Software Engineering Manager Jobs in Springfield, VA

Make your mark at Comcast -- a Fortune 30 global media and technology company. From the connectivity and platforms we provide, to the content and experiences we create, we reach hundreds of millions of customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. Become part of our award-winning technology team that turns big ideas into cutting-edge products, platforms, and solutions that our customers love. We create space to innovate, and we recognize, reward, and invest in your ideas, while ensuring you can proudly bring your authentic self to the workplace. Join us. You’ll do the best work of your career right here at Comcast. (In most cases, Comcast prefers to have employees on-site collaborating unless the team has been designated as virtual due to the nature of their work. If a position is listed with both office locations and virtual offerings, Comcast may be willing to consider candidates who live greater than 100 miles from the office for the remote option.)

Job Summary

About the Role We are looking for a hands on Software Engineering Manager to lead a backend engineering team building production grade AI Agent systems. This role sits one level above Senior Software Engineer (E4) and combines people management, execution ownership, and direct technical contribution. You are expected to remain deeply technical, spending at least ~30% of your time coding in the same production systems as your team. You will design, build, review, and operate backend services while also being accountable for team health, delivery, and growth. This is not a “manager only” role. Success comes from leading through context, example, and hands on involvement, while scaling your impact through strong people leadership. You will partner with product, design, and leadership to turn ambiguous AI opportunities into dependable, customer facing systems—while building a high performing team that can sustain this work overtime.

Job Description

What You Will Do:

People Management & Team Health

• Directly manage a team of backend engineers, owning 1:1s, feedback, performance management, and career development.
• Coach engineers on technical growth, system design thinking, and operational ownership.
• Build a culture of trust, accountability, and continuous improvement—especially important in AI‑heavy, probabilistic systems.
• Hire and onboard engineers who strengthen both technical capability and team dynamics.

Hands‑On Technical Contribution (Minimum ~30%)

• Actively write and ship production code across core backend services and agent workflows.
• Take ownership of well‑scoped technical areas or services, especially those critical to correctness, reliability, or cross‑team interfaces.
• Model high standards in code quality, testing, observability, and operational readiness.
• Stay close enough to the codebase to make informed architectural, staffing, and execution decisions.

Technical Leadership Through Example

• Guide architectural decisions by contributing designs and implementations—not just reviewing others’ work.
• Ensure AI agent behavior is engineered responsibly: tool invocation, state management, memory strategies, reasoning control, failure handling, and evaluation.
• Treat prompts and agent policies as production code: versioned, tested, reviewed, and monitored for cost, latency, and reliability.
• Set and enforce engineering standards that keep AI‑heavy systems understandable and supportable over time.

Execution Ownership & Delivery

• Own planning, prioritization, and execution for the team.
• Translate product goals into achievable technical plans while managing tradeoffs across scope, quality, and risk.
• Identify delivery and technical risks early and address them proactively.
• Ensure the team consistently delivers production‑ready systems, not just proofs of concept.

Testing & Quality of Probabilistic Systems

• Lead the team in designing testing and evaluation strategies for non‑deterministic AI components.
• Establish guardrails and regression testing that reduce unsafe or unstable behavior in production.
• Balance innovation with correctness, observability, and long‑term maintainability.

Operational Excellence & Reliability

• Share ownership of production health: uptime, latency, incidents, and post‑incident learning.
• Help build a strong on‑call culture where engineers run what they build.
• Step in directly during complex incidents when needed—both technically and as a leader.

Cross‑Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with product, design, and adjacent teams to align on goals and dependencies.
• Communicate clearly with leadership on progress, risks, and outcomes.
• Represent the team in technical and organizational forums.

What We’re Looking For:

Engineering Management Experience

• Prior experience as a technical lead or manager, with a demonstrated track record of mentoring and project delivery.
• A genuine interest in growing people—not just systems.

Strong Backend Engineering Depth

• Extensive experience designing, building, and operating backend systems in Python.
• Comfort working with asynchronous frameworks (e.g., FastAPI, asyncio) and distributed architectures.
• Ability and desire to remain hands‑on with real production code.

AI Systems Judgment

• Hands‑on experience integrating LLMs into real systems.
• Strong intuition for AI failure modes, operational risks, and safe system design.
• Thinks in workflows, control flow, and safeguards—not just prompt quality.

Execution & Ownership Mindset

• Proven ability to deliver complex systems with multiple stakeholders.
• Comfortable owning outcomes, not just tasks.

Operational Responsibility

• Experience owning customer‑facing systems in production, including incidents and on‑call.
• Designs systems that are “easy to wake up to” when something goes wrong.

Culture & Pragmatism

• Leads with empathy, clarity, and consistency.
• Excited about advanced AI capabilities, but prioritizes stability, debuggability, and long‑term maintainability over novelty.

Disclaimer:

• This information has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees in this role. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications.

Comcast is an EOE/Veterans/Disabled/LGBT employer.

Comcast is an equal opportunity workplace. We will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

Skills:

Software Engineering; Curious Mindset; Critical Thinking; Adaptability; People Leadership

Salary:

Primary Location Pay Range: $183,063.62 - $274,595.42

Comcast intends to offer the selected candidate base pay within this range, dependent on job-related, non-discriminatory factors such as experience. The application window is 30 days from the date job is posted, unless the number of applicants requires it to close sooner or later.

Base pay is one part of the Total Rewards that Comcast provides to compensate and recognize employees for their work. Most sales positions are eligible for a Commission under the terms of an applicable plan, while most non-sales positions are eligible for a Bonus. Additionally, Comcast provides best-in-class Benefits to eligible employees. We believe that benefits should connect you to the support you need when it matters most, and should help you care for those who matter most. That’s why we provide an array of options, expert guidance and always-on tools, that are personalized to meet the needs of your reality - to help support you physically, financially and emotionally through the big milestones and in your everyday life. Please visit the compensation and benefits summary on our careers site for more details.

Education

Master's Degree

While possessing the stated degree is preferred, Comcast also may consider applicants who hold some combination of coursework and experience, or who have extensive related professional experience.

Relevant Work Experience

5-7 Years