5+ years of people management experience.
• Has led a team of about six to 10 engineers; scope matters more than title.
• Has led senior and staff-level engineers.
• Has built something with current AI tools or agents, at work or at home.
• Has set direction where no playbook existed, without a product manager.
• BS or MS in Computer Science or another technical degree.
• Has worked from the details with senior and staff engineers, earning their trust as a hands-on leader.

Nice to have

• A methodical, systems-level mind and clear view of which experiments to run.
• A connection to what industry leaders build; follows it closely and applies it.
• Relevant background in developer productivity, agentic AI, incident response or on-call tooling.
• Cost awareness, including reasoning about token spend and infrastructure as models and prices change.
• An advanced degree: MS or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• Developer productivity, agentic AI, incident response or on-call tooling background is covered; no additional nice-to-have items are missing.

Benefits listed by Samsara

• Initial RSU grant with no vesting cliff
• Ongoing refresh equity opportunities tied to performance
• Performance-based bonus/variable pay
• Flexible remote working model
• Professional development stipend
• Comprehensive health and parental leave plans

Tools & skills mentioned