Manager, Software Engineering - Developer Experience

At ClickUp, we're building the future of work: the first truly converged AI workspace unifying tasks, docs, chat, calendar, and enterprise search, all supercharged by context-driven AI. We are an AI-native company. Every team member is expected to leverage AI daily, and we evaluate AI fluency as part of our hiring process. Join us and help redefine what's possible. 🚀

Role OverviewAs the Engineering Manager - Developer Productivity, you will lead a high-impact team focused on improving developer workflows, reducing friction, and enhancing the overall engineering experience. You’ll collaborate across teams to identify bottlenecks, implement scalable solutions, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Your work will directly influence the speed, quality, and happiness of our engineering organization.

Responsibilities:- Infrastructure & Tooling

Oversee the development and maintenance of CI/CD pipelines, build systems, and internal tools, including AI-powered internal tooling and agents.

• Ensure our developer infrastructure is scalable, reliable, and secure.

• Evaluate and implement new AI-native technologies, considering token economics, compute costs, and AI spend alongside productivity gains.

• Team Leadership & AI People Development

Build, mentor, and lead a team of engineers focused on developer productivity.

• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability.

• Set clear goals and provide regular feedback to drive team performance in partnership with your Director.

• Assess each report's AI fluency level (Assisted, Augmented, Native) and set individual growth targets.

• Include AI fluency as a coaching topic in 1:1s; pair less AI-fluent engineers with AI-native peers for knowledge transfer.

• Create space for AI experimentation: dedicated time, safe-to-fail projects, and learning sprints.

• Recognize and reward AI-driven improvements in performance conversations.

• Collaboration & Communication

Work closely with engineering, product, and design teams to align priorities.

• Advocate for developer needs and ensure alignment with company goals.

• Communicate capabilities and limitations to non-technical stakeholders.

• Write specs, rules files, and documentation that make AI more effective for the whole team.

• Metrics & Continuous Improvement

Define and track key metrics to measure developer productivity, satisfaction, and AI-driven productivity gains.

• Use data-driven insights to prioritize initiatives and demonstrate impact.

• Track team-level AI adoption metrics and report on AI-augmented workflow effectiveness.

• Continuously iterate on processes to improve engineering velocity and quality.

• AI-Native Developer Experience

Identify and eliminate pain points in the development lifecycle, with a focus on AI-augmented workflows.

• Drive adoption of AI coding tools (Cursor, Brain, copilots) as the default across engineering teams.

• Ensure every team member has access to and is actively using AI tools; track adoption and remove blockers (tooling, access, training).

• Partner with engineering teams to design AI-augmented development workflows that multiply team velocity.

• Coach engineers on the Builder model: planning, delegating to agents, reviewing with judgment, and shipping with velocity.

• AI Governance & Risk

Ensure the team follows AI usage guidelines (data handling, code review, IP considerations).

• Flag risks from AI-generated code (security, correctness, licensing) proactively.

• Maintain visibility into what AI tools the team is using and how they're being used.

• Run regular retros and feedback loops on AI-related outcomes.

• Review AI-generated outputs alongside the team to build shared quality standards.

Qualifications:- Experience: 7+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years in a leadership role managing engineering teams.

• Technical Expertise: Strong understanding of developer tools, CI/CD pipelines, and mo...