Senior Engineering Manager, Search Runtime

Working at Atlassian
Atlassians can choose where they work - whether in an office, from home, or a combination of the two. That way, Atlassians have more control over supporting their family, personal goals, and other priorities. We can hire people in any country where we have a legal entity. Interviews and onboarding are conducted virtually, a part of being a distributed-first company.
About the Team
The Search Runtime team powers the intelligence behind Rovo search - Atlassian's next-generation AI assistant - delivering real-time, ML-powered search across Jira, Confluence, and all Atlassian cloud products. We build and operate the high-performance, low-latency systems that make Rovo's search fast, context-aware, and reliable for millions of users.
What You'll Do

• Lead and grow a high-performing engineering team based in ANZ, building the core runtime for ML-powered search at Atlassian scale.
• Architect and optimize distributed systems for very low latency, high reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Accelerate developer and experiment loops for ML-driven search-enabling rapid iteration, A/B testing, and fast deployment of new ranking models and features.
• Collaborate closely with ML engineers, product, and AI teams to turn research into production quickly.
• Drive technical strategy and execution for search infrastructure, ensuring Rovo delivers instant, relevant answers across all enterprise knowledge.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, continuous learning, and innovation.

What We're Looking For

• Proven experience leading engineering teams (4+ years) running business-critical, distributed systems in search, information retrieval, or ML-powered platforms domains.
• Deep technical expertise in building and operating large-scale, low-latency systems.
• Track record of enabling fast, iterative delivery and experimentation for ML or search features.
• Passion for mentoring, developing talent, and building inclusive, high-performing teams. Experience cultivating teams where people love working together, exceed their own expectations and are able to transform the experience for their customers.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence across engineering, product, and AI research.

Why Join Us?

• Shape the future of AI-powered search and knowledge discovery at Atlassian.
• Work with world-class engineers on cutting-edge distributed systems and ML challenges.
• Make a direct impact on how teams everywhere find and use knowledge.
• Be at the heart of Atlassian's AI transformation, powering Rovo and the next wave of intelligent teamwork.

Benefits & Perks
Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/perksandbenefits .
About Atlassian
At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together.
We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone's perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them.
To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit go.atlassian.com/crh .