Software Engineering Manager – Industrial AI Platform (Hybrid – Tempe, AZ)

Our client is a global SaaS company building industrial-grade AI platforms used by energy, manufacturing, and highly regulated enterprises to unlock operational data and automate complex workflows. This role sits at the center of a next-generation AI platform focused on agentic systems, LLMs, and real production automation — not experimentation.

This is a builder-leader role for someone who wants to shape both a platform and a team from the ground up as part of a growing Phoenix engineering hub.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of 5–10 software engineers

• Drive delivery of production-grade SaaS services and applications

• Balance people leadership with hands-on technical contribution

• Establish and enforce engineering best practices: testing, observability, reliability, and security

• Own operational excellence including SLOs, on-call rotations, and incident response

• Partner with Product, Design, and Program Management to build the right product

• Translate real-world industrial problems into scalable software solutions

• Mentor engineers across levels and help them increase their impact

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience

• 3+ years leading and managing software engineering teams

• Strong experience building and operating SaaS platforms in production

• Kubernetes experience in multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP)

• Backend expertise in Python and familiarity with modern frontend stacks (TypeScript / React)

• Solid understanding of full SDLC practices including CI/CD, testing, and operations

• Working knowledge of AI/ML systems, including LLM-based applications

• Excellent communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Preferred / Nice-to-Have

• Experience building applications on top of AI/ML or LLM platforms

• Background in industrial, data-heavy, or regulated environments

• Prior experience scaling teams or platforms during rapid growth phases

• Passion for mentoring engineers and building strong engineering culture

Determining compensation for this role (and others) at Vaco/Highspring depends upon a wide array of factors including but not limited to the individual’s skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, office location and other geographic considerations, as well as other business and organizational needs. With that said, as required by local law in geographies that require salary range disclosure, Vaco/Highspring notes the salary range for the role is noted in this job posting. The individual may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses, and can participate in medical, dental, and vision benefits as well as the company’s 401(k) retirement plan. Additional disclaimer: Unless otherwise noted in the job description, the position Vaco/Highspring is filing for is occupied. Please note, however, that Vaco/Highspring is regularly asked to provide talent to other organizations. By submitting to this position, you are agreeing to be included in our talent pool for future hiring for similarly qualified positions. Submissions to this position are subject to the use of AI to perform preliminary candidate screenings, focused on ensuring minimum job requirements noted in the position are satisfied. Further assessment of candidates beyond this initial phase within Vaco/Highspring will be otherwise assessed by recruiters and hiring managers. Vaco/Highspring does not have knowledge of the tools used by its clients in making final hiring decisions and cannot opine on their use of AI products.