Sr. Engineering Manager - Platform APIs

Please Note: This is a Utah-based hybrid position which will require some regular in-office days each week. Additionally, employment with BambooHR is contingent on passing both a background and credit check.

AI at BambooHR
At BambooHR, we're all about setting people free to do great work, and we believe AI is a powerful partner in that mission. We're leaning into intelligent tools to streamline our workflows, giving us more time for high-impact innovation. We look for curious, forward-thinking people who are ready to explore how AI can elevate their work and help us reimagine the future of HR.

Essential Job Duties

The Senior Engineering Manager for Platform APIs will lead the PlatAPI team in building BambooHR's next-generation API platform. This role oversees the engineering teams responsible for API standards, the API Gateway rollout, developer enablement tooling, authentication modernization, and the foundational infrastructure required to support AI-agent consumption of Bamboo's APIs.

A typical day includes partnering with Product, Architecture, and other platform leaders to drive strategy; coaching engineers and tech leads; reviewing architectural decisions; unblocking cross-team dependencies; aligning rollout plans; and ensuring delivery quality. The Sr EM will play a central role in shaping BambooHR's move toward a headless, API-first, AI-ready platform.

You will:

• Recruits, interviews, hires, and develops engineers, senior engineers, and staff-level engineers.
• Oversees the daily workflow, delivery cadence, and execution practices of the team.
• Provides structured, actionable feedback; performs timely and growth-oriented evaluations.
• Handles coaching, performance concerns, and disciplinary processes in partnership with HR.
• Manages up to two scrum teams or 12–18 engineers across backend and frontend disciplines.
• Lead the engineering team responsible for BambooHR's Platform APIs, including API Gateway integration, API standards implementation, authentication upgrades, and developer enablement.
• Drive architectural alignment across multiple teams by partnering with Principal Engineers, Architects, and Product leaders.
• Elevate engineering quality through strong practices around versioning, schema evolution, authorization, observability, and platform health.
• Manage delivery of multi-team API features and platform rollouts with predictable execution and proactive risk mitigation.
• Build strong partnerships with Product, Program Management, Design, Data Engineering, and Agent Platform teams to ensure all stakeholders share context and direction.
• Support engineers' growth through coaching, role clarity, technical leadership development, and performance accountability.
• Establish a culture of ownership, psychological safety, continuous improvement, and outcome-driven engineering.

What You Need to Get the Job Done

• 7+ years in software engineering with 5+ years managing engineering teams; experience managing multiple teams or highly technical platform areas.
• Deep understanding of API architecture, versioning strategies, eventing/webhooks, authentication/authorization, and developer platform enablement.
• Experience driving platform modernization or leading teams through foundational technical rewrites (gateways, API ecosystems, schema evolution, etc.).
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills; able to partner with Product, Architecture, Data, and AI teams.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; able to translate complex technical strategy into actionable plans.
• Strong leadership abilities with a track record of developing engineers, senior engineers, and technical leaders.
• Proven ability to manage delivery across multiple initiatives, balance tradeoffs, and keep teams focused on highest-impact outcomes.
• Strong organizational skills; ability to maintain clarity across many moving pieces.
• Ability to thrive in a high-paced environment involving ambiguity, technical complexity, and cross-team dependencies.
• Proficient in modern development practices, CI/CD, DevOps, observability, and secure-by-design engineering.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

What Will Make Us REALLY Love You

• Experience building or scaling API platforms at a SaaS company.
• Prior work with API Gateways (e.g., Kong, Tyk, Apigee), GraphQL federation, or schema registries.
• Exposure to AI-agent architectures, LLM-driven API evaluation, or AI-readiness modeling.
• Experience working in platform engineering organizations or headless architecture transitions.
• Prior success managing PM-Engineering partnership structures for platform products.

What You'll Love About Us

• A Great Company Culture that has been recognized by multiple organizations like Inc, and Salt Lake Tribune
• Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance
• Generous leave policies that include 4 weeks of vacation, 12 company holidays, parental leave, and volunteer time off so you can enjoy quality of life
• 401k plans with up to 6% company match
• $2000 Paid-Paid Vacation bonus
• EAP through Headspace
• Check out all our benefits that benefit you