Engineering Senior Manager Jobs in San Francisco, CA
Engineering Senior Manager jobs in San Francisco are in strong demand, concentrated in SoMa, Mission Bay, and the Financial District across technology, biotech, and enterprise software. Employers hiring right now include Rippling, Salesforce, and HARVEY. Scan the live roles below and apply to whichever ones fit.
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Showing 5 of 652+ Engineering Senior Manager jobs
At Thorn, our cause is our code. We are a nonprofit whose mission of defending children from sexual exploitation and abuse is deeply embedded within our core—a shared code that drives us to do challenging work with resilience and determination.
Here, you'll work and grow among the best hearts and the best minds in tech, data, and business alongside our network of independent partners, NGOs, and law enforcement agencies. Together, we're focused on building technology that protects children's futures. We are looking for dynamic problem solvers with the desire to help address some of today's toughest issues. You'll collaborate with a diverse group of peers in a remote environment centered on wellness, care, and compassion.
In 2019, we took the stage at TED and shared our audacious goal of eliminating child sexual abuse material from the internet. Come join us to help make this goal a reality and build a world where every child can be safe, curious, and happy.
About the Role
Our Build Team develops and supports the products and tools that empower our industry and law enforcement partners to combat child sexual abuse online. As a Senior Engineering Manager, you'll lead a team of engineers who bring different technical strengths to this work, connecting user experiences, backend services, data systems, and cloud infrastructure into products that deliver meaningful impact.
You'll partner closely with Product, UX, and technical leaders to shape what we build and how we build it. You'll help your team turn complex problems into clear plans, make thoughtful technical decisions, and deliver useful, reliable products. Along the way, you'll earn trust, develop people, and create an environment where engineers can bring their expertise, learn from one another, and take ownership of outcomes.
What You'll Do
- Lead a high-performing, collaborative, and inclusive team of engineers with varied technical specialties across the stack. Build a culture of curiosity, healthy disagreement, learning, and accountability.
- Partner closely with Product, UX, and technical leaders to understand user needs, shape product direction, and guide work from discovery and experimentation through release and iteration.
- Work with technical leads and engineers to evaluate solutions across frontend applications, backend services, APIs, data systems, and infrastructure. Connect decisions across specialties and empower the people closest to the work to lead.
- Create clarity around priorities, ownership, capacity, and expectations. Coordinate dependencies, surface risks early, clear roadblocks, and continually improve practices across the software development lifecycle to support effective planning, coordination, and delivery.
- Balance product delivery with technical investments that improve reliability, security, privacy, maintainability, and developer experience. Help the team make deliberate choices about technical debt and long-term system health.
- Collaborate with engineers, technical leaders, and cross-functional partners to navigate shared challenges, build alignment, and strengthen engineering practices across Build.
- Manage and develop your direct reports through consistent 1-1s, quarterly check-ins, coaching, and timely, candid feedback. Set clear expectations, recognize strong performance, address concerns thoughtfully and directly, and proactively protect their wellness.
- Support engineers with different skills, experience levels, and career goals by creating meaningful growth opportunities, developing technical leadership skills, and delegating ownership.
- Define and lead the hiring process for your team in partnership with People & Culture, bringing diverse perspectives into the process and hiring for technical strength, collaboration, and mission alignment.
What We're Looking For
- You have a commitment to putting the children we serve at the center of everything you do.
- You have a demonstrated track record of managing and developing software engineers, building strong teams, and delivering products that meet real user needs.
- You bring a strong software engineering foundation and experience leading engineers across frontend, backend, data systems, and cloud infrastructure. You can guide technical decisions, connect work across specialties, and draw on the deeper expertise of others.
- You have a passion for product engineering and experience partnering with Product and Design to turn ambiguous problems into practical solutions, learn from results, and improve what comes next.
- You demonstrate strong judgment in balancing user needs, technical constraints, delivery commitments, engineering quality, and team capacity. You adapt thoughtfully to emerging needs and shifting priorities, helping others understand tradeoffs and move forward with clarity.
- You care for people and have experience setting clear expectations, providing candid feedback, and supporting engineers with varied skills and career goals. You lead with empathy, humility, and accountability.
- You collaborate across disciplines and team boundaries, earning trust through curiosity and follow-through, working through disagreements constructively, and helping others find shared direction.
- You communicate clearly, efficiently, and thoughtfully with technical and non-technical audiences. We're a highly-distributed team, so strong written communication and accessible documentation of decisions and context are crucial.
Technologies We Use
Our work spans the technologies below. We value the ability to lead across specialties and learn new systems; experience with every technology listed is not expected.
- Python 3 / TypeScript
- React / Node / Express
- GraphQL / Prisma / Apollo
- PostgreSQL / Elasticsearch
- Docker / Kubernetes / Terraform
- AWS / Google Cloud
- Amazon SQS / Google PubSub / RabbitMQ / Kafka
Compensation and Benefits
A reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role is $150,000-$207,000/year. This range takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to location; skill sets; experience and training; licensure, and certifications.
Our remote-first work model is structured around working from home most of the time. But, there will be times that employees are expected to travel. For example, Thorn may host company-wide gatherings, and smaller teams may hold in-person meetings and team-building events, or require attendance at specific conferences.
At Thorn, we know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and offer employees a broad range of benefits. Learn more about what working at Thorn can mean for you.
Thorn is strengthened by the wide range of experiences and perspectives on our team. We value the diversity of our professional backgrounds, subject matter expertise, cultures, and perspectives because they help us solve complex problems and serve our mission more effectively. We hire based on merit, qualifications, and organizational need, and we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all employees can thrive.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
Thorn is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. We provide reasonable accommodations to ensure candidates and employees with disabilities can fully participate in the application process, perform essential job functions, and access all the benefits and privileges of employment. If you need an accommodation, please contact us at hiring@wearethorn.org
Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal
At Thorn, our cause is our code. We are a nonprofit whose mission of defending children from sexual exploitation and abuse is deeply embedded within our core—a shared code that drives us to do challenging work with resilience and determination.
Here, you'll work and grow among the best hearts and the best minds in tech, data, and business alongside our network of independent partners, NGOs, and law enforcement agencies. Together, we're focused on building technology that protects children's futures. We are looking for dynamic problem solvers with the desire to help address some of today's toughest issues. You'll collaborate with a diverse group of peers in a remote environment centered on wellness, care, and compassion.
In 2019, we took the stage at TED and shared our audacious goal of eliminating child sexual abuse material from the internet. Come join us to help make this goal a reality and build a world where every child can be safe, curious, and happy.
About the Role
Our Build Team develops and supports the products and tools that empower our industry and law enforcement partners to combat child sexual abuse online. As a Senior Engineering Manager, you'll lead a team of engineers who bring different technical strengths to this work, connecting user experiences, backend services, data systems, and cloud infrastructure into products that deliver meaningful impact.
You'll partner closely with Product, UX, and technical leaders to shape what we build and how we build it. You'll help your team turn complex problems into clear plans, make thoughtful technical decisions, and deliver useful, reliable products. Along the way, you'll earn trust, develop people, and create an environment where engineers can bring their expertise, learn from one another, and take ownership of outcomes.
What You'll Do
- Lead a high-performing, collaborative, and inclusive team of engineers with varied technical specialties across the stack. Build a culture of curiosity, healthy disagreement, learning, and accountability.
- Partner closely with Product, UX, and technical leaders to understand user needs, shape product direction, and guide work from discovery and experimentation through release and iteration.
- Work with technical leads and engineers to evaluate solutions across frontend applications, backend services, APIs, data systems, and infrastructure. Connect decisions across specialties and empower the people closest to the work to lead.
- Create clarity around priorities, ownership, capacity, and expectations. Coordinate dependencies, surface risks early, clear roadblocks, and continually improve practices across the software development lifecycle to support effective planning, coordination, and delivery.
- Balance product delivery with technical investments that improve reliability, security, privacy, maintainability, and developer experience. Help the team make deliberate choices about technical debt and long-term system health.
- Collaborate with engineers, technical leaders, and cross-functional partners to navigate shared challenges, build alignment, and strengthen engineering practices across Build.
- Manage and develop your direct reports through consistent 1-1s, quarterly check-ins, coaching, and timely, candid feedback. Set clear expectations, recognize strong performance, address concerns thoughtfully and directly, and proactively protect their wellness.
- Support engineers with different skills, experience levels, and career goals by creating meaningful growth opportunities, developing technical leadership skills, and delegating ownership.
- Define and lead the hiring process for your team in partnership with People & Culture, bringing diverse perspectives into the process and hiring for technical strength, collaboration, and mission alignment.
What We're Looking For
- You have a commitment to putting the children we serve at the center of everything you do.
- You have a demonstrated track record of managing and developing software engineers, building strong teams, and delivering products that meet real user needs.
- You bring a strong software engineering foundation and experience leading engineers across frontend, backend, data systems, and cloud infrastructure. You can guide technical decisions, connect work across specialties, and draw on the deeper expertise of others.
- You have a passion for product engineering and experience partnering with Product and Design to turn ambiguous problems into practical solutions, learn from results, and improve what comes next.
- You demonstrate strong judgment in balancing user needs, technical constraints, delivery commitments, engineering quality, and team capacity. You adapt thoughtfully to emerging needs and shifting priorities, helping others understand tradeoffs and move forward with clarity.
- You care for people and have experience setting clear expectations, providing candid feedback, and supporting engineers with varied skills and career goals. You lead with empathy, humility, and accountability.
- You collaborate across disciplines and team boundaries, earning trust through curiosity and follow-through, working through disagreements constructively, and helping others find shared direction.
- You communicate clearly, efficiently, and thoughtfully with technical and non-technical audiences. We're a highly-distributed team, so strong written communication and accessible documentation of decisions and context are crucial.
Technologies We Use
Our work spans the technologies below. We value the ability to lead across specialties and learn new systems; experience with every technology listed is not expected.
- Python 3 / TypeScript
- React / Node / Express
- GraphQL / Prisma / Apollo
- PostgreSQL / Elasticsearch
- Docker / Kubernetes / Terraform
- AWS / Google Cloud
- Amazon SQS / Google PubSub / RabbitMQ / Kafka
Compensation and Benefits
A reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role is $150,000-$207,000/year. This range takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to location; skill sets; experience and training; licensure, and certifications.
Our remote-first work model is structured around working from home most of the time. But, there will be times that employees are expected to travel. For example, Thorn may host company-wide gatherings, and smaller teams may hold in-person meetings and team-building events, or require attendance at specific conferences.
At Thorn, we know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and offer employees a broad range of benefits. Learn more about what working at Thorn can mean for you.
Thorn is strengthened by the wide range of experiences and perspectives on our team. We value the diversity of our professional backgrounds, subject matter expertise, cultures, and perspectives because they help us solve complex problems and serve our mission more effectively. We hire based on merit, qualifications, and organizational need, and we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all employees can thrive.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
Thorn is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. We provide reasonable accommodations to ensure candidates and employees with disabilities can fully participate in the application process, perform essential job functions, and access all the benefits and privileges of employment. If you need an accommodation, please contact us at hiring@wearethorn.org
Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal
See All 652+ Engineering Senior Manager Jobs in San Francisco
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Find JobsEngineering Senior Manager Job Market in San Francisco
Who's Hiring
- Rippling52
- Salesforce43
- HARVEY35
- Pinterest26
- Databricks26
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software122
- Healthcare & Medical Services26
- Consulting & Professional Services17
- Cybersecurity9
- Science & Research9
Engineering Senior Manager Jobs in San Francisco: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a engineering senior manager job in San Francisco?
The strongest path is targeting San Francisco's dense technology and biotech sectors, where engineering leadership roles turn over regularly and teams scale quickly. SoMa and Mission Bay concentrate the highest volume of openings, with mid-size growth-stage companies and large enterprise firms both hiring. Candidates who can show cross-functional ownership, a history of shipping products at scale, and familiarity with distributed engineering teams stand out in this market.
Which companies hire engineering senior managers in San Francisco?
Employers hiring engineering senior managers in San Francisco right now include Rippling, Salesforce, and HARVEY, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. San Francisco's hiring base skews toward technology platforms, fintech companies, and life sciences firms, many of which maintain substantial engineering organizations in the city.
Are there remote engineering senior manager jobs in San Francisco?
Yes, though availability depends on the role. Engineering senior manager work often requires on-site presence for team leadership, planning cycles, and cross-functional collaboration, so fully remote positions are less common than in individual contributor roles. About 67% of engineering senior manager openings tied to San Francisco are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, with hybrid arrangements most common among established technology and enterprise employers in SoMa and the Financial District.
How can I get a engineering senior manager job in San Francisco with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is moving from a staff or principal engineer role into a team lead or engineering manager position first, then building toward senior manager scope. San Francisco's growth-stage startups in SoMa and Mission Bay frequently promote from within and give early engineering managers broader ownership faster than large enterprises do. Demonstrating technical credibility alongside people management experience, even informally, accelerates that transition here.
Which industries hire the most engineering senior managers in San Francisco?
San Francisco engineering senior manager roles concentrate in Technology & Software, Healthcare & Medical Services, and Consulting & Professional Services, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. San Francisco's identity as a global technology hub, combined with its growing biotech presence in Mission Bay and its established fintech corridor, drives consistent demand for senior engineering leadership across those sectors.
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