Senior Engineering Manager, Builder Tools

Job Description

As a Senior Engineering Manager on the Builder Tools team, you will lead a team that empowers a company of builders by delivering a frictionless, standardized ecosystem of core engineering and AI tools.

Scope & Responsibilities

• Set direction for AI-assisted development, end-to-end: Define the engineering-wide approach for safe, effective AI-assisted workflows (tooling standards, rollout strategy, and adoption).
• Build frictionless paved paths: Identify and remove sources of friction in developer workflows; deliver a small set of deeply reliable, well-supported paved roads rather than many bespoke bypasses.
• Internal AI platform strategy (build vs. buy): Own strategy and execution for internal agent runtimes and developer-facing AI systems (authoring, review, and automation workflows), including vendor evaluation and integrations.
• Governance, cost, and measurement: Drive governance and cost management for AI tooling (usage measurement, guardrails, optimization) using clear metrics and frameworks (e.g., DORA/SPACE) to translate improvements into business outcomes.

What You’ll Bring

Leadership & Execution

• A strong bias toward action, curiosity, and focus on impact.
• Experience leading teams focused on developer productivity, DevEx, internal platforms, or engineering tooling.
• Track record of driving adoption of new workflows and platforms across an engineering organization.
• Ability to operate across boundaries and influence without direct ownership; comfort acting as an internal forward-deployed partner.
• Strong coaching and feedback skills, creating an environment where engineers can grow and ship high-quality systems.

AI & Tooling Experience

• Experience evaluating and deploying AI coding tools, developer assistants, and/or LLM-based workflows and agents.
• Intuition for when to adopt vs. build, and how to standardize without blocking innovation.

Technical Background

• Strong software engineering background (backend, platform, or developer tools).
• Familiarity with modern developer workflows and the systems that support them.
• Ability to engage deeply in technical discussions around system design, safety guardrails, operational readiness, and tradeoffs.

Product & Organizational Thinking

• Ability to translate ambiguous needs into clear guidance and systems.
• Strong empathy for builders and their workflows (including non-traditional developers).
• Experience prioritizing and communicating based on measurable impact, not just qualitative feedback.

Nice to Haves

• Experience building measurement systems for tooling outcomes (adoption, reliability, cycle time, cost-to-serve, AI spend).

Compensation

• The estimated pay range for this role is $268,000 - $305,000 depending on experience and location.
• This role is eligible to participate in Temporal's equity plan.

Benefits

• Unlimited PTO, 12 Holidays + 2 Floating Holidays
• 100% Premiums Coverage for Medical, Dental, and Vision
• AD&D, LT & ST Disability, and Life Insurance (Standard & Supplemental Available)
• Empower 401K Plan
• Additional Perks for Learning & Development, Lifestyle Spending, In-Home Office Setup, Professional Memberships, WFH Meals, Internet Stipend and more!