Director, Software Engineering

About the role

Our physical data centers and cloud environments are the backbone of every Salesforce product - and keeping them healthy, safe, and continuously evolving is mission-critical work. As Director of Software Engineering for Infrastructure Automation & Change Safety, you will define and own the "Release to Release" strategy for the platforms that power compute and network lifecycle operations at global scale. This is a role for a leader who thinks in systems, builds trust across organizational boundaries, and delivers high-value outcomes without drama.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the multi-quarter roadmap for Infrastructure Automation and Change Safety, shifting the organization's focus from sprint-level execution to connected, long-term platform delivery
• Lead and develop a high-performing organization of Managers, Principal Engineers (PMTS), and Lead Engineers (LMTS) operating across geographically distributed teams
• Own the product strategy for the domain - partner with Product Management, Hardware Engineering, and senior stakeholders on prioritization, KPI alignment, and organizational direction
• Represent your technology portfolio in Cross-Cloud discussions and build enduring partnerships that connect your platform to broader business objectives
• Provide architectural accountability across the organization: scrutinize technical decisions, set direction for distributed systems design, and lead the integration of AI/ML for production automation
• Personally lead incident command during high-severity production events, and drive systemic improvements that reduce support burden through resilient system design
• Coach and develop Managers and Senior Managers to lead their teams effectively; mentor senior individual contributors (LMTS/PMTS) through structured talent development
• Manage organizational resources - including merit, promotion, and performance investment budgets - and adapt team focus as business priorities evolve
• Foster a culture of psychological safety, continuous learning, and inclusion, grounded in Salesforce's Ohana values

Requirements

• Required Qualifications
• 10+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on distributed systems, infrastructure, or cloud platforms
• 5+ years of people management experience, including at least 2 years managing other managers and leading organizations of 20+ engineers
• Deep technical fluency in distributed system design patterns and cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes)
• Proven ability to translate a long-term vision into well-engineered, phased delivery - with a track record of making technology decisions grounded in customer value
• Experience operating systems at high availability standards (99.999%) with accountability for quality, security, and performance
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills - able to influence across engineering, product, and hardware disciplines and navigate cross-functional complexity
• Experience will be evaluated based on alignment to the core competencies for the role (e.g. extracurricular leadership roles, military experience, volunteer work, etc.)
• Experience leveraging AI/ML or statistical models to drive production automation decisions at scale
• Familiarity with Golang, Java, or Python sufficient to guide code and design reviews
• Experience designing and operating systems that manage high-risk infrastructure changes safely
• Contributions to or familiarity with open-source infrastructure tooling

Benefits

Additional Information

To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts. Job Category Software Engineering Job Details About Salesforce Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn't a buzzword - it's a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all. Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You're in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

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