Explore Manager, Software Engineering - Developer Tools jobs and discover a pivotal leadership role at the intersection of software development, infrastructure, and productivity. Professionals in this discipline lead teams that build the foundational platforms, frameworks, and applications that empower other engineers to innovate faster, with higher quality and greater efficiency. This is not about building customer-facing products directly, but about creating the tools, systems, and environments that accelerate the entire software development lifecycle for an organization. A Manager of Software Engineering for Developer Tools typically oversees teams responsible for areas such as CI/CD pipelines, internal SDKs and libraries, code review and analysis tools, testing frameworks, deployment systems, and developer portals. Their core mission is to improve developer productivity, streamline workflows, and enforce best practices through scalable, reliable, and intuitive tooling. They act as a force multiplier, ensuring that product engineering teams can focus on feature development with minimal friction from their toolchain. Common responsibilities for this profession include setting the technical vision and roadmap for the developer tools ecosystem, managing and mentoring engineers and often other engineering managers, and closely collaborating with product, platform, and security teams to understand developer pain points. They are accountable for the operational health, performance, and adoption of their teams' tools. A significant part of the role involves strategic planning, resource allocation, and fostering a culture of customer-centricity where the internal developers are the primary customers. Typical skills and requirements for these leadership jobs include a strong background in software engineering with hands-on experience in building developer-facing systems or platforms. Proven experience in people management, including hiring, coaching, and career development, is essential, with many roles requiring experience managing other managers. Successful candidates possess a deep understanding of software development methodologies, DevOps principles, and modern cloud infrastructure. They must excel in cross-functional collaboration, possess strong strategic and analytical thinking to measure developer productivity impact, and have outstanding communication skills to advocate for tooling investments and drive organization-wide adoption. If you are passionate about elevating engineering excellence at scale and leading teams that build the bedrock of innovation, exploring Manager, Software Engineering - Developer Tools jobs could be your next career step.
