Manager Software Development at Appian in Chennai, India

Job description

• Are you an elite technical leader who thrives as a hands-on contributor while simultaneously coaching, mentoring, and scaling a high-performance software engineering team? At Appian, engineering managers don’t just oversee. They build, shape, and grow the people and technology that power AI automation for the world’s largest enterprises and governments.
• Location: Chennai, India | Work Model: On-site (5 days/week)
• Appian is at an inflection point where intelligent automation meets customer success, and we need a technical leader who can architect and ship the next generation of diagnostic platforms. This role exists because our growing enterprise customer base demands faster, smarter issue resolution, and AI agents are the key to unlocking that scale. You will shape both the technical direction and the team culture while delivering tools that become essential to how Appian supports thousands of mission-critical deployments worldwide.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of a scalable AI-powered triage platform that reduces mean time to resolution by leveraging AI agents, LangChain frameworks, and intelligent diagnostics
• Architect quarterly releases of diagnostic tools on AWS infrastructure, balancing innovation velocity with production stability and security requirements
• Build and grow a high-performing engineering team through effective people management, technical mentorship, and career development focused on AI and cloud-native technologies
• Partner with Customer Success and Product leadership to translate support pain points into engineering roadmaps that drive measurable improvements in customer satisfaction
• Drive technical excellence through hands-on code reviews in Python and AI frameworks while establishing engineering best practices for the team
• Execute stakeholder management across engineering, product, and customer-facing teams to align priorities and communicate progress on platform capabilities

Requirements

• Education: Hold a Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related STEM field
• Experience: 8+ years of experience in software engineering with at least 2+ years in engineering management or technical leadership roles
• AI Fluency: Proven fluency in AI and LLMs, encompassing both the strategic development of AI-powered platform capabilities and the hands-on application of AI tools to accelerate daily workflows
• Python Expertise: Strong proficiency in Python with demonstrated experience building production-grade applications and diagnostic tools
• Cloud Infrastructure: Hands-on experience designing and deploying scalable systems on AWS with knowledge of cloud-native architectures
• AI Agent Development: Experience building AI agents and working with frameworks such as LangChain or similar orchestration tools
• People Leadership: Proven track record managing engineering teams, including hiring, performance management, and technical mentorship
• Technical Collaboration: Active participation in code reviews and ability to balance hands-on technical contributions with leadership responsibilities
• Stakeholder Management: Strong communication skills with experience managing cross-functional stakeholders and translating business needs into technical solutions
• Customer Support Domain: Experience building tools or platforms for customer support, site reliability, or operations teams
• Diagnostic Systems: Background in observability, monitoring, troubleshooting tools, or root cause analysis platforms
• Enterprise SaaS: Experience working in enterprise software companies with complex multi-tenant architectures
• Ecosystem Experience: We value experience with enterprise platforms such as Salesforce or ServiceNow, as these skills translate well into our Enterprise-Grade Orchestration environment

Skills

Required

• AI and LLMs
• Python
• AWS
• AI agent development
• LangChain or similar orchestration tools
• Engineering management
• Technical mentorship
• Code reviews
• Stakeholder management
• Communication

Preferred

• Customer support domain experience
• Root cause analysis platforms
• Enterprise SaaS experience
• Salesforce or ServiceNow

Benefits

• High-Impact Autonomy: A leadership environment where you will have real ownership over your team’s direction, the latitude to make meaningful decisions, and participation in broader Engineering discussions.
• Continuous Enablement: Access to premier learning resources, sponsored certifications, and dedicated learning time focused on both your continued technical growth and your evolution as an engineering leader.
• Appian offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and financial future. Benefits may include health coverage, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with free mental health support, life and disability insurance, an Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP), a retirement/pension plan, wellness dollars, tuition reimbursement, family-forming benefits and more. Benefits vary by country—please ask your Talent Acquisition contact for details specific to the location you are applying to.