Sr. Manager, Software Engineering - Computer Backup

Backblaze External Website

11d•$205,000 - $255,000•Remote

About The Position

Backblaze is seeking a Senior Software Development Manager to lead the engineering team responsible for Backblaze Computer Backup, including its cross-platform desktop client and the backend services that receive, store, and restore customer data. The full Computer Backup engineering team reports into this role and operates through Desktop and Backend Leads, who manage the day-to-day work in their areas. The role sets the product’s long-term technical direction, owns its multi-quarter delivery strategy, and is accountable for team budget and results. It is a hands-on management position involving architecture discussions, code reviews, and technical decisions across desktop and backend engineering, alongside strategy, budgeting, and staff development. The manager partners with Product leadership to shape the roadmap and negotiate scope, schedule, and priorities; coordinates delivery with dedicated QA and release teams; and represents the team in executive reviews and discussions with major customers. The position also ensures consistent agile practices across both engineering areas and champions reliability, performance, maintainability, testing quality, and effective adoption of AI-assisted development. Backblaze describes its culture as remote-first, flat, and low-bureaucracy, with a focus on work-life balance, inclusion, and protecting customer data.

Requirements

7+ years of engineering management experience, including experience managing managers or team leads; ideally in cloud, SaaS, desktop software, or platform engineering.
Experience setting long-term technical direction and system architecture for a growing product or platform.
Experience owning multi-quarter technical and delivery strategy and helping shape a product roadmap.
Experience negotiating scope, schedule, and priorities with Product and senior leadership.
Experience being accountable for a team or departmental budget, including resourcing and investment decisions.
Deep experience with agile development processes, including Scrum, sprint planning, backlog management, estimation, and retrospectives.
Demonstrated experience managing distributed, remote engineering teams, with strong asynchronous communication and remote collaboration practices.
Strong software engineering background and deep system architecture expertise, with the ability to participate in technical discussions, design reviews, and architectural decisions.
Solid command of the full software development lifecycle, from requirements and design through deployment and production support.
Commitment to engineering quality, including unit testing and automated test coverage, and experience making testing part of a team’s everyday practice.
Experience delivering software across desktop clients, backend services, or both.
Excellent communication and negotiation skills, including the ability to work with senior leadership and major customers and escalate risks early with clear recommendations.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with AI agentic coding tools such as Claude Code and Codex.

Responsibilities

Lead the full Computer Backup engineering team, with Desktop and Backend Leads running the day-to-day work in their areas.
Set the product’s long-term technical direction and ensure architecture and platform decisions can support product and customer growth.
Own the multi-quarter delivery strategy and partner with Product leadership on the roadmap, scope, schedule, and priorities.
Manage the team’s budget and spend, aligning headcount, tooling, and infrastructure investments with business priorities.
Make technical and organizational decisions with broad, long-term impact, including decisions affecting shared platforms and infrastructure used by other teams.
Ensure the desktop and backend teams work effectively together with shared goals and a consistent agile delivery process.
Oversee agile processes, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, standups, and retrospectives, and ensure they are run well across both areas.
Own delivery across the client and backend from planning and design through implementation and post-launch support, partnering with QA and release teams.
Ensure the reliability, performance, and maintainability of the backup client and backend services.
Improve engineering quality by growing unit testing and automated test coverage and making testing a first-class part of development and delivery.
Participate hands-on in code reviews, architecture decisions, and technical problem-solving across desktop and server work.
Champion effective use of AI-assisted development tools, guide adoption of agentic coding practices, and establish norms for AI-augmented workflows.
Improve team productivity by identifying bottlenecks and investing in effective processes, tooling, and practices.
Negotiate significant matters with senior leadership and major customers, represent the team in executive reviews, and communicate risks and trade-offs with clear recommendations.
Develop staff and shape the strategy, structure, and leadership team of the product organization.