Now Brewing – Engineering Manager, Data and AI Platform engineering

From the beginning, Starbucks set out to be a different kind of company. One that not only celebrated coffee and the rich tradition, but that also brought a feeling of connection. We are known for developing extraordinary leaders who share this passion and are guided by their service to others.

We are seeking a hands-on Engineering Manager to lead the development and evolution of our AI and Data Platforms within the Data & Analytics organization. These platforms will serve as the foundation for multiple data, data science and AI teams to build data-driven and AI-powered Agentic products. You will play a critical role in shaping the technology, architecture and frameworks advancing build of agentic capabilities across the enterprise ensuring scalability, security, and reliability of the platform.

Summary of Key Responsibilities

Technical Strategy & Thought leadership:  

• Develop technology vision and roadmap for data, ML and agentic AI platform focusing on security, scalability and reliability.  
• Partner with data science, data engineering, governance and product teams to understand product strategy, and deliver platform and developer solutions.
• Lead discussions with business stakeholders and craft solutions/improvements to advance both technical strategy and business capabilities.  
• Exhibit strong initiative:  self-starter that can lead in ambiguous situations.  Able to influence/drive others toward common goals.  
• Stay abreast of emerging technologies and lead in new idea generation and evaluations cross functionally.  Able to manage multiple initiatives of innovation and converge them into common strategic initiatives.  

Team Leadership and Management:  

• Lead and mentor a team of infrastructure, platform and AI engineers, fostering a culture of innovation and excellence
• Challenges and inspires team members to achieve business results.  
• Provides coaching, direction and leadership support to team members to achieve business and customer results.  
• Oversee training and development of partners directly and indirectly and make effective staffing decisions.

Engineering Management:  

Infrastructure & Operational Excellence

• Oversee the design, implementation, and management of core infrastructure components (cloud, networking, storage, compute) to ensure they are scalable, reliable, secure, and cost-effective for data, ML & AI applications.
• Empower developers by simplifying development process including continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, infrastructure as code (IaC), Kubernetes and automated testing.
• Establish and use key metrics (e.g., DORA metrics, SLOs, SLIs, error budgets) to monitor system health and drive continuous improvement in operational practices and incident management.
•  Implement and manage monitoring, logging, and alerting to ensure the platform's health and performance.

Data & AI (gen AI included) Platform

• Implement foundational data infrastructure and tools required for large scale data processing including orchestration, storage, compute, and access management.  
• Partner with Security and Architecture teams to embed security and architecture best practices and guardrails into the tools and features by design.  
• Implement, build and manage enterprise metadata catalog & governance systems; enable advanced technical capabilities for data classification, tagging etc. to enable data for AI and agentic consumption.
• Drive the design and development of agentic frameworks, orchestration layers, and AI-driven product capabilities, leveraging LLMs, intelligent automation, and adaptive workflows, including prompt management, performance benchmarking etc.  
• Define strategy, infrastructure and controls for  

Basic Qualifications:  

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or information systems or equivalent experience.  
• Minimum 10 years of technology related work experience  
• Minimum 3 years managing a team of 5+ engineers  

Experience required:  

• 8+ years of building scalable services on top of public cloud infrastructure, preferably Azure.  
• 8+ years’ experience designing, building and operating large-scale distributed systems and infrastructure  
• 5+ years’ experience with data and AI platforms (e.g. Databricks, Azure, Snowflake)  
• Deep knowledge of containerization & orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker), IaC and CI/CD technologies.  
• Experience working with AI and Machine Learning frameworks (e.g. LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, TensorFlow, PyTorch), and APIs  
• Proficiency with at least 1 scripting language (e.g. Python, Powershell, Go)  
• Proficiency in RAG pipelines, multi-agent orchestration, and tool use is critical.  
• Skilled in Agile/SCRUM project and release management methodologies.  
• Ability to identify, analyze and resolve complex technical issues, ensuring optimal performance, scalability and user experience.  
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with cross-functional partners, including those with and without technical backgrounds.
• Demonstrated willingness to learn continuously, adopt new technologies and approaches, and share knowledge within the technical community.
• Growth-minded, solution-oriented approach with a proven track record of driving projects from concept to impact.
• Experience in managing geographically distributed teams.

As a Starbucks partner, you (and your family) will have access to medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, and other voluntary insurance benefits. Partners have access to short-term and long-term disability, paid parental leave, family expansion reimbursement, paid vacation from date of hire*, sick time (accrued at 1 hour for every 25 hours worked), eight paid holidays, and two personal days per year. Starbucks also offers eligible partners participation in a 401(k) retirement plan with employer match, a discounted company stock program (S.I.P.), Starbucks equity program (Bean Stock), incentivized emergency savings, and financial well-being tools.  Additionally, Starbucks offers 100% upfront tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program via the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, student loan management resources, and access to other educational opportunities.  You will also have access to backup care and DACA reimbursement.   Starbucks will comply with any applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, and in accordance with its plans and policies. This list is subject to change depending on collective bargaining in locations where partners have a certified bargaining representative. For additional information regarding partner perks and more detailed information about benefits, go to starbucksbenefits.com.  

*If you are working in CA, CO, IL, LA, ME, MA, NE, ND or RI, you will accrue vacation up to a maximum of 120 hours (190 in CA) for roles below director and 200 hours (316 in CA) for roles at director or above.  For roles in other states, you will be granted vacation time starting at 120 hours annually for roles below director and 200 hours annually for roles director and above.

The actual base pay offered to the successful candidate will be based on multiple factors, including but not limited to job-related knowledge/skills, experience, geographical location, and internal equity.  At Starbucks, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the high end of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each position and candidate.

We believe we do our best work when we're together, which is why we're onsite four days a week.

Join us and inspire with every cup. Apply today!

Starbucks Coffee Company is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.  

Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal, state and local ordinances. 
 
Starbucks Coffee Company is committed to offering reasonable accommodations to job applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please contact us at applicantaccommodation@starbucks.com or 1(888) 611-2258.