Sr. Engineering Manager, AI Platform

Redpanda is the first runtime and control plane for agent-data interaction — a unified platform that combines streaming, SQL analytics, and intelligent connectivity with the governance layer enterprise AI agents need in production.

Built on infrastructure already trusted by Fortune 500 companies and fast-growing startups, Redpanda enforces governance entirely outside the agent's data path, controlling what agents see, limiting what they do, and capturing a tamper-proof record of everything they touch, so organizations never have to choose between innovation and control.

About the Role: ADP is Redpanda's boldest bet: the governed runtime that lets enterprises safely connect AI agents to production data and systems — a single, audited control point for AI gateway traffic, MCP/tool access, agent identity, and policy enforcement, built on the streaming and Iceberg foundation Redpanda already runs at scale for Fortune 1000 customers. This is category creation, not category following: there is no established market playbook for 'agentic data plane,' and the team that builds this well earns the right to define what the category means.

We are looking for an experienced Senior Engineering Manager, reporting to the VP/Head of Engineering, to lead ADP engineering end to end: own the roadmap, ship in-demand features and functionality at startup speed, and work cross-functionally with Product, Sales, and Customer Engineering to operationalize how Redpanda actually wins in this space — not just what gets built, but how design partners convert to production deployments and how the field sells and supports what ships. This role also carries a broader mandate: help set the culture and AI-first working model for how software engineering gets done at Redpanda going forward, using your own team as the proving ground.

This is a hybrid role based in our central Warsaw office, with a minimum of 3 days a week on-site.

You Are:

• Energized by category-creation work — comfortable operating without an established playbook, and confident making judgment calls when the 'right' answer isn't in a market analyst's report yet

• Excited to roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to deliver objective results, on a timeline set by the market rather than an internal quarter

• Genuinely fluent in how AI-assisted software development changes team structure, workflow, and velocity — not just a user of the tools, but someone with opinions on how a team should work differently because of them

• Comfortable being highly cross-functional — this role spends as much time with Product, Sales Engineering, and design-partner customers as it does with your own engineers

• Accountable, bring a sense of ownership, and are self-driven

You Will:

• Own the roadmap and execution for ADP: the AI gateway, MCP/tool governance, agent identity, policy enforcement, and the audit/observability layer that makes agent behavior in production explainable and controllable

• Move fast and ship in-demand features and functionality — this space is being defined in real time, and being early and credible with design partners is a genuine competitive advantage

• Work cross-functionally with Product, Sales, Customer Engineering, and design-partner customers to operationalize how Redpanda wins in the agentic infrastructure market — not just the product roadmap, but the GTM motion, the proof points, and the path from design partnership to paid production deployment

• Together with the rest of engineering leadership and product management, craft and execute the company's technology vision and strategy for ADP

• Help set the culture and AI-first way of working for software engineering at Redpanda more broadly — using your team's own practices (AI-assisted development, agent-driven workflows, velocity benchmarks) as a model other teams can learn from

• Make sure the team is empowered and can demonstrate a strong sense of ownership and belonging

• Motivate and enable the team to contribute towards organizational success

• Give frequent and actionable feedback to support your team's personal development

• Create an environment where the team is aligned with company goals, and decision-making is done collaboratively

• Continuously strive to improve how the team works and measure outcomes

• Lead the recruiting and hiring process for the team

• Participate in regular performance reviews

• Mentor team members and collaborate with them on personal and career growth

• Bring up difficult and/or systemic challenges and impediments to the attention of your manager

• Actively discuss strategic topics with peers and Directors to help shape engineering's environment

• Track progress, assess risks, and actively communicate contingency and mitigation plans for the team

• Provide career development guidance and structure to members of the team

• Drive evaluation and management of team members' performance

• Manage execution of projects that the team takes on

You Have:

• 10+ years of experience in software development and delivery

• 5+ years of experience managing software developers

• Experience leading or managing highly technical engineering teams, ideally in fast-moving, early-stage product areas rather than mature, well-specified ones

• Experience developing a strategy and roadmap under real ambiguity — new market, new customer expectations, requirements that shift as design partners' real-world usage teaches you what actually matters

• Hands-on experience with, or a strong point of view on, AI agent infrastructure: LLM gateways, MCP/tool-calling, agent identity and authorization, or governed data access patterns for AI systems

• An entrepreneurial spirit - as we expect each team in Redpanda to organize themselves like a startup, and this team is one of Redpanda's most startup-like efforts

• Strong verbal and written communication skills and demonstrated technical leadership, including the ability to represent engineering directly to customers and prospects in technical sales motions

• Previous experience growing a team to 15-20 people

• Comfortable working with a globally distributed engineering team, collaborating on GitHub, in the open, and a self starter

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Nice to Have:

• Experience shipping a net-new product category or 0-to-1 product inside an existing company, especially one requiring close, iterative collaboration with early design-partner customers

• Experience with AI agent frameworks, protocols, or infrastructure (e.g. MCP, A2A, LLM gateways, agent orchestration runtimes, or agent identity/authorization systems)

• Direct experience selling or supporting technical products in security- or compliance-sensitive markets (financial services, regulated industries, or similarly demanding enterprise buyers)

• A track record of introducing AI-assisted development practices to a team and measuring the resulting change in velocity or quality

• Previous experience managing people managers

Join Redpanda if you’d enjoy being part of a fast-moving, diverse, people-first organization with team members around the globe and a culture based on trust, transparency, communication, and kindness. You'll dive into a nimble, high-impact team with the latest AI tools — and the budget to actually use them.

Department: Engineering