Senior Manager - Machine Learning - Slack AI

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Job Category

Software Engineering

Job Details

About Salesforce

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About Slack AI:
 Slack AI's mission is to transform how people work by making Slack an AI-powered operating system. We're tackling significant challenges like unlocking collective knowledge and reducing noise, all while building a seamless, consumer-grade AI experience within users' existing workflows. Join us in shaping the future of work!
 About the Role:
Slackbot is Slack's AI assistant that we recently launched to help users find information, get answers, and take action without leaving their workflow. At the heart of Slackbot is our search and retrieval system, which powers the assistant's ability to surface relevant messages, files, and knowledge from across a user's workspace. As Slackbot adoption grows, we're expanding our Search Machine Learning team to drive the next wave of quality improvements—enhancing both the agentic search capabilities that power conversational interactions and the traditional recall mechanisms that ensure users get the most relevant results every time.
 We are looking for a highly motivated and experienced Senior Engineering Manager to lead our Search Machine Learning team at Slack. In this role, you'll be responsible for driving search quality improvements through machine learning and statistical techniques, working at the intersection of agentic and traditional recall search. You will partner closely with search product teams, fellow ML engineers, and ML infrastructure/platform teams to deliver production-ready models that directly enhance how millions of users find information in Slack. You'll blend strategic technical vision with hands-on collaboration, guiding your team of machine learning engineers to build innovative solutions that solve real user search problems. A successful candidate will be an experienced engineering leader with a track record of leading high-performing ML teams and deep knowledge of search systems, machine learning model development, and cross-functional collaboration needed to ship impactful ML-powered products.
You'll be accountable for delivering measurable improvements to how users find information in Slack—whether through next-generation agentic search capabilities or enhanced traditional recall mechanisms. Success in this role requires balancing hands-on technical leadership with strong people management, fostering a culture of experimentation and impact, and navigating the complexities of shipping ML models in a fast-paced production environment.
 What you’ll do:

• Define, evolve, and communicate the team's vision, mission, and strategy across Slack.
• Collaborate with Product, Infra, AI/ML and other technical leaders to define and execute on the team's roadmap, including team growth.
• Develop a deep understanding of Slack's AI and ML technical domain to inform engineering possibilities and drive creative technical solutions.
• Mentor and coach engineers to foster their technical growth and leadership potential.
• Own and drive the successful execution of projects.
• Partner effectively with other engineering leaders across the organization to solve high-priority challenges collaboratively.
   

What you should have:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 4+ years of experience as an Engineering Manager leading software development teams.
• Experience managing machine learning engineers and understanding the unique challenges of ML development lifecycles (experimentation, model training, evaluation, deployment).
• Deep understanding of search systems and ranking algorithms, with experience shipping search quality improvements at scale.
• Track record of establishing metrics and evaluation frameworks to measure ML model performance and search quality in production
• A strong understanding of modern AI/ML practices and trends.
• A passion for understanding technical landscapes and translating that knowledge into product possibilities in collaboration with Product and Design.
• A strong problem-solving mindset with a track record of finding creative solutions to complex challenges.
• The ability to navigate multiple and sometimes conflicting constraints to make timely decisions and anticipate future technical needs.
• Excellent skills in building roadmaps and developing long-term team vision in partnership with Product Management and other engineering teams.
• Strong technical judgment to balance research exploration with pragmatic engineering decisions that deliver user impact.
• Demonstrated ability to drive projects to successful completion.
• A passion for developing engineers, providing constructive feedback, and fostering career growth.
• Familiarity with agentic AI systems or conversational search experiences is a plus
  *LI-Y

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.

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In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.

At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions. The typical base salary range for this position is $172,500 - $260,100 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.