Senior Manager, Software Development (Cloud Platform)

Here at Appian, our values of Intensity and Excellence define who we are. We set high standards and live up to them, ensuring that everything we do is done with care and quality. We approach every challenge with ambition and commitment, holding ourselves and each other accountable to achieve the best results. When you join Appian, you’ll be part of a passionate team dedicated to accomplishing hard things, together.

 

At Appian, we’re not only about building awesome software, but also about growing our culture of passion, energy, and innovation; great people, great software!

We are seeking an innovative and transformational Senior Manager to lead the foundational platform that underpins our entire Appian Cloud. This Manager will be responsible for the team that architects, builds, and automates our global, cloud-native infrastructure, enabling all other Appian engineering teams to build and scale their services with velocity and reliability.

This leader will work alongside leadership throughout the Engineering department to help us lead a complex, global, and fast-growing team. They will have our support in modernizing our cloud architecture and automation strategies to support our needs for more functionality and maintain our market leadership position. The ideal candidate will bring a mix of technology prowess, people and change management, and deep experience in cloud-native technologies, particularly on AWS.

This role is based at our ​h​eadquarters in ​McLean, Virginia. Appian was built on a culture of in-person collaboration, which we believe is a key driver of our mission to be the best. Employees hired for this position are expected to be in the office 5 days a week to foster that culture and ensure we continue to thrive through shared ideas and teamwork. We believe being in the office provides more opportunities to come together and celebrate working with the exceptional people across Appian.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and grow the global teams responsible for building and operating Appian's core cloud-native platform, including Kubernetes, networking, and infrastructure automation.
• Propose and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for our cloud platform, ensuring it meets the scalability, reliability, and security needs of our enterprise-grade products.
• Drive the architectural evolution of our cloud platform towards a modern, fully automated, and self-service infrastructure.
• Oversee prioritization of platform investments, working with a set of internal stakeholders from across the Engineering department.
• Help Appian attract, grow, engage, reward, and retain top engineering talent in the highly competitive cloud-native space.
• Coach and grow the engineering managers and technical leads within your organization, fostering a culture of innovation and operational excellence.
• Work closely with leaders in Appian’s SRE and customer support functions to address platform-level issues, reduce incident response time, and improve overall customer satisfaction.
• Champion and implement modern DevSecOps practices, building security and reliability into the platform from the ground up.

Qualifications:

• 12+ years of experience in software development, with a strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and system design.
• 2-5+ years of experience in engineering management, with a proven track record of delivering large-scale, enterprise-grade cloud platforms. Proven ability to operate as both a people leader and a hands-on technical contributor.
• Deep technical expertise in the AWS ecosystem and its core services (e.g., EKS, VPC, IAM, EC2, S3, RDS).
• Proven experience building, scaling, and managing containerized, cloud-native platforms, with a strong preference for Kubernetes.
• Strong understanding of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles and modern tooling (e.g., Terraform, Crossplane, or similar).
• Experience with modern CI/CD pipelines and a strong "automation-first" mindset.
• Experience in modernizing platform delivery at a large public software company is a plus.

Tools and Resources 

• Training and Development: During onboarding, we focus on equipping new hires with the skills and knowledge for success through department-specific training. Continuous learning is a central focus at Appian, with dedicated mentorship and the First-Friend program being widely utilized resources for new hires. 
• Growth Opportunities: Appian provides a diverse array of growth and development opportunities, including our leadership program tailored for new and aspiring managers, a comprehensive library of specialized department training through Appian University, skills based training, and tuition reimbursement for th