Role Description

At Dropbox, we believe in simplifying the way people work together. We provide a range of innovative cloud-based solutions to empower individuals and businesses to share, access, and collaborate on their files seamlessly. Engineering Managers are pivotal in shaping our mission of building a more enlightened way of working where everyone can unleash their creative potential without constraints. As a Senior Engineering Manager, you’ll thrive in our team if you love chasing impact, working through ambiguity, and developing a culture of innovation. In this role, you’ll lead a team of 12-20 engineers, leveraging your robust managerial toolbox to drive direct business and customer impact independently. You’ll work closely with your direct reports, cross-functional partners, and other teams to build the future of Dropbox. Our team culture rewards a bias for action, engineering partnership in defining our strategy, and efficient operational excellence. The ideal candidate will possess strong leadership skills, technical expertise, and a passion for driving results in a collaborative, virtual-first environment. The Core Media & Intelligence team will lead the development of next-generation, AI-powered applications built end-to-end on top of Dropbox. The mission is to design and ship intelligent, vertical solutions that deeply understand customer workflows and deliver differentiated, high-impact experiences. The team will work at the forefront of applied AI—leveraging LLMs, building autonomous agents, advancing search and retrieval systems, and integrating computer vision and contextual intelligence to reimagine how users interact with their content. Beyond product innovation, the team will also pioneer AI-driven development practices, pushing the boundaries of how LLMs and modern AI tools accelerate engineering productivity and time to market. This is an opportunity to build category-defining AI experiences at scale, on a platform used by hundreds of millions of users worldwide. Our Engineering Career Framework is viewable by anyone outside the company and describes what’s expected for our engineers at each of our career levels. Check out our blog post on this topic and more here.

Responsibilities

• Directly manage up to 20 direct reports, as a single execution unit
• Partner with multiple Product Managers to plan roadmaps and sprints
• Be accountable for high quality execution on critical and high visibility business objectives
• Be responsible for making tradeoffs between feature work and addressing long term technical debt
• Be responsible for excellence in software quality, engineering practices and operations
• Lead the team through standard Agile processes, such as backlog management, stand ups, retrospectives, etc.
• Review and approve engineering designs and be able to set technical direction (in collaboration with a Technical Lead)
• Drive cross-org initiatives alongside managing execution responsibilities
• Drive career conversations and career plans for your direct reports

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field involving coding (e.g., physics or mathematics) or equivalent technical experience
• Minimum of 8 years of people management experience with an engineering team
• Minimum of 10 years as a software engineer or equivalent technical experience
• Must have experience managing engineering organizations of 20 or above and experience managing managers
• Must have experience building or integrating with AI products
• Must have worked in a platform team or a developer-facing API product with both internal and external consumers
• Must have experience running a standard Agile process such as backlog management, stand ups, retrospectives, etc.
• Must be results-driven, especially good at balancing execution predictability with the agility needed in bringing a new product to market

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience shipping AI-powered features in production, collaborating closely with ML engineers and product teams
• Strong backend engineering skills with systems that support model serving, inference,and data pipelines at scale
• Strong background in AI agent infrastructure and building AI agents
• Ability to evaluate AI models for a specific use case and advise on build vs buy decisions
• Expertise in distributed systems architecture — designing for scalability,fault tolerance observability,and graceful degradation in multi-service environments

Compensation

Canada Pay Range $204900—$277200 CAD The range listed above is the expected annual salary/OTE (On-Target Earnings) for this role subject to change. Salary/OTE is just one component of Dropbox’s total rewards package.All regular employees are also eligible for corporate bonus program or sales incentive (target included in OTE) as well as stock in form Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). Read more about our benefits here.

Company Description

Dropbox isn’t just a workplace—it’s a living lab for designing a more enlightened way of working.We’re global community bold visionaries resourceful doers shaping future Dropbox turn future work.Our Virtual First model combines autonomy distributed workplace power human connection creating space meaningful work lasting relationships. With startup mindset enterprise-level opportunities expect Dropbox employees think critically stay curious use modern tools including AI improve how work gets done.Here you can be who you are grow into who you’re meant be.You own your impact helping make work more intuitive joyful,and human yourself hundreds millions worldwide. If you’re ready push boundaries challenge yourself Dropbox ready you.

Team Description

The Dropbox Engineering Team develops technology platforms,and products create more enlightened ways working hundreds millions people.Customers rely Dropbox manage share,and collaborate content seamlessly—our engineering makes easier more intuitive than ever before. Our platform features robust systems software layer stores processes exabytes data,and suite growing services enhance core products like sharing sync engine.We’re also driving innovation new offerings such Dash our AI-powered knowledge management engine.Our infrastructure spans high-performance servers cutting-edge components across multiple data centers worldwide ensuring reliability speed scalability global scale. We think like startup but build enterprise exploring new possibilities transform how people work.If you're excited about turning complex technical challenges into intuitive solutions scale join our Engineering team.

Virtual First

Dropbox’s Virtual First way working designed help people do best work flexibility autonomy connection.Day day teams work remotely nonlinear schedules core collaboration hours support deep focus individual working styles.We prioritize asynchronous communication improve clarity respect deep work time reduce unnecessary meetings. While remote work primary experience employees we also prioritize intentional in-person connection.Bring teams together through regular team gatherings on-demand workspaces Dropbox Neighborhood events strengthen team cohesion foster creativity enhance momentum.Virtual First built provide same access opportunity growth impact everyone regardless location. This role requires travel offsites various other team gatherings (approximately 5–10% year or 2–3 days per quarter).We provide advance notice when possible encourage candidates discuss accommodation needs during interview process. Dropbox supports responsible use AI preparation misrepresentation skills experience not permitted.See our AI Principles.Dropbox equal opportunity employer welcoming place everyone do best make sure all people feel supported connected at work.