Software Engineering Manager, SDK

Sanity • San Francisco, CA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Sanity.io is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead and grow the SDK team. This team is primarily responsible for building and maintaining the App SDK project, a framework of typed React hooks that enables developers to create real-time content applications on top of Sanity. The App SDK allows developers to extend Sanity beyond the Studio, owning primitives like useDocuments, useDocument, and useEditDocument, along with underlying tooling such as Groq.js, Typegen, the CLI, and the HTTP client, as well as seamless authentication, permissions, and real-time sync. This is an open-source, MIT-licensed project, meaning most of the team's work is done publicly. Leading an engineering team at Sanity involves owning strategy, roadmap, and execution in collaboration with product and design partners, while fostering an environment where team members can do their best work. This role is a player-coach position, with the majority of time spent on people management, priorities, and delivery, while remaining close enough to the code to review PRs, unblock technical challenges, and guide API design. The Engineering Manager will also join a group of managers shaping the Engineering organization's culture and collaborate with various cross-functional teams.

Requirements

• 3+ years of engineering leadership experience.
• 5+ years of experience as a software engineer.
• Deep experience with TypeScript and React, including state management, hooks, module systems, bundling, and core browser concepts.
• Experience building libraries, SDKs, or developer tools.
• Experience working at a product or SaaS company as an engineering manager or senior engineer.
• Experience working closely with product managers and designers.
• Comfortable working with remote and distributed teams.
• Clear and concise communication of technical designs, both written and verbal.
• Pragmatic approach to problem-solving and a focus on not blocking dependent teams.
• Empathy for developers using the team's products.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Go, Vite, or Zustand.
• Experience maintaining a meaningful open-source project.
• Experience with API or SDK design at a developer platform company.
• A strong point of view on how AI-assisted development impacts SDK design.
• Experience with automated browser testing and Node.js.
• Startup experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of engineers, helping them prioritize for impact, develop their careers, and achieve their best work.
• Own strategy, roadmap, and execution in close collaboration with product and design partners.
• Set technical direction, guiding architecture decisions for a large-scale TypeScript codebase, balancing velocity with maintainability.
• Design user-friendly APIs for internal and external developers.
• Contribute technically through code reviews, pairing, and coding where most beneficial to the team.
• Manage an open-source project, including triage, contribution paths, changelogs, and community engagement.
• Champion developer experience through features like automatic type generation, hot reload, and one-command deploy.
• Measure SDK adoption and developer productivity metrics.
• Collaborate with engineering leadership, product, design, DevRel, and partnerships to align on shared goals.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health plans and perks
• A healthy work-life balance that accommodates individual and family needs
• Competitive salary and stock options program
• A highly-skilled, inspiring, and supportive team
• Positive, flexible, and trust-based work environment that encourages long-term professional and personal growth
• A global, multi-culturally diverse group of colleagues and customers

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed