Engineering Manager (AI Agents Team)

Redefine the future of customer experiences. One conversation at a time. At Nextiva, we're reimagining how businesses connect, bringing together customer experience and team collaboration on a single, conversation centric platform. Powered by AI, driven by human innovation. Our culture is forward thinking, customer obsessed and built on the belief that meaningful connections drive better business outcomes. Whether it's through our signature Amazing Service®, the technology we create, or the experiences we cultivate, connection is at the core of who we are. If you're ready to collaborate with incredible people, make an impact, and help businesses everywhere deliver truly amazing experiences, this is where you belong. Build Amazing. Deliver Amazing. Live Amazing. Be Amazing. Nextiva is seeking a hands on, experienced, and visionary Engineering Manager to lead our AI Agents team within the Data & Intelligence Platform group. You will be responsible for leading a team that develops intelligent, multimodal AI agents (voice and chatbots) as part of Nextiva's next-generation customer experience platform. You will apply expertise in machine learning and software engineering to build AI-driven features that transform how businesses engage with customers. This position offers the opportunity to work at the forefront of generative AI and multimodal interactions, creating scalable AI solutions that blend automation with the human touch to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Success in this role will be measured by your ability to deliver AI features that measurably improve customer experiences (e.g., higher self-service resolution rates, faster response times, improved user satisfaction) while maintaining high software quality and ethical AI standards. You will help Nextiva achieve a balanced integration of AI and human interaction, directly contributing to our CX-first vision. Key Responsibilities • Team Leadership & Development: Lead, mentor, and grow a team of AI Software Engineers. Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. Provide technical guidance and career development support. • Technical Oversight: Oversee the design, development, and deployment of AI agents for Nextiva's products that understand and respond to customers in multiple formats (e.g., spoken voice, written text). Ensure delivery of high-quality, scalable, and reliable features. Guide the integration of NLP, speech recognition, and large language models into production systems. • AI Model Integration: Integrate large language models and other AI/ML components into the Agentic AI Platform to enable capabilities such as question answering, task automation, sentiment analysis, and recommendations. Ensure that AI models and solutions perform effectively in real-world environments and at scale. • Multimodal Interaction Systems: Build and integrate components for multimodal interactions, including speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and dialog management systems. • Performance Optimization: Optimize AI algorithms and agent frameworks for performance, scalability, and reliability. Use data-driven methods to tune model accuracy and response times. • Quality, Ethics & Compliance: Implement robust testing (unit, integration, end-to-end) for AI features to ensure reliability and correctness. Incorporate ethical AI practices, ensuring AI agent behavior is unbiased and compliant with privacy and security regulations. • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner and collaborate across the product organization to define the roadmap for AI agent capabilities. Translate business goals into technical strategies and execution plans. • Innovation & Thought Leadership: Stay current with advancements in AI, machine learning, and multimodal interaction systems. Drive innovation by evaluating and adopting emerging technologies. Qualifications • Education & Experience: Bachelor's degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or a related field (required). A Master's degree in AI, Machine Learning, or a related discipline is strongly preferred. Equivalent practical experience in AI/ML development will also be considered. • Experience: 8+ years of software development experience, including 3+ years in a technical leadership or management role. Proven track record in AI/ML product development. Proven experience developing production-grade software (e.g., backend services, APIs, data pipelines) in a collaborative team environment. • AI/ML Expertise: Strong understanding of AI and machine learning fundamentals with hands-on experience in natural language processing (NLP) and/or deep learning. Familiarity with the latest AI advancements (e.g., transformer-based models, conversational AI frameworks) and a history of applying AI models to solve real-world problems. • Technical Skills: Proficiency in programming languages commonly used for AI development, such as Python (with ML libraries like TensorFlow or PyTorch) and/or a general-purpose language like Java or C# for scalable systems. Experience with machine learning frameworks and libraries for NLP, speech, or computer vision (e.g., Hugging Face Transformers, OpenAI APIs, spaCy, Kaldi, AWS/GCP/Azure AI services) is expected. • Multimodal Interaction Knowledge: Experience with speech and language technologies – for example, integrating speech-to-text (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) engines, or building chatbots and voice bots for conversational interfaces. • Cloud & Scalability: Familiarity with cloud platforms and deploying AI/ML models at scale (AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure). Experience with microservices architecture and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) for AI services. • Leadership Skills: Demonstrated ability to lead high-performing engineering teams. Strong project management, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills. Requirements: • In an effort to increase team collaboration and growth, candidates located near, or open to relocating to Scottsdale, AZ (Nextiva HQ) preferred. • For candidates not located near Scottsdale, AZ, travel will be required. Nextiva DNA (Core Competencies) Nextiva's most successful team members share common traits and behaviors: • Drives Results: Action-oriented with a passion for solving problems. They bring clarity and simplicity to ambiguous situations, challenge the status quo, and ask what can be done differently. They lead and drive change, celebrating success to build more success. • Critical Thinker: Understands the "why" and identifies key drivers, learning from the past. They are fact-based and data-driven, forward-thinking, and see problems a few steps ahead. They provide options, recommendations, and actions, understanding risks and dependencies. • Right Attitude: They are team-oriented, collaborative, competitive, and hate losing. They are resilient, able to bounce back from setbacks, zoom in and out, and get in the trenches to help solve important problems. They cultivate a culture of service, learning, support, and respect, caring for customers and teams. Total Rewards Our Total Rewards offerings are designed to allow Nexties to take care of themselves and their families so they can be their best, in and out of the office. Our compensation packages are tailored to each role and candidate's qualifications. We consider a wide range of factors, including skills, experience, training, and certifications, when determining compensation. We aim to offer competitive salaries or wages that reflect the value you bring to our team. Depending on the position, compensation may include base salary and/or hourly wages, incentives, or bonuses. The expected hiring range is $130,000 - $250,000. A different level in the job hierarchy may apply to a specific candidate, resulting in a different hiring range. • Health - Multiple health plan options to suit your needs, including medical, dental, vision, and telemedicine coverage • Insurance - Life, disability, and supplemental indemnity plans • Work-Life Balance ️ - Flexible Time Off (FTO) for salaried employees, PTO for hourly employees, Paid Sick Time (PST), paid parental bonding leave, and paid holidays • Financial Security - 401(k) with company match, Health Savings Accounts with company contributions, Dependent Care FSA • Wellness ‍ - Employee Assistance Program and comprehensive wellness initiatives • Growth - Access to ongoing learning and development opportunities and career advancement At Nextiva, we're committed to supporting our employees' health, well-being, and professional growth. Join us and build a rewarding career! Nextiva is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Nextiva participates in the E-Verify Program where and as required by law. For additional information about E-Verify visit USCIS. #LI-MS1 #LI-REMOTE Founded in 2008, Nextiva has grown into a global leader trusted by over 100,000 businesses and 1M+ users worldwide. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, and with teams across the globe, we're the future of customer experience and team collaboration through our AI-powered, conversation-centric platform. Want to see what life at Nextiva is all about? Connect with us on Instagram, Instagram MX, YouTube, LinkedIn, and the Nextiva Blog. 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