Software Engineering Manager

Why PlayStation?

PlayStation isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Today, we’re recognized as a global leader in entertainment producing The PlayStation family of products and services including PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®VR, PlayStation®Plus, acclaimed PlayStation software titles from PlayStation Studios, and more.

PlayStation also strives to create an inclusive environment that empowers employees and embraces diversity. We welcome and encourage everyone who has a passion and curiosity for innovation, technology, and play to explore our open positions and join our growing global team.

The PlayStation brand falls under Sony Interactive Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation.

Why PlayStation?

PlayStation isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Today, we’re recognized as a global leader in entertainment, producing the PlayStation family of products and services, including PlayStation®5, PlayStation®Plus, and acclaimed PlayStation software titles from PlayStation Studios, and more.

PlayStation also strives to create an inclusive environment that empowers employees and embraces diversity. We welcome and encourage everyone who has a passion and curiosity for innovation, technology, and play to explore our open positions and join our growing global team.

The PlayStation brand falls under Sony Interactive Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation.

Software Engineering Manager (Backend)

San Mateo, CA

PlayStation is building the future of connected gaming experiences through a unified platform powering services and experiences across consoles, clients, and the cloud. We are looking for a Software Engineering Manager to lead our Platform Engineering team—driving adoption, stability, and innovation that impacts developers and players worldwide.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a dedicated platform engineering team (6–10 engineers), ensuring delivery on roadmaps that prioritize resilience, developer velocity, and global scalability.
   

• Evangelize the platform strategy across PlayStation by partnering closely with engineering leaders across service and client teams to align on integration, adoption, and long-term technical direction.
   

• Maintain accountability for platform health—ensuring services are highly available, cost-efficient, and observable—while establishing standards for platform-wide operations.
   

• Collaborate with global teams across San Mateo, Tokyo, London, and more to drive consistent adoption and integration of platform services.
   

• Partner with leadership and stakeholders to translate strategic priorities into executable technical roadmaps that advance the PlayStation ecosystem.
   

• Mentor and coach engineers to grow their careers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, inclusivity, and innovation.
   

• Drive continuous improvement in developer tooling, CI/CD pipelines, service performance, and observability to accelerate the developer experience.
   

Required Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience with 8+ years of overall experience in the software engineering domain.
   

• Proven experience leading backend/platform teams in production environments, with a track record of building resilient and scalable systems.
   

• 3+ years of experience designing, building, and operating backend services (RESTful and/or GraphQL) at scale.
   

• Strong understanding of AWS primitives (e.g., DynamoDB, Redis, S3, Lambda, ECS/EKS) and cost-optimization strategies.
   

• Demonstrated success in coaching and mentoring engineers, balancing delivery with individual growth.
   

Desired Qualifications

• Experience building developer platforms and driving adoption across diverse engineering teams.
   

• Deep knowledge of GraphQL, including schema design, federation, and service adoption patterns.
   

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, service observability (metrics, logging, tracing), and production incident management.
   

• Background in low-latency, high-scale service architecture and server performance optimization.
   

• Experience with JavaScript/TypeScript, Node.js, or similar backend frameworks; familiarity with frontend integration (e.g., Next.js) is a plus.
   

Prior experience working in globally distributed teams and influencing technical direction across org boundaries

Equal Opportunity Statement:

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond.

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about how we process your personal information, and your data protection rights.

At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.

Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. 

In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products. This role also may be eligible for a bonus package. Click here to learn more.

Equal Opportunity Statement:

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or parental status, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond. 

PlayStation is a Fair Chance employer and qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered for employment.