Sr. Manager, Software Engineering - Computer Backup

About Backblaze Backblaze provides reliable, high-availability cloud storage and backup trusted by consumers, SMBs, enterprises, and developers in over 150 countries. Backblaze Computer Backup protects the data of hundreds of thousands of customers, backing up laptops and desktops across Windows and macOS to the Backblaze cloud. We build durable, scalable systems with a strong emphasis on reliability, product quality, and a great customer experience.

Role Overview We are looking for a Senior Software Development Manager to lead the team responsible for Backblaze Computer Backup, spanning both the cross-platform desktop client and the backend services that receive, store, and restore customer data. The entire Computer Backup engineering team reports into this role, which you will run through Desktop and Backend Leads who own the day-to-day of their areas. You will set the long-term technical direction for the product, own its multi-quarter delivery strategy, and hold accountability for the team’s budget and results.

This is a hands-on management role. You will take part in architecture discussions, code reviews, and technical decisions across both the desktop and backend sides of the product, while also owning strategy, budget, and the growth of your staff. The right candidate brings strong experience running agile teams, experience managing managers or team leads, deep expertise in system architecture, and a track record of leading distributed, remote-first engineering teams. You bring 7+ years of engineering management experience and enthusiasm for how AI-assisted development is changing the way software gets built.

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead the full Computer Backup engineering team, which reports into this role, with Desktop and Backend Leads running the day-to-day of their areas.

• Set the long-term technical direction for Computer Backup, ensuring architecture and platform decisions hold up as the product and customer base grow.

• Own the multi-quarter delivery strategy for Computer Backup, and partner with Product leadership to help set the roadmap and negotiate scope, schedule, and priorities.

• Hold accountability for the team’s budget and spend, aligning headcount, tooling, and infrastructure investment with business priorities.

• Make technical and organizational decisions with broad, long-term impact, including shared platform components and infrastructure that other teams depend on.

• Ensure the desktop and backend areas operate well together, with shared goals and a consistent agile delivery process.

• Provide oversight of the team’s agile process, ensuring ceremonies such as sprint planning, backlog refinement, standups, and retrospectives are run well and consistently across both areas.

• Own delivery across the client and backend, from planning and design through implementation and post-launch support, partnering with dedicated QA and release teams for testing and delivery.

• Ensure the reliability, performance, and maintainability of the backup client and backend services that customers depend on to protect their data.

• Champion engineering quality by growing unit testing and other automated test coverage, and by keeping testing a first-class part of how the team builds and ships software.

• Take part hands-on in code reviews, architecture decisions, and technical problem-solving across both desktop and server work.

• Champion the effective use of AI-assisted development tools, guide the team in adopting agentic coding practices, and help establish norms around AI-augmented workflows.

• Continuously improve team productivity by identifying bottlenecks, refining processes, and investing in tooling and practices that help engineers do their best work.

• Negotiate directly with senior leadership and major customers on significant matters, represent the team in executive reviews, and communicate risks and trade-offs with clear recommendations.

**What We Are Looking For...