ZipRecruiter

Log In

1

Senior Engineering Manager Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Chime

Senior Engineering Manager, Data

San Francisco, CA · On-site

Senior Engineering Manager, Data Chime is looking for a seasoned engineering leader to help manage and guide the Data team to drive the company to build a scalable and self-serve data foundation. As ...

New

Quince

Sr. Engineering Manager, MLOps

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

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 ...

previous pagenext page

Showing results 21-40

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 7, 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.
More about Senior Engineering Manager jobs
What are the most commonly searched types of Senior Engineering jobs in California? The most popular types of Senior Engineering jobs in California are:
What are popular job titles related to Senior Engineering Manager jobs in California? For Senior Engineering Manager jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Senior Engineering Manager jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Senior Engineering Manager jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Senior Engineering Manager jobs? Cities in California with the most Senior Engineering Manager job openings:
What are popular job titles related to Senior Engineering Manager jobs in CA? For Senior Engineering Manager jobs in CA, the most frequently searched job titles are:
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, Content Platform

Roku

San Jose, CA

$328K - $451K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Life, PTO

Re-posted 17 days ago

Job description

About the Role

We are seeking a highly technical, strategic Senior Engineering Manager to lead our Core Content Platform team. In this role, you will define the technical vision and drive the execution of a highly scalable, cloud-agnostic data abstraction layer. You will lead a distributed organization of senior engineers to transition legacy services into a unified, next-generation data platform that natively integrates machine learning and AI capabilities. This is a high-impact leadership position requiring a deep background in distributed systems, real-time data pipelines, and organizational scaling.

For California Only - The estimated annual salary for this position is between $328,500 - $451,600 annually. Compensation packages are based on factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, certifications, and specific geographical location. This role is eligible for health insurance, equity awards, life insurance, disability benefits, parental leave, wellness benefits, and paid time off.

How will I use AI at Roku? 

At Roku, we don't just use AI, we work with it. AI agents and smart tools help power drafts, analysis, and repetitive workflows, while our people bring direction, judgment, and accountability. We're looking for curious, adaptable builders who can show how they've used AI or automation to move faster, raise the bar, and scale their impact. 
We value your AI skills if you have built fluency across the agentic engineering toolchain - coding harnesses like Claude Code or Cursor, MCP servers, custom skills, or agent frameworks. And you can describe projects where you shipped real work with these tools. You know how to drive an agent, verify its output, and ramp on an unfamiliar codebase with an agent helping you.  

What You'll Be Doing
  • Technical Vision & Strategy: Drive the architectural roadmap for the platform, ensuring the team builds scalable, highly available, and cloud-agnostic data systems
  • Engineering Execution: Oversee the design and deployment of real-time streaming pipelines and distributed data architecture (utilizing tools like Scala 3, Apache Flink, and distributed SQL databases such as CockroachDB)
  • Team Leadership: Manage, mentor, and scale a high-performing engineering organization, fostering a culture of technical excellence across US-based and global teams
  • Operational Excellence: Own the reliability, performance, and technical debt management of the data platform, ensuring high uptime and seamless delivery to internal and external partners
We're Excited If You Have
  • 10+ years of hands-on experience in data engineering, backend architecture, and building highly scalable, distributed data platforms
  • 7+ years of direct engineering management experience, with a proven track record of recruiting, leading, and retaining senior-level talent and managing distributed teams
  • Deep expertise in building real-time data pipelines and large-scale data infrastructure
  • Strong proficiency in modern backend and data engineering languages/frameworks (e.g., Scala, Java, Python) and streaming technologies
  • Demonstrated ability to drive large-scale architectural migrations and manage complex technical debt
  • Hands-on experience developing or managing GenAI-driven platforms, or natively integrating machine learning pipelines into core data services
  • Experience with cloud-agnostic architectures and managing multi-cloud or hybrid deployments
  • Domain experience in digital media, content platforms, or large-scale consumer applications.
#LI-SSC

Apply