Manager, Software Engineering - Developer Experience

Job title: Manager, Software Engineering - Developer Experience

At ClickUp, we're building the future of work: the first truly converged AI workspace unifying tasks, docs, chat, calendar, and enterprise search, all supercharged by context-driven AI. We are an AI-native company. Every team member is expected to leverage AI daily, and we evaluate AI fluency as part of our hiring process. Join us and help redefine what's possible. 🚀

Role Overview

As the Engineering Manager - Developer Productivity, you will lead a high-impact team focused on improving developer workflows, reducing friction, and enhancing the overall engineering experience. You’ll collaborate across teams to identify bottlenecks, implement scalable solutions, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Your work will directly influence the speed, quality, and happiness of our engineering organization.

Responsibilities

• Infrastructure & Tooling

• Oversee the development and maintenance of CI/CD pipelines, build systems, and internal tools, including AI-powered internal tooling and agents.

• Ensure our developer infrastructure is scalable, reliable, and secure.

• Evaluate and implement new AI-native technologies, considering token economics, compute costs, and AI spend alongside productivity gains.

• Team Leadership & AI People Development

• Build, mentor, and lead a team of engineers focused on developer productivity.

• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability.

• Set clear goals and provide regular feedback to drive team performance in partnership with your Director.

• Assess each report's AI fluency level (Assisted, Augmented, Native) and set individual growth targets.

• Include AI fluency as a coaching topic in 1:1s; pair less AI-fluent engineers with AI-native peers for knowledge transfer.

• Create space for AI experimentation: dedicated time, safe-to-fail projects, and learning sprints.

• Recognize and reward AI-driven improvements in performance conversations.

• Collaboration & Communication

• Work closely with engineering, product, and design teams to align priorities.

• Advocate for developer needs and ensure alignment with company goals.

• Communicate capabilities and limitations to non-technical stakeholders.

• Write specs, rules files, and documentation that make AI more effective for the whole team.

• Metrics & Continuous Improvement

• Define and track key metrics to measure developer productivity, satisfaction, and AI-driven productivity gains.

• Use data-driven insights to prioritize initiatives and demonstrate impact.

• Track team-level AI adoption metrics and report on AI-augmented workflow effectiveness.

• Continuously iterate on processes to improve engineering velocity and quality.

• AI-Native Developer Experience

• Identify and eliminate pain points in the development lifecycle, with a focus on AI-augmented workflows.

• Drive adoption of AI coding tools (Cursor, Brain, copilots) as the default across engineering teams.

• Ensure every team member has access to and is actively using AI tools; track adoption and remove blockers (tooling, access, training).

• Partner with engineering teams to design AI-augmented development workflows that multiply team velocity.

• Coach engineers on the Builder model: planning, delegating to agents, reviewing with judgment, and shipping with velocity.

• AI Governance & Risk

• Ensure the team follows AI usage guidelines (data handling, code review, IP considerations).

• Flag risks from AI-generated code (security, correctness, licensing) proactively.

• Maintain visibility into what AI tools the team is using and how they're being used.

• Run regular retros and feedback loops on AI-related outcomes.

• Review AI-generated outputs alongside the team to build shared quality standards.

Qualifications

• Experience: 7+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years in a leadership role managing engineering teams.

• Technical Expertise: Strong understanding of developer tools, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software development practices. Hands-on experience with AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or similar) and an understanding of how to integrate them into engineering workflows.

• AI Fluency: Demonstrated ability to operate at the AI Augmented level or above: you personally use AI tools daily and have coached others on effective AI-assisted development. Familiar with prompt engineering, context engineering, and token economics.

• Builder Mindset: Comfortable with the 80/20 model (planning and review vs. direct execution). Experience orchestrating work across humans and AI agents, with strong judgment on when to delegate to AI vs. when human decision-making is critical.

• Leadership

Skills

• Proven ability to build and lead high-performing teams. Experience assessing and developing AI fluency across a team.

• Problem-Solving: Track record of identifying inefficiencies and implementing scalable solutions, including building or adopting AI-powered tooling and eval frameworks.

• Governance Awareness: Understanding of AI & non-AI related risks (security, correctness, licensing, data handling) and experience establishing quality standards for outputs.

• Collaboration: Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills. Ability to translate AI capabilities and limitations to non-technical audiences.

• Mindset: Passion for improving developer experiences and driving organizational impact through AI-native practices with a customer first mentality.

• Why Join Us?

• Impactful Work: Shape the future of developer productivity at a fast-growing, AI-native SaaS company.

• AI-Native Culture: Work in an organization that treats AI as a core competency, not a nice-to-have, with industry-leading investment in AI tooling, agents, and engineering workflows.

• Builder Operating Model: Join a team that's redefining how software gets built: orchestrating AI agents, shipping with compound engineering, and measuring what matters.

• Growth Opportunities: Advance your career on a clear AI-native career pathway with structured fluency levels and development support.

• Flexible Environment: Enjoy the freedom of remote work with a global team.

• Equal Opportunity Employer

• ClickUp is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.