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 Bamboo

HR is contingent on passing both a background and credit check.

The Senior Engineering Manager for Platform APIs will lead the PlatAPI team in building Bamboo

HR’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 Bamboo

HR’s move toward a headless, API‑first, AI‑ready platform.

• Recruit, interview, hire, and develop engineers, senior engineers, and staff‑level engineers.
• Oversee the daily workflow, delivery cadence, and execution practices of the team.
• Provide structured, actionable feedback; perform timely and growth‑oriented evaluations.
• Handle coaching, performance concerns, and disciplinary processes in partnership with HR.
• Manage up to two scrum teams or 12–18 engineers across backend and frontend disciplines.
• Lead the engineering team responsible for Bamboo
  
  HR’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.

• 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, Dev Ops, observability, and secure‑by‑design engineering.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

• Experience building or scaling API platforms at a SaaS company.
• Prior work with API Gateways (e.g., Kong, Tyk, Apigee), Graph
  
  QL 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…