Mgr. Software Engineering-(AI)

Why UKG:  

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.

About the Role

We are seeking a seasoned Software Engineering Manager to join a team at the forefront of AI product development at UKG. You will lead a team of engineers building AI agents and intelligent assistants that power UKG's Bryte platform across HCM, Payroll, and Workforce Management product suites. As a first-line manager, you will drive technical excellence, foster a culture of ownership, and ensure the successful delivery of high-impact AI-powered projects. You will be responsible for guiding technical decisions, managing team performance, and aligning engineering efforts with business goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

Technical Leadership:
- Provide technical leadership and direction for major projects, ensuring alignment with business goals and industry best practices.
- Be hands-on with code, maintaining high technical standards and actively participating in agent architecture, LLM integration patterns, agentic system design, code reviews, and helping engineers optimize their code.
- Ensure that high standards of performance, scalability, and reliability are maintained when architecting, designing, and developing complex AI-powered software systems and applications.
- Ensure accountability for the team's technical decisions and enforce engineering best practices (e.g., documentation, automation, code management, security principles, responsible AI development).
- Ensure the health and quality of services and incidents, proactively identifying and addressing issues. Utilize service health indicators and telemetry for action. Implement best practices for operational excellence.
- Guide the team in designing reliable, safe, and observable AI systems, including multi-agent orchestration, tool and skill design, and prompt engineering standards.
- Play a pivotal role in the R.I.D.E. (Recommend, Inform, Decide, Execute) framework.
- Understand CI/CD pipelines from build, test, to deploy phases.

Team Management:
- Lead and manage a team of software engineers, fostering a collaborative and high-performance environment. Conduct regular performance reviews, provide feedback, and support professional development.
- Lead engineers operating at the intersection of software and AI, setting quality standards for systems that are probabilistic and non-deterministic by nature.
- Foster a culture of service ownership and enhance team engagement.
- Drive succession planning and engineering efficiency, focusing on quality and developer experience through data-driven approaches.
- Promote a growth mindset, understanding and driving organizational change.
- Actively seek opportunities for team growth and cross-functional collaboration.
- Work and guide the team on how to operate in a DevOps model, taking ownership from working with product management on requirements to design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain the software in production.

Coaching and Development:
- Grow and develop the team technically and with a quality mindset, providing strong and actionable feedback.
- Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers at all levels, fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement, encouraging the team to experiment, learn, and iterate on processes and technologies.
- Stay current with LLMs, agent frameworks, AI evaluation techniques, and responsible AI practices, advocating for their adoption where appropriate to drive innovation and productivity within the team.

Execution Excellence:
- Oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of high-impact software projects, ensuring they are completed on time and within budget. Manage team workload and capacity, setting priorities and managing risks and tradeoffs.
- Align team efforts with the strategic direction of the company, understanding the big picture and business needs.
- Demonstrate engineering excellence and service ownership, including cost and quality management of services, and effective production management.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product management, design, and operations, to ensure alignment and