The posting
At Sonos we want to create the ultimate listening experience for our customers and know that it starts by listening to each other. As part of the Sonos team, you’ll collaborate with people of all styles, skill sets, and backgrounds to realize our vision while fostering a community where everyone feels included and empowered to do the best work of their lives.
In this Sr. Manager role, you will lead our App Experience team, a team of 18-20 engineers spanning iOS and Android. This team is responsible for the mobile control and playback experiences used by millions of Sonos customers every day. You’ll set the technical and organizational direction for a team that spans two platforms, drive cross-functional alignment with Product, UX, Engineering Operations, and be a key stakeholder in the health of our app releases from planning through our release readiness meeting. You’ll operate within a larger Software Control organization, the group building applications to control Sonos products, and align and collaborate on cross-team efforts to elevate the overall Control space. You’ll also be a hands-on people leader: developing engineers, shaping promotion cases, and building the team structure needed to deliver best-in-class app experiences. Finally, you’ll work closely with key partners to both drive larger initiatives and iterate based on feedback internally with our executive team and externally with close partner companies.
This position is considered hybrid, allowing for a combination of remote work and in-office collaboration. Qualified applicants should live within commutable distance of our downtown Seattle office and should expect to be in office currently 2+ days per week.
What You’ll Do
- Lead and develop the App Experience team (18-20 direct reports across iOS and Android), including 1:1 coaching, performance management, and career growth planning for engineers from entry level through principal level.
- Set direction and unblock delivery on major cross-platform initiatives. Recent examples include our redesigned app navigation, Siri and Shortcuts support on iOS, the Virtual Volume Knob, and general volume UX improvements informed by customer feedback.
- Partner cross-team within the Software Control organization to prioritize and collaborate on projects that fall outside of the immediate App Experience scope.
- Partner cross-functionally with Product, UX, and Engineering Operations to align roadmap, staffing, and technical direction across the App Experience team’s workstreams. This will involve being a key voice in the conversation of things that should be improved in the product, leaning on your experience in building premium, best-in-class applications.
- Iterate regularly on the app experience based on feedback retrieved both from internal stakeholders, including our executive team, and external stakeholders with our close partner companies (e.g. Apple, Google, etc).
- Be a key stakeholder in our release readiness meeting, coordinating across multiple concurrent release tracks, triaging release-blocking issues (e.g. regressions, App Store submission issues) and ensuring releases stay on schedule.
- Build and advocate for promotion cases and business cases for engineers on the team, working closely with HR partners and org leadership through the job-level and promotion review process.
- Play a key role in hiring and team building: run interviews, write candidate evaluations, coordinate mentorship and decisions on converting interns to full-time employees.
- Run and participate in iterative team workshops to prototype and de-risk new app experience concepts quickly.
- Communicate team progress and decisions clearly to engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders, including written updates and internal-facing announcements of shipped work.
- Sponsor and unblock parallel feature teams across the app, ensuring each has clear ownership and is tracking toward its release target.
- Utilize AI tooling to expand your and your team’s productivity without compromising on quality.
What You’ll Need
Basic Qualifications
- 4 or more years of experience managing software engineers, including 1+ years experience managing a team spanning multiple platforms (iOS and Android) or disciplines.
- 2 or more years of experience in mobile application development (iOS and/or Android) to review technical direction, unblock engineers, and collaborate effectively with senior engineers.
- Must be able to work from Seattle office a minimum of 2 days a week.
Preferred Qualifications
- Track record of leading org-level change (team restructuring, unification, or scaling) with minimal disruption to delivery and quality.
- Experience owning release health and release-process coordination (release readiness, release triage, or equivalent) for a shipping consumer product.
- A deep passion for polished, premium mobile experiences and an understanding of what it takes to raise the bar in this space
- Strong cross-functional partnership skills, comfortable driving alignment with Product, UX, and adjacent engineering orgs on shared roadmap and tradeoffs.
- Experience with the full people-management lifecycle: performance management, promotion casework, hiring, and intern program collaboration.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience communicating status and decisions to both engineering peers and executive stakeholders.
- Advanced experience using Jira or a similar work-tracking tool.
- Advanced experience working with AI tools in your day-to-day work. Inclusion: Research shows that some candidates may not apply for roles if they don't meet all the criteria. If you don’t have 100% of the skills listed, we still strongly encourage you to apply if interested. Visa Sponsorship: Sonos is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa for this role at this time. We ask that applicants be authorized to work for us in country of role posting, both now and in the future. #LI-HYBRID #LI-TC1
Your profile will be reviewed and you'll hear from us once we have an update. At Sonos we take the time to hire right and appreciate your patience.
The base pay range for this role based off geographic location is:
$192,000 and $240,400
The specific pay offered will depend on the candidate’s geographic location, as well as qualifications and experience. We apply geographic pay differentials based on the cost of labor in the market. Employees in high-cost locations may be compensated at the upper end of the range, while those in medium or low cost markets may be compensated at the lower end of the range. Your recruiter can provide more details about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process.
Please note that compensation details listed in US job postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits.
We also offer a comprehensive benefits program with choice and flexibility in mind to help support the health, wealth, and overall well-being of our employees. Regular full time employees in the US are eligible for benefits on day one, including:
- Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
- A 401(k) plan with company matching and immediate vesting
- An Open Time Off policy (OTO) so you have maximum opportunity to disconnect and recharge, with no tenure-based vacation accruals required
- 80 hours of sick time upon hire, refreshed annually
- Up to 12 paid holidays per calendar year
- Sonos offers a generous paid leave program for new parents or to care for a family member with a serious health condition, as well as short- and long-term disability for your own medical condition
- Company-paid Disability, Life, and AD&D Insurance
- Voluntary benefits, including Voluntary Life, AD&D, Accident, and Pet Insurance
- Mental health benefits to support your holistic well-being
- A generous employee discount program & Sonos Radio HD - on us!
Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole discretion, consistent with the law.
Notice to U.S. Job Applicants: Sonos is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.
Sonos is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please send an e-mail to [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.
