manager, engineering - Platform Engineering - Partner Technology

Starbucks•Nashville, TN

2d•Onsite

About The Position

As Manager, Engineering, you will advance enterprise technology solutions supporting the platforms that underpin in-store partner tooling. The role sits at the intersection of Partner Tech, Retail Operations, and Enterprise Data & Analytics, developing platform-based solutions that balance standardization, flexibility, and innovation at scale. You will execute the strategy, engineering, and delivery for Digital Experience platforms, ensuring they operate as resilient, extensible, enterprise-grade capabilities that deliver business outcomes. These platforms support shift execution and should increasingly use AI and intelligent automation to improve productivity, decision-making, and problem solving for partners and operators. The role leads engineering quality and reliability, QA and testing strategy, disciplined release management, sustainment and production support, and improvements to automation and engineering efficiency. It also develops a high-performing engineering and quality team and builds partnerships across product, business, technology, and vendor teams to deliver reliable experiences for Starbucks partners and the business teams that depend on these platforms. The position is based onsite four days per week in the Nashville office. Starbucks offers a broad benefits package, including health and insurance benefits, paid leave, retirement and stock programs, education support, and other partner resources. Compensation depends on factors such as job-related skills, experience, location, and internal equity.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in software engineering, quality engineering, platform operations, release management, or enterprise application sustainment.
5+ years managing complex enterprise platforms, application development efforts, QA/testing programs, or production support functions.
3–5 years leading or managing technical teams, including engineers, SDETs, QA analysts, sustainment resources, or vendor delivery teams.
Experience improving engineering productivity through test automation, CI/CD practices, release tooling, scripting, or operational automation.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.
Experience leading release readiness, defect triage, regression planning, integration testing, user acceptance testing, and post-production validation.
Experience with monitoring, logging, alerting, service management, and operational health practices for production platforms.
Strong understanding of incident, problem, change, release, and sustainment management practices, including vendor coordination and support model governance.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams through complex delivery, testing, release, and sustainment activities in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

Establish engineering practices that improve platform stability, test coverage, defect prevention, and production readiness across Partner Tech platforms.
Lead QA and testing strategy, including functional, regression, integration, end-to-end, performance, and release validation practices in partnership with product, engineering, business, and vendor teams.
Plan and coordinate releases, change readiness, deployment calendars, go/no-go decisions, cutover activities, and post-release validation for business-critical partner platforms.
Oversee incident, problem, change, release, monitoring, and vendor support practices to protect business continuity and reduce recurring operational issues.
Advance test automation, deployment automation, monitoring, and operational playbooks to increase release speed, consistency, and confidence.
Coach engineers, SDETs, QA partners, and sustainment resources while fostering ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Build relationships with cross-functional teams to manage dependencies, remove blockers, improve support handoffs, and deliver measurable platform outcomes.
Ensure engineering decisions, sustainment priorities, and release execution support reliable experiences for Starbucks partners and business teams.
Execute strategy, engineering, and delivery for Digital Experience platforms, including capabilities that leverage AI and intelligent automation.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
Basic and supplemental life insurance and other voluntary insurance benefits.
Short-term and long-term disability.
Paid parental leave and family expansion reimbursement.
Paid vacation from date of hire, sick time, eight paid holidays, and two personal days per year.
401(k) retirement plan with employer match for eligible partners.
Discounted company stock program (S.I.P.) and Starbucks equity program (Bean Stock).
Incentivized emergency savings and financial well-being tools.
100% upfront tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program via the Starbucks College Achievement Plan.
Student loan management resources and access to other educational opportunities.
Backup care and DACA reimbursement.