Manager, Software Engineering

Company

Cox Automotive - USA

Engineering / Product Development

Manager, Software Engineering

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 $122,600.00 - $204,400.00. 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.

The Manager, Software Engineering is responsible for leading and developing high-performing engineering teams that design, build, and deliver scalable, high-quality software solutions. This role combines strong people leadership with technical direction, ensuring teams consistently deliver business value while maintaining engineering excellence.

In addition, this role drives adoption of AI-transformed development practices and specification-driven engineering, enabling faster, higher-quality, and more predictable delivery outcomes.

What You'll Do

Team Leadership & Delivery

• Lead, grow, and mentor a team of software engineers, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Oversee the planning, design, development, and delivery of software products and services.
• Ensure delivery of secure, scalable, and well-tested software aligned with business and customer needs.
• Partner with Product, Architecture, and Business stakeholders to translate requirements into technical solutions.

Engineering Excellence

• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, including testing, automation, observability, and reliability.
• Drive continuous improvement across development processes, including Agile practices and DevOps principles.
• Promote high standards of code quality, architecture, and system design.

AI-Transformed Development

• Champion adoption of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot, Claude) for coding, testing, and documentation.
• Define best practices for safe, secure, and effective AI usage within the SDLC.
• Enable teams to evaluate and validate AI-generated outputs for correctness, security, and maintainability.
• Drive productivity improvements through AI-enabled automation and developer workflows.

Spec-Driven Development

• Establish and scale spec-driven development (SDD) practices across teams.
• Ensure clear, structured specifications define requirements, architecture, and acceptance criteria before implementation.
• Promote specification-first workflows where specs serve as the authoritative input for development and AI-assisted execution.
• Align engineering, product, and UX teams around shared specifications to improve clarity and reduce rework.

Strategy & Collaboration

• Contribute to technical strategy and roadmap planning.
• Represent engineering in cross-functional planning and strategy discussions.
• Use metrics to guide data-driven decisions and continuous improvement.

Talent Management

• Manage hiring, onboarding, performance management, and career development of team members.
• Coach engineers on technical skills, system design, and modern development practices.
• Build a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, craftsmanship, and learning.

Who You Are

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and 6 years’ experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master's degree and 4 years’ experience; a Ph.D. and 1 year experience in a related field; or 18 years’ experience in a related field.

• Proven background in hands-on software engineering required, with demonstrated success designing, building, and scaling production-grade systems prior to moving into leadership.

• 6+ years of software engineering experience, including experience leading or managing teams.  
• Experience designing and building distributed, cloud-based applications (e.g., AWS).
• Strong understanding of software development lifecycle, Agile methodologies, and modern engineering practices.

• Availability for rotational on-call duties outside of standard business hours may be required.

• Atlanta based Candidates Only - In Office 3 days a week required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading distributed or global engineering teams.
• Experience in highly scalable or high-availability systems.
• Background in platform engineering or API-driven architectures.
• Experience driving large-scale engineering transformations (e.g., AI adoption, modernization initiatives).

What Success Looks Like

• Teams consistently deliver high-quality software with predictable outcomes.
• AI is effectively embedded in day-to-day engineering workflows, improving speed and quality.
• Spec-driven practices reduce ambiguity, rework, and defects.
• Engineers are engaged, growing, and operating at a high level of ownership.
• Strong alignment between engineering, product, and business outcomes.

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