Software Development Manager, Generative Ai

Position OverviewAutodesk is building cloud-scale software, data platforms, and AI-enabled capabilities that help customers design, build, and operate the world around them. As the Software Development Manager, you will be the frontline manager for a full-stack engineering team responsible for integrating our AI capabilities and agentic workflows into product experiences. Your team will define shared data representations, deliver developer‑facing integration surfaces, and design the client and server components that let products and partners safely invoke and orchestrate automated assistants and flows. You will translate product priorities into engineering plans, coach and grow engineers, and ensure predictable delivery of production‑quality solutions.
Join us in transforming the AEC industry and shaping the future of design and construction. Make an impact and help build a new team from the ground up.
Report: You will report to a Senior Software Development Manager in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Solutions Team.
Location: We support hybrid work, and you work near our Toronto, Canada offices or East Coast United States.
Team Scope
Integrating AI‑enabled capabilities and agentic workflows into frontend and backend product flows
Defining and implementing shared, granular data representations that enable consistent use across features
Delivering integration surfaces and developer‑facing tooling that make capabilities accessible to product teams and partners
Operating with an API‑first mindset and contributing to platform initiatives (including model‑control platform efforts) that provide consistent invocation, governance, and operational patterns for capability use across the company
Delivering both client‑side and server‑side functionality and owning the end‑to‑end experience for the features your team ships
Leading client‑side and front‑end engineering work — web UI, client integrations, and performance/visualization work that runs in browsers or desktop clients
Responsibilities
Technical & day‑to‑day leadership. Provide hands‑on technical guidance and help the team make pragmatic architecture and implementation decisions that balance delivery speed and long‑term maintainability
Front‑end & client ownership. Lead and coach engineers who implement customer‑facing UI and client integrations. Own client architecture and performance tradeoffs, collaborate with UX/design, and ensure frontend quality (responsiveness, accessibility, cross‑platform compatibility, and performance)
People leadership & coaching. Run regular 1:1s, performance conversations, and career development for individual contributors. Foster a culture of ownership, quality, and psychological safety
Deliver predictable results. Turn product priorities into clear milestones, manage scope and dependencies, and ensure the team delivers on schedule with high quality
Integration & product focus. Work closely with product and research partners to translate evolving capabilities into safe, usable, and performant product experiences. Make sensible tradeoffs for UX, latency, and cost
API‑first & platform orientation. Champion an API‑first approach for integration surfaces and contribute to platform initiatives (including MCP efforts) that provide consistent invocation, governance, and operational patterns for capability use across the company. (High‑level only;
implementation details are intentionally broad.)
Shared data & interoperability. Lead the team to design maintainable shared data representations and transformations so other teams can reliably consume and extend what your team builds
Developer‑facing surfaces & tooling. Own the delivery of stable, well‑documented integration surfaces and developer tooling that enable internal and partner use — emphasizing reliability, versioning, and a strong developer experience
Operational excellence & safety. Ensure services are observable and reliable. Partner with security/privacy and platform teams to embed governance, access controls, and safety practices into feature flows
Developer productivity & automation. Promote CI/CD, automated quality checks, contract testing, and developer tooling to increase throughput while maintaining safety and quality
Cross‑functional partnership. Work closely with Product, ML/Research, UX, Security/Privacy, and Platform teams to scope work, define acceptable behavior and failure modes for flows, and deliver integrated solutions
Talent & hiring. Recruit and onboard engineers, strengthen front‑end and full‑stack capabilities, and participate in interview calibration and hiring
Minimum Qualifications
7+ years professional software engineering experience delivering production software with a record of coaching and growing individual contributors
Hands‑on full‑stack experience with an emphasis on front‑end and client work (modern front‑end frameworks and tooling)
Demonstrated experience leading teams that build customer‑facing UI and client integrations
Experience designing and shipping integration surfaces and developer tools or libraries for internal teams or external partners
Experience working with or alongside ML/AI or research teams to productionize capabilities, and familiarity with the unique operational and UX considerations that such work introduces
Practical familiarity with cloud‑native development, CI/CD, and operational practices
Strong written and verbal communication skills;
proven ability to work cross‑functionally
Preferred Qualifications
Direct experience designing or operating orchestration frameworks or model‑invocation patterns is a plus
Strong front‑end engineering skills: JavaScript/TypeScript, React (or equivalent), component architecture, and frontend test automation
Experience with performance‑critical client work, visualization/3D rendering (WebGL/OpenGL/three.Js), or desktop/plugin integrations (C#/.NET or equivalent)
Familiarity with browser developer tools, logging, and performance monitoring
Experience with unit, integration, and contract testing frameworks for both client and server code
Familiarity with security, privacy, and compliance considerations when designing integrations and developer surfaces
Domain experience in AEC or adjacent design/engineering workflows is a plus
The Ideal Candidate
You are a pragmatic, hands‑on engineering leader who can guide architecture and roll up your sleeves to help the team deliver
You can recruit and identify top talent
You have a passion for being a mentor and a teacher
You understand how to translate ambiguous AI and research goals into practical, safe engineering plans
You know how to motivate your team to achieve their goals
You are curious and passionate about solving complex problems in new domains
You easily communicate progress and build trust with a diverse set of partners
Salary transparencySalary is one part of Autodesk’s competitive compensation package. For Canada based roles, we expect a starting base salary between $140,000 and $205,700. Offers are based on the candidate’s experience and geographic location, and may exceed this range. In addition to base salaries, our compensation package may include annual cash bonuses, commissions for sales roles, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.
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