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Senior Engineering Manager Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

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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.
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 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:
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.

Sr Engineering Manager, Cloud Infrastructure Engineering

PayJoy, Inc

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$272.17 - $289.64/hr

Other

Posted 4 days ago


Job description

About PayJoy

PayJoy, a Public Benefit Corporation, is a mission-first credit provider dedicated to helping under-served customers in emerging markets to achieve financial stability and success. Our patented technology for secured credit provides an on-ramp for new customers to enter the credit system. Through PayJoy’s point-of-sale financing and card offerings, customers gain access to a modern quality of life. PayJoy’s credit also allows our customers to seize opportunities as micro-entrepreneurs, and acts as insurance for tough times. Through our cutting-edge machine learning, data science, and anti-fraud AI, we have served over 18 million customers as of 2025 while achieving solid profitability for sustainable growth.

This role

The Senior Engineering Manager, Cloud Infrastructure leads the engineering team responsible for the company’s cloud infrastructure, developer platform, and foundational engineering services. This role sets the technical and organizational direction for secure, reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient platforms that enable product engineering teams to deliver software quickly and safely. The role partners closely with Engineering, Product, Security, Compliance, and Operations leaders to align infrastructure investments with business priorities and long-term customer impact.


Key Responsibilities
  • Define and execute the long-term strategy and architecture for cloud infrastructure, developer platforms, CI/CD systems, and shared engineering services that improve developer productivity and platform reliability.

  • Drive delivery of large-scale infrastructure initiatives while balancing reliability, scalability, security, operational excellence, customer impact, and cost optimization.

  • Establish engineering processes, operating rhythms, service ownership models, and technical standards that improve execution, software quality, incident response, and organizational efficiency.

  • Partner with Product, Engineering, Security, Compliance, Finance, and Executive leadership to prioritize investments, manage technical risk, and align infrastructure capabilities with business objectives.

  • Foster a culture of accountability, inclusion, technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.


Qualifications
  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 12+ years of software engineering, infrastructure engineering, platform engineering, or related technical experience.

  • 4+ years of engineering management experience

  • Proven experience building, operating, and scaling highly available cloud-native platforms, distributed systems, or developer infrastructure.

  • Hands-on experience with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and modern cloud architecture patterns.

  • Strong background in DevOps practices, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD systems, automation, and platform engineering.

  • Experience designing reliable, scalable, secure, and cost-efficient cloud infrastructure for production environments.

  • Strong understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, networking, storage, security, observability, and operational excellence principles.

  • Experience balancing technical debt, infrastructure investment, risk reduction, and feature delivery to maximize long-term business value.

  • Demonstrated success leading organization-wide technical initiatives across multiple engineering teams and stakeholders.

  • Strong incident management and operational leadership experience, including escalation management, post-incident reviews, and systemic reliability improvements.

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and business leaders and communicate tradeoffs clearly.

  • Proven ability to recruit, coach, mentor, and retain high-performing engineering managers, staff engineers, and senior individual contributors.


$272,174 - $289,639 a year

PayJoy is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and we welcome and encourage people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

PayJoy Principles

Finance for the next billion * Ownership * Break Through Walls * Live Communication * Transparency & Directness * Focus on Scale * Work-Life Balance * Embrace Diversity * Speed * Active Listening

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