Sr Manager, Software Engineering

Company

Cox Automotive - USA

Engineering / Product Development

Sr Manager, Software Engineering

Sr Manager - People LeaderHybrid - Ability to work remotely part of the week

Yes, 5% of the time

Day

Compensation

Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $148,500.00 - $247,500.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.

Sr Manager, Software Engineering - Xtime

Leads multiple Engineering Development teams across application and data disciplines, with accountability for customer-facing products and the data and analytics that support them. Drives improvements in functionality, performance, reliability, and usability while standing up new teams to deliver customer outcomes in a SaaS environment. Champions and operationalizes an AI-first model, embedding AI-assisted development, agentic workflows, and intelligent product capabilities into how teams build, ship, and operate software.

Directs the product-development lifecycle — research, new development, modification, security, re-engineering, and ongoing maintenance — across an integration-heavy cloud stack and a modern data and analytics platform, operated to enterprise engineering standards. Provides both team and technical leadership and guides key technology decisions for core platforms and client-facing offerings. Partners with Product, Architecture, QE, DBA, and data counterparts on cross-domain delivery, and identifies and implements organizational and process improvements to drive efficiency and effectiveness. Demonstrates strong use of AI-assisted tools and workflows to accelerate delivery, improve quality, and generate insights, while keeping teams current with emerging technologies and industry trends.

Primary Duties / Key Responsibilities

• Provides leadership and direction to Engineering teams and leaders across application development and data engineering, including managers and senior individual contributors.
• Plans short-term efforts requiring contributions from multiple team members and participates in planning medium- to long-term initiatives, including quarterly and annual team plans and large-scale projects.
• Leads mentoring and performance development, fostering innovation, continuous improvement, and high-quality service delivery.
• Prioritizes client, technical, and business requirements into a roadmap that defines strategy, timelines, and feature delivery; makes informed trade-off decisions across features, resources, and timelines.
• Defines and tracks team success metrics, including delivery reliability, defect rates, customer adoption, and operational health.
• Contributes to staffing strategy and organizational design. Engages with internal and external clients to identify and resolve issues and serves as a technical advisor to cross-functional teams.
• Contributes to budget management, vendor expense approvals, and agreement negotiations; may also act as a product evangelist for internal and external stakeholders.
• Owns engineering delivery in emerging, high-traffic Xtime product areas supporting technician and service-advisor workflows, where pricing, parts, and integration accuracy directly impact customer experience. Evaluates system impact and downstream dependencies across Xtime products and partner ecosystems.
• Stands up and matures a data engineering function alongside application development teams, with accountability for delivering customer-facing reporting, BI, and partner data outcomes. Defines the operating model, hiring strategy, and support structure.
• Directs the design, build, deployment, and operation of data solutions, including real-time and batch pipelines, dimensional models, and secure data access layers supporting BI, partner integrations, and analytics.
• Engages with Product, Architecture, Data, and external partners (e.g., OEMs, DMS vendors) to balance application delivery with foundational data platform needs and ensure consistent customer-facing outcomes.
• Drives adoption of AI-assisted and spec-driven development practices across engineering teams, with measurable improvements in productivity and quality.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a related discipline and 8 years' experience in a related field with at least 3 years' experience in a management or lead role; or a different combination, such as a master's degree and 6 years' experience; or PhD and 3 years' experience; or 12 years' experience in a related field with no degree.
• 4+ years’ experience in production operation of cloud-native SaaS platforms on AWS (EKS, S3, IAM, Secrets Manager) with Terraform / Terragrunt IaC.
• 4+ years working with Java / Spring Boot applications at scale, paired with modern web front-ends; experience with brownfield modernization (e.g., monolith decomposition, legacy-to-Aurora-PostgreSQL migration).
• Ownership of modern data warehouse and pipeline solutions, including Snowflake (or equivalent), change-data-capture, orchestrated ELT, dimensional modeling, and external data-sharing.
• Experience managing multi-tenant, multi-partner integrations, including OEM data feeds, DMS contracts, and data isolation requirements.
• Strong observability and resiliency practices, including APM, structured logging, on-call rotations, readiness reviews, and SLO-based health management.
• Strong analytical, communication, and leadership skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and develop high-performing teams.
• Experience managing teams in a regulated, customer-facing SaaS environment with regular release cadence and urgent escalation paths.
• Experience standing up new functions (hiring plans, operating models, success metrics) while maintaining existing delivery streams.
• Cross-functional partnership with Product, Architecture, DBA, QE, Data Governance, and external partners; experience managing vendor integrations and cloud spend.
• Experience operating within Agile Release Train environments, including backlog planning, KTLO vs. investment prioritization, and delivery traceability.

Preferred

• Experience with enterprise data catalog tools (e.g., Collibra) and modernization of legacy reporting platforms.
• Experience supporting BI and analytics products for dealer, OEM, or regulated consumer environments.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted engineering and spec-driven development workflows.

To be employed in this role, you’ll need to clear a pre-employment drug test. Cox Automotive does not currently administer a pre-employment drug test for marijuana for this position. However, we are a drug-free workplace, so the possession, use or being under the influence of drugs illegal under federal or state law during work hours, on company property and/or in company vehicles is prohibited.

The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company’s needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.Through groundbreaking technology and a commitment to stellar experiences for drivers and dealers alike, Cox Automotive employees are transforming the way the world buys, owns, sells – or simply uses – cars. Cox Automotive employees get to work on iconic consumer brands like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book and industry-leading dealer-facing companies like vAuto and Manheim, all while enjoying the people-centered atmosphere that is central to our life at Cox. Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page. Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer – All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual’s age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law. Cox provides reasonable accommodations when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with disability, unless such accommodations would cause an undue hardship.

EOE, including disability/vets