Sr. Engineering Manager, Lowe's Innovation Labs

Lowe's Companies, Inc.•Kirkland, WA

5d•$147,400 - $280,100•Onsite

About The Position

Lowe’s Innovation Labs is a specialized innovation unit that keeps Lowe’s ahead of what’s next. We explore disruptive technologies, conduct hands-on applied R&D, and help the enterprise adopt promising new capabilities with less uncertainty and friction. The Sr Manager, Software Engineering – Innovation leads R&D engineering teams that focus on exploring and incubating promising experiences and capabilities for spatial computing platforms, next-gen wearables, and more, all with the goal of creating meaningful capabilities for Lowe’s customers, associates, and enterprise. This leader serves as a player/coach, combining hands-on experience with frontier technologies with deep engineering management discipline. Deep experience with emerging platforms and AI-augmented workflows—and the ability to guide multi-disciplinary engineers with diverse backgrounds—is a must. This role balances the speed and flexibility required for innovation with experience in navigating large enterprises and forging deep, cross-functional partnerships that lead to successful product/platform transitions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer information systems (CIS), or related field or equivalent years of experience in lieu of education requirement, if applicable
8 years of IT experience
8 years of experience in software engineering or related field
8 years of experience working on project(s) involving the implementation of software development life cycles (SDLC)
3 years of experience leading project or technical teams with or without formal direct report responsibility; this includes experience providing technical direction, thought leadership, and coaching and mentoring team members

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in computer science, CIS, or related field
5 years of experience in software development in an agile environment and working with third-party vendors/software solution providers
5 years of experience working in an IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework
3 years of experience in IT management in the retail industry
3 years of experience in an IT role requiring interaction with senior leadership

Responsibilities

Leads and develops high-performing engineering teams, setting clear expectations, providing coaching and feedback, managing performance, and fostering an inclusive culture where associates are encouraged to experiment, learn, and achieve their potential.
Inspires teams to push the boundaries of emerging technology while grounding exploration in clear hypotheses, learning objectives, customer needs, and potential business value.
Maintains strong working fluency in frontier technologies relevant to their focus area and broad awareness of adjacent areas such as advanced AI, agentic systems, robotics, spatial computing, digital twins, simulation, interactive 3D, and emerging hardware.
Evaluates emerging technologies, platforms, architectures, and development approaches and provides technical direction on their opportunities, limitations, risks, maturity, and applicability to Lowe’s.
Establishes AI-augmented ways of working across engineering, research, analysis, experimentation, testing, and communication, identifying durable opportunities where AI and automation can improve team throughput and quality.
Steers initiatives through a disciplined, applied R&D lifecycle from signal and exploration through prototype, proof of concept, pilot, and candidate for scale, establishing clear hypotheses, success metrics, learning objectives, and decision points to scale, pivot, continue, or stop.
Balances the portfolio across speculative exploration, focused incubation, and near-scale initiatives, making clear resource allocation and prioritization decisions as new technical, customer, and business signals emerge.
Establishes engineering standards, OKRs, and operating practices that balance experimentation speed with accountable delivery and ensures the appropriate level of quality, security, reliability, architecture, and operational readiness as solutions mature.
Identifies reusable technical capabilities, architectural patterns, tooling, and platforms that can accelerate multiple innovation initiatives and leads efforts to resolve systemic engineering or organizational barriers.
Maintains a deep understanding of Lowe’s customers, Pros, associates, operations, and business partners and ensures teams use field observations, customer and associate research, data, and experimentation to inform technology strategies and roadmaps.
Influences technical and business decisions using experimentation results, customer insights, data, and strong engineering judgment, representing Innovation Labs’ perspective and recommendations credibly with senior leaders.
Creates compelling narratives, executive presentations, demonstrations, and technical artifacts that clearly communicate the vision, opportunity, learnings, business value, roadmap, and risks of emerging technology initiatives, while coaching engineers to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.

Benefits

401k with up to 4.25% match
Discounted Employee Stock Purchase Plan (15% discount of strike price)
Tuition-Free Education
10-week Maternity/Parental Leave
10% Associate Discount
Health, Dental and Vision insurance
Life and Disability insurance
Paid time off based on role, tenure, and locality, including vacation, holidays, sick and volunteer time
Flexible spending and health savings accounts
401(k) Retirement account with company match
Employee Assistance Program with concierge, work/life services and no-cost counseling for all kinds of needs
Education support programs, including tuition assistance and trade skills scholarships
Business Travel Accident insurance
Maternity and Parental leave
Adoption assistance
Lowe's Associate Discount and broad discount platform
Annual bonuses
Enrollment in Lowe's Employee Stock Purchase Plan and/or deferred compensation plan
Grant awards