Software Engineering Manager - AI Developer Tools

Figma is on a mission to make design accessible to all, helping cross-functional product teams brainstorm, prototype, translate designs into code, and iterate with AI in real time.

Figma's AI Tools team builds the AI-powered workflows, platforms, and tooling that make every engineer across the company more productive. From agentic CI auto-fixing and AI-assisted code reviews to background cloud agents that convert Slack messages into production pull requests, this team owns the AI platform transforming how Figma builds software. Operating across a three-layer platform stack—sandbox runtime infrastructure, cloud agents, and workflow orchestration—the team ships org-wide developer tools that compound velocity across hundreds of engineers.

As Engineering Manager for AI Tools, you will lead, scale, and mentor an elite team of engineers building cloud agent infrastructure and developer workflows. You will set technical strategy, drive platform reliability, evaluate emerging AI models/agent frameworks (MCP, Temporal, Claude Code), and partner with DevEx, Infrastructure, and Security leadership to maximize engineering productivity company-wide.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Scaling: Hire, onboard, and grow an engineering team responsible for Figma's AI developer workflows and cloud agent platform; establish team culture, execution cadence, and operational processes.
• Technical Strategy & Roadmap: Own the technical strategy for AI Developer Experience, spanning sandbox runtime infrastructure, cloud agent reliability, workflow orchestration, and org-wide agentic coding tools.
• Platform Reliability & Scale: Drive the reliability, observability, and scalability of Figma's cloud agent platform, ensuring background agents and auto-fixing CI pipelines meet production-grade standards.
• Cross-Functional DevEx Partnership: Partner with Product Engineering, Security, Infrastructure, and Developer Experience teams to identify high-leverage AI opportunities and accelerate org-wide adoption.
• Build vs. Buy Evaluation: Evaluate and integrate emerging AI models, tools, and agent frameworks, making strategic decisions on which capabilities to build in-house versus purchase.
• AI Evaluation Frameworks: Establish quantitative evaluation frameworks to measure the quality, accuracy, latency, cost, and developer impact of AI-generated code and agentic workflows.
• People Management & Mentorship: Coach and mentor engineers through career development, performance reviews, and technical leadership, fostering a culture of ownership, speed, and execution.

Requirements

Management & AI Engineering Depth

• 3+ years of experience managing infrastructure, platform, or developer experience (DevEx) engineering teams, with a proven track record of scaling teams and shipping production systems.
• Staff-Level Technical Background: Strong software engineering background with Staff-level or above technical depth prior to moving into engineering management, including deep knowledge of distributed systems, platform architecture, and production infrastructure.
• AI/ML & Agent Systems Fluency: Demonstrated fluency with AI/ML systems, LLM-based workflows, or agent architectures as a builder, with the ability to evaluate trade-offs in non-deterministic systems.
• Hiring & Org Growth: Track record of recruiting, onboarding, and retaining top engineering talent in fast-paced, high-growth tech environments.
• Technical Direction & Alignment: Proven ability to establish technical direction, drive cross-functional alignment, and balance execution speed with long-term platform sustainability.

Work Logistics

• Ability to work remotely within the United States or from one of Figma's US office hubs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct hands-on experience building AI developer tooling, background agent platforms, or AI-assisted software engineering workflows.
• Familiarity with agentic frameworks and tools (Claude Code, Cursor), background agent architectures, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations.
• Experience with workflow orchestration engines (Temporal, n8n, Tines) for multi-stage background automation.
• Background in developer experience platforms, including CI/CD automation, build systems (Bazel/Blaze), or large polyglot monorepos.
• Experience developing custom evaluation, benchmarking, and quality frameworks for AI LLM outputs.

Total Rewards & Benefits

• Compensation & Equity: Base salary range of $258,000 – $376,000 USD + annual bonus plan eligibility + equity compensation package.
• Comprehensive Healthcare: Health, dental, and vision coverage, plus mental health and reproductive/family planning benefits.
• Financial & Retirement: 401(k) retirement plan with company contributions, cell phone and home internet reimbursements, and lifestyle spending accounts.
• Flexible Time Off: Employer-provided flexible PTO, flexible paid sick leave, company recharge days, and paid parental leave.