Engineering Manager, SDET - AI Detection and Response (AIDR) (Hybrid)
CrowdStrike · Sunnyvale, United States · 1d ago
As a global leader in cybersecurity, CrowdStrike protects the people, processes and technologies that drive modern organizations. Since 2011, our mission hasn’t changed — we’re here to stop breaches, and we’ve redefined modern security with the world’s most advanced AI-native platform. We work on large scale distributed systems, processing almost 3 trillion events per day and this traffic is growing daily. Our customers span all industries, and they count on CrowdStrike to keep their businesses running, their communities safe and their lives moving forward. We're proud to work for a mission-driven company leveraging AI to transform the way we work. CrowdStrikers drive their careers through flexibility and autonomy while also being expected to contribute to a culture of responsible AI adoption, experimentation, and innovation. We use an AI-first mindset as a force multiplier to proactively and continuously accelerate execution, build expertise, uncover insights, and solve complex problems. We’re always looking to add talented CrowdStrikers to the team who have limitless passion, a relentless focus on innovation and a fanatical commitment to our customers, our community and each other. Ready to join a mission that matters? The future of cybersecurity starts with you.
About the Role:
CrowdStrike is seeking an experienced SDET Engineering Manager to lead our quality engineering efforts within the AI Detection and Response (AIDR) team. In this role, you will lead a team of SDETs responsible for end-to-end validation of AIDR services — a platform that processes millions of AI security events per second and manages petabytes of critical AI data. Your team will own test strategy, tooling, frameworks, and automation across both cloud-side backend services and UI applications, ensuring the system behaves correctly at every stage from individual components to full system behavior.
This is a deeply technical, hands-on leadership position where you are expected to be in the weeds daily — writing code, building test frameworks, debugging complex distributed system failures, and leading by example. You'll set the quality bar not just through strategy and process, but by demonstrating what engineering excellence looks like. While you will grow and mentor your team, you will remain a strong individual contributor who also leads people.
Your team's work spans functional, performance, contract, and chaos/resilience engineering — ensuring that AIDR's services maintain the highest standards of reliability and security as we protect organizations worldwide from sophisticated AI-based threats.
PLEASE NOTE: This role is hybrid, requiring 2-3 days per week on-site at one of the posted locations.
Success Means:
Building and leading a high-performing SDET team while personally remaining deeply technical and hands-on in the codebase
Architecting enterprise-grade test frameworks and automation that validate systems scaling from thousands to millions of requests per second
Driving quality culture across the broader AIDR engineering organization
Partnering effectively with backend, UI, and product teams to embed quality at every stage of the development lifecycle
Attracting, developing, and retaining top quality engineering talent
What You'll Do:
Lead, mentor, and grow a team of SDETs while being hands-on enough to build test frameworks, write automation, develop tooling, and debug complex failures alongside your team
Own and drive testing strategy across functional, performance, contract, and chaos/resilience testing concerns for the AIDR platform
Be in the weeds on production issues — tracing distributed calls, identifying root causes, and writing regression tests to prevent recurrence
Participate actively in code and design reviews — reviewing both your team's work and product code with a quality-first lens, providing guidance on testability and code hygiene
Define and maintain quality gates across CI/CD pipelines, ensuring automated validation is comprehensive and reliable
Partner with backend and UI engineering managers to align on quality standards, shared tooling, and testing best practices
Manage team capacity, sprint planning, and delivery commitments while balancing framework investments with feature validation needs
Contribute to service operations, including improving observability, monitoring, and implementing quality improvements to prevent outages
Recruit, hire, and onboard top SDET talent; conduct performance reviews and support career development
Leverage AI-powered tools and agentic workflows to enhance testing automation and efficiency
What You'll Need:
10+ years of experience in software development/SDET roles, with at least 3+ years in an engineering management role leading SDET or quality engineering teams
Strong hands-on coding ability — able to write production-quality test frameworks, debug complex distributed systems, and contribute meaningfully to the codebase when the team needs it
Proven experience building testing frameworks and tooling for Cloud SaaS products or similar SOA at scale
Experience defining and driving testing strategy at a team or organizational level
Strong debugging skills: ability to spot design flaws, race conditions, and performance bottlenecks in complex distributed architectures
Expertise in at least one of: Golang, Python, Java, or JavaScript/TypeScript — Go is our primary backend language, but strong engineers in any of these are welcome
Deep experience in a cloud distributed systems stack: e.g., Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, and/or similar technologies
Experience with cloud services such as AWS, GCP, or OCI, particularly compute and storage offerings
Extensive experience with testing tools and frameworks (e.g., Jest, Cypress, Playwright, JUnit, TestNG, Go testing)
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and integrating automated testing into deployment workflows
Experience developing and deploying in containerized environments (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)
Experience testing REST and/or gRPC APIs and real-time or high-volume data systems
Strong people leadership skills — demonstrated ability to hire, develop, and retain high-performing engineers while remaining technically hands-on
Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate quality strategy to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Proven experience utilizing AI technologies to enhance decision-making, streamline workflows, and drive business outcomes
Bonus Points:
Previous experience in cybersecurity companies or security-focused products
Understanding of AI/ML security challenges, threats, and mitigation strategies
Experience with low-latency cloud services using gRPC and event-driven messaging systems such as Kafka or Pulsar
Experience with chaos engineering and resilience testing (e.g., Chaos Monkey, Litmus, Gremlin)
Experience with UI test automation and front-end validation frameworks
Experience with performance testing and load generation at scale
Hands-on experience with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and/or Microsoft Azure
Experience leveraging AI and agentic tools to enhance testing workflows and automation
Golang experience
Experience managing teams that own shared testing infrastructure consumed by multiple product teams
Track record of building quality engineering culture from the ground up
Contributions to open source libraries or frameworks
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Benefits of Working at CrowdStrike:
Market leader in compensation and equity awards
Comprehensive physical and mental wellness programs
Competitive vacation and holidays for recharge
Paid parental and adoption leaves
Professional development opportunities for all employees regardless of level or role
Employee Networks, geographic neighborhood groups, and volunteer opportunities to build connections
Vibrant office culture with world class amenities
Great Place to Work Certified™ across the globe
CrowdStrike is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging where everyone is valued for who they are and empowered to succeed. We support veterans and individuals with disabilities through our affirmative action program.
CrowdStrike is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment. The Company does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, creed, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy or pregnancy-related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status, veteran status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical disability (including HIV and AIDS), mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, membership or activity in a local human rights commission, status with regard to public assistance, or any other characteristic protected by law. We base all employment decisions--including recruitment, selection, training, compensation, benefits, discipline, promotions, transfers, lay-offs, return from lay-off, terminations and social/recreational programs--on valid job requirements.
If you need assistance accessing or reviewing the information on this website or need help submitting an application for employment or requesting an accommodation, please contact us at recruiting@crowdstrike.comfor further assistance.
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CrowdStrike, Inc. is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Placement within the pay range is dependent on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications, job level, supervisory status, and location. The base salary range for this position for all U.S. candidates is $140,000 - $215,000 per year, with eligibility for bonuses, equity grants and a comprehensive benefits package that includes health insurance, 401k and paid time off.For detailed information about the U.S. benefits package, please click here.