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Senior Engineering Manager Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Kier & Wright

Senior Engineering Manager

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$170K - $200K/yr

Senior Engineering Manager (LAND DEVELOPMENT) - Santa Clara, CA What we're looking for? The Senior Engineering Manager holds the highest level of responsibility and accountability. The success of a ...

Kier & Wright

Senior Engineering Manager

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$170K - $200K/yr

Senior Engineering Manager (LAND DEVELOPMENT) - Santa Clara, CA What we're looking for? The Senior Engineering Manager holds the highest level of responsibility and accountability. The success of a ...

Kier & Wright

Senior Engineering Manager

Irvine, CA · On-site

$170K - $200K/yr

SENIOR ENGINEERING MANAGER - Irvine, CA What we're looking for? The Senior Engineering Manager holds the highest level of responsibility and accountability. The success of a project is dependent on ...

Kier & Wright

Senior Engineering Manager

Irvine, CA · On-site

$170K - $200K/yr

SENIOR ENGINEERING MANAGER - Irvine, CA What we're looking for? The Senior Engineering Manager holds the highest level of responsibility and accountability. The success of a project is dependent on ...

Nectar Social

Senior Engineering Manager

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

$240K - $400K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Retirement

The Role We are looking for a Senior Engineering Manager who thinks like a product leader to own and scale one of our core engineering teams. Our engineering organization includes multiple core teams ...

VSCO

Senior Engineering Manager

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$240K - $255K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Life

  • Retirement

About you We're looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead a team of server, web, and full-stack engineers building a business management platform designed for professional photographers ...

Rad AI

Senior Engineering Manager

San Francisco, CA · On-site

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Life

  • Retirement

  • PTO

We're looking for a Senior Engineering Manager who can hold that standard while also scaling a team that keeps pace with Rad AI's growth. Someone who has lived through the full lifecycle of ...

VSCO

Senior Engineering Manager

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$240K - $255K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Life

  • Retirement

About you We're looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead a team of server, web, and full-stack engineers building a business management platform designed for professional photographers ...

Rad AI

Senior Engineering Manager

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$215K - $240K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Life

  • Retirement

  • PTO

We're looking for a Senior Engineering Manager who can hold that standard while also scaling a team that keeps pace with Rad AI's growth. Someone who has lived through the full lifecycle of ...

StandardAero

Sr. Engineering Manager - MRO

Stockton, CA

$140K - $160K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Life

  • Retirement

  • PTO

Sr. Engineering Manager Build an Aviation Career You're Proud Of At StandardAero, we use our ingenuity and know-how to find solutions for the simple to the most complex challenges in aviation.

StandardAero

Sr. Engineering Manager - MRO

Stockton, CA · On-site

$140K - $160K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Life

  • Retirement

  • PTO

Sr. Engineering Manager Build an Aviation Career You're Proud Of At StandardAero, we use our ingenuity and know-how to find solutions for the simple to the most complex challenges in aviation.

Quince

Sr. Engineering Manager, MLOps

Palo Alto, CA

THE ROLE Senior Engineering Manager, MLOps We are seeking a Senior Engineering Manager, MLOps to join our growing team. The ideal candidate is a technical visionary with a proven track record of ...

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All JobsEngineering JobsSenior Engineering Manager JobsSenior Engineering Manager Jobs in California

Senior Engineering Manager information

See California salary details

$62.7K

$134.4K

$195.4K

How much do senior engineering manager jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 14, 2026, the average yearly pay for senior engineering manager in California is $134,363.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $112,000.00 and $160,900.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a senior engineering manager?

A Senior Engineering Manager is a seasoned leader responsible for overseeing multiple engineering teams or large projects within an organization. They manage engineering managers or team leads, set technical direction, and ensure alignment with business goals. Their duties include mentoring staff, driving process improvements, managing budgets, and collaborating with other departments. Senior Engineering Managers play a key role in hiring, performance evaluations, and fostering a productive engineering culture. They typically have extensive industry experience and strong leadership skills.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a senior engineering manager, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Senior Engineering Manager, you need a robust background in engineering principles, leadership experience, and a relevant degree, often complemented by prior management roles. Familiarity with project management tools (such as Jira or Asana), software development methodologies (like Agile), and technical certifications can be highly beneficial. Exceptional communication, conflict resolution, and mentoring skills set top performers apart in this role. These skills are vital for effectively guiding teams, delivering projects on time, and fostering an innovative and collaborative engineering environment.

What is a senior engineering manager?

Senior engineering managers oversee the project team to ensure each phase is completed accurately, on time, and within budget. They coordinate with the company’s marketing and sales departments to determine what products or services are offered to clients and then develop those offerings to specifications. As a senior engineering manager, you may also need to troubleshoot equipment or software. To become a senior engineering manager, you need a certificate or degree in computer science or a related field, several years of working in software development, and management experience.

What is the difference between Senior Engineering Manager vs Engineering Director?

AspectSenior Engineering ManagerEngineering Director
ResponsibilitiesOversees multiple engineering teams, manages project delivery, and mentors managersSets strategic direction, manages multiple departments, and aligns engineering goals with company objectives
Required CredentialsBachelor's or Master's in Engineering or related field, 8+ years experience, leadership skillsSimilar credentials, often with 10+ years experience, strategic planning skills
Work EnvironmentHands-on team management within engineering teamsHigh-level strategic planning, cross-department coordination
Industry UsageCommon in tech companies, startups, and large enterprisesTypically found in larger organizations with complex structures

While both roles require strong technical backgrounds and leadership skills, Senior Engineering Managers focus more on team management and project execution, whereas Engineering Directors are responsible for strategic planning and organizational alignment across multiple teams.

How does a senior engineering manager typically balance technical leadership with people management responsibilities?

A Senior Engineering Manager often splits their time between guiding technical strategy and supporting their team’s professional development. This involves overseeing complex engineering projects, setting clear technical direction, and ensuring best practices are followed, while also mentoring engineers, conducting performance reviews, and fostering a collaborative team culture. Balancing these areas requires strong delegation, prioritization, and communication skills, as well as regularly collaborating with other departments like Product and Design to align goals. Most organizations expect Senior Engineering Managers to actively contribute to both technical and people-focused initiatives, which can be challenging but is essential for team and project success.
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Senior Engineering Manager jobs near you
Infographic showing various Senior Engineering Manager job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 77% Full Time, 20% Part Time, 2% Temporary, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 84% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 13% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $134,363 per year, or $64.6 per hour.

Senior Engineering Manager

Flow Engineering

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$260K - $310K/yr

Full-time

Posted yesterday

New

Job description

About Flow
Flow Engineering is an AI-native requirements platform for modern engineering organizations, enabling hardware teams to collaborate with AI agents to design, validate, and evolve complex systems with speed and rigor.
About the role
Flow is seeking a senior engineering manager to lead a team building the core of our platform. This is our first dedicated engineering management hire, and you will own delivery for a team of engineers while staying hands on with coding.
You will report to our head of engineering and work closely with product, design, and our forward deployed engineers.
What you'll do
  • Manage and grow a team of engineers, owning onboarding, feedback, and career development.
  • Own product execution end to end, from scoping with customers through ship, measure, and iterate.
  • Stay technical. Review code, make architecture calls, and pick up meaningful work when a project needs it.
  • Help establish engineering best practices
  • Work directly with customers. Our users are systems and requirements engineers at hardware companies with a high bar
  • Partner with recruiting to build the team
  • Help set direction on how AI shows up in the product, working with engineers building agentic workflows and LLM-powered features.

About you
  • 8+ years developing production software, including designing, testing, and operating services at scale in a cloud environment.
  • 2+ years managing engineers, ideally at an early-stage company or somewhere with little existing process scaffolding.
  • Track record shipping software that enterprise customers depend on, with a clear understanding of what that changes about how you build.
  • Still hands on with coding
  • Direct communicator who is able to give difficult feedback
  • Comfortable working in a high-ownership, fast-paced environment where experiments and iteration are the norm.

Nice to have
  • Background in aerospace, defense, automotive, or another regulated hardware domain.
  • Experience with requirements, ALM, PLM, or systems engineering tooling.
  • Experience managing teams building LLM-powered or agentic features in production.

Our stack
  • TypeScript/Node.js and Python for backend and AI services.
  • Modern LLM APIs and orchestration libraries for building agentic workflows.
  • Postgres and other managed cloud services for data and state.

Apply