Software Engineering Manager

Microsoft • Vancouver, BC

19d • Remote

About The Position

This role is open to candidates across Canada who are able and willing to relocate to Vancouver upon hire. The AI team is part of the larger ES365 (Microsoft 365 Engineering Systems) team and owns the agentic engineering platform being adopted across all of Microsoft. ES365 owns the tools and systems used by thousands of Microsoft developers. The ES365 AI team is focused on building the agentic platform and the experiences on top of it. Developers and codebase owners who use these tools are the customers, providing a tight feedback loop and domain expertise. Example workstreams have included AI-assisted large-scale codebase refactoring, automated package integrations, deep architectural Q&A over codebases, and human-in-the-loop directed code changes. The team is looking for an experienced Software Engineering Manager to lead and grow engineering talent. In this role, you will partner closely with principal engineers and technical leads to shape the direction of the ESAI platform, ensure the team is operating with clarity and momentum, and build an environment where engineers do their best work. You will also serve as a connector, bridging the team's work with partner teams across Microsoft working on AI-powered developer productivity. Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees, we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
• Proven experience managing software engineering teams, including hiring, performance management, and career development.
• A solid software engineering background — you don't need to be writing production code daily, but you should be able to engage deeply with technical decisions, review designs, and earn credibility with high-level engineers.
• Track record of delivering software projects end-to-end: scoping, planning, shipping, and iterating along with solid communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to operate effectively across engineering, product, and leadership stakeholders while being comfortable leading in ambiguous, fast-moving problem spaces where best practices are still being established.
• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

• Personal experience using AI-powered developer tooling and coding assistants, such as: GitHub Copilot and Copilot Workspace — AI pair programming, CLI, and task-oriented development, Claude Code — agentic CLI for autonomous software engineering tasks, OpenAI Codex / ChatGPT — LLM-based code generation and explanation, Cursor — AI-native code editor with inline generation and multi-file edits
• Prior experience using agentic plugins, agents, skills, hooks, etc.
• Hands-on experience (as an IC or manager) building systems that leverage Agent SDKs, large language models (LLMs), prompt engineering, or AI orchestration frameworks.
• Familiarity with agentic AI development patterns — multi-step reasoning, tool/function calling, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and human-in-the-loop workflows.
• Ability to evaluate and form informed opinions on emerging AI developer tools, and translate those insights into team strategy and best practices.
• Background in developer tooling, build systems, CI/CD pipelines, or engineering systems at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow, and retain a team of talented software engineers working on AI-powered developer productivity tooling.
• Partner with technical leads and principal engineers to set team direction, prioritize work, and ensure alignment with broader ES365 and Microsoft goals.
• Drive clarity on team goals, project milestones, and success metrics — translating strategy into executable plans.
• Foster a culture of experimentation and resilience, where the team feels empowered to try novel AI approaches, learn from failures, and iterate quickly.
• Own the career development of your engineers — providing regular coaching, feedback, and growth opportunities.
• Champion the use of AI in your team's daily workflows and stay current on the evolving landscape of AI developer tools and agentic systems.
• Build and maintain strong cross-team partnerships with other groups at Microsoft working on AI, developer tooling, and engineering systems.
• Recruit and hire exceptional engineering talent to grow the team.
• Contribute positively to a culture where everyone can bring their full and authentic self and where we do our best work as a result.

Benefits

• This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior