Senior Manager, Engineering - AI Validation
Sonatus · Sunnyvale, CA
$220,000–$265,000
Jul 16, 2026
Sunnyvale, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior engineering leadership role focused on building and running an AI validation function for automotive software platforms. The work centers on designing evaluation frameworks, governance processes, and testing infrastructure for ML models, LLMs, RAG pipelines, and agentic AI systems deployed across both in-vehicle and cloud environments. Suits an experienced engineering manager with hands-on AI/ML testing depth and a track record of scaling quality practices across organizations.
Senior level · 10+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 30 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (computer and information systems managers). range 15–45
Applicant volume Light — Few people clear these requirements, so an application that does clear them gets looked at. Worth applying to even if you miss a nice-to-have.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $298,074 (middle half $224,695–$326,567).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (10)
This role is primarily a people-management position — building, hiring, and leading an AI Validation organization — which maps to 11-3021 (Computer and Information Systems Managers). However, the JD demands deep hands-on technical expertise in AI/ML evaluation, LLMs, and RAG, making 15-1253 (Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers) a credible runner-up for the day-to-day technical work described.
The 10+ years requirement is at the overall engineering experience level; the 3+ years of leading engineering/QA organizations is a separate leadership gate, not captured as a skill.
LangGraph is listed as an example ('such as LangGraph or equivalent orchestration platforms') — it is named as the primary example of a required agentic AI framework capability; alternatives would include LlamaIndex, AutoGen, CrewAI, and similar orchestration tools.
PyTest, Playwright, and Behave are listed together as a set of modern test frameworks — PyTest is used as the primary name with the others as alternatives since the JD treats them as a group.
RAGAS is listed under required qualifications with specific depth expected (evaluation tuning, embedding optimization, retrieval quality improvement, production-scale pipelines).
'AI governance' and 'Responsible AI practices' are listed as required but are methodological/process capabilities rather than named tools; they are included because the JD explicitly gates on them as a distinct competency area.
Agentic AI frameworks, automotive AI validation, and hallucination detection appear under the 'Ways to Stand Out' (preferred/bonus) section.
No compensation figures are provided in the posting.
The role is hybrid (Sunnyvale HQ), not fully remote.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): AI governance.
Read the full posting
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