CrowdStrike

Sr. Engineering Manager, Sensor - Core Deployments (Hybrid)

Redmond, WA · Austin, TX · hybrid · full_time

About the job

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: The Deployment team owns the full lifecycle of the CrowdStrike Falcon sensor on the endpoint: how it is installed, updated, configured, and removed, and the native user interfaces through which the sensor interacts with end users. Every Falcon deployment starts with this team's software. Installers and update mechanisms across Windows, macOS, and Linux must work reliably on millions of endpoints, across thousands of customer environments and every supported OS version.

The team is now building a next-generation deployment system that changes how CrowdStrike delivers protection. Instead of shipping every change as a full sensor release, the sensor will be delivered as signed, independently updatable packages. Only tested combinations reach production, every update can be fully rolled back, and the system recovers on its own with no user interaction. It needs to do this reliably on Windows, macOS, and Linux, from desktops and servers to containerized workloads.

Alongside this, the team is modernizing installer infrastructure on each platform and building a native, extensible endpoint UI platform for Windows and macOS.

We are looking for a Senior Engineering Manager with deep systems expertise and strong organizational leadership to guide this team. You will own the technical roadmap, lead the deployment system from architecture through production delivery, and balance the reliability of today's installers with investment in what comes next. You will work closely with Windows, macOS, and Linux engineering teams, cloud delivery and architecture teams, release engineering, and partners in product and program management.

Location:

  • This role is hybrid, requiring 2x days per week on-site at one of the posted locations.

    • What You're Stepping Into:

    Deployment is where every customer first experiences Falcon, and every upgrade after that either builds their trust or erodes it. The team's work sits at the boundary between the sensor, the cloud, and the customer's own IT environment, so getting it right takes both technical depth and broad partnership across the company.

    You're joining at the right moment. The design for the next-generation deployment system is taking shape, and the decisions made over the next year will determine how quickly and safely CrowdStrike can deliver new protection for years to come. You'll lead that work from design review through first production delivery.

    You'll also build the team that delivers it: hiring, setting the technical bar, and shaping how the team operates. If you're energized by building both systems and teams, this is a rare chance to own a foundational platform that every customer and every sensor team depends on.

    What You'll Do:

    - Technical leadership

  • Lead the architecture and delivery of a next-generation deployment system built on signed, immutable packages, a desired-state model, atomic updates with checkpoint and full rollback, and built-in health checks and self-repair
  • Partner with cloud, release, and build teams to define the end-to-end contract: how packages are built, tested together, approved for release, and delivered to the endpoint, so that only sanctioned combinations reach production
  • Make sure the deployment system works safely alongside the sensor's tamper protection, so installed components stay trustworthy through every install, update, and rollback
  • Plan the migration from today's installers and update mechanisms, including backward compatibility with sensors already in the field and a recovery path when things go wrong
  • Own installer technology strategy on each platform. Modernize the toolchain, reduce third-party dependencies, and support the full range of OS versions, CPU architectures, and environments, from desktops and servers to containers and Kubernetes
  • Guide the direction of native endpoint UI and extensibility, such as the system tray, menu bar, and installer experience. This includes framework choices, cross-platform consistency, and accessibility
  • Take an active part in design and code reviews, and develop a deep understanding of the team's components, upgrade constraints, and failure modes

    • - Team leadership

  • Hire, coach, and grow engineers through honest, frequent feedback and real investment in their careers; lead the full recruitment process from first contact through onboarding
  • Build team cohesion, resolve interpersonal friction, and create an environment where engineers can do their best work
  • Support your team through resourcing decisions, career development, and difficult conversations when they are needed

    • - Delivery and operations

  • Balance sustaining work and roadmap investment. Respond quickly to installation and upgrade escalations while protecting capacity for strategic work, and use data to make sustaining load visible
  • Own the quality bar for everything the team ships. A failed install or upgrade is a customer outage, so build automated validation across OS versions, upgrade paths, and real-world customer configurations
  • Build observability into the sensor lifecycle, so the cloud and support teams always know the true state of every endpoint's installed components
  • Partner with release engineering, quality, and support teams on release readiness and customer-facing deployment issues
  • Build a data-driven roadmap that uses install and upgrade success telemetry, escalation trends, and customer feedback, and communicate investment needs and progress clearly to senior leadership

    • Engineering Managers at CrowdStrike are hands-on technical leaders. You won't be expected to write code on the critical path, but you will need a deep understanding of the installers, update mechanisms, and cross-platform systems your team owns. That understanding lets you troubleshoot effectively, give substantive feedback in code reviews, and redirect a design when it's heading the wrong way. It also makes you a trusted advisor to leadership who can represent the team in cross-functional discussions and turn complex technical tradeoffs into clear recommendations.

    What You'll Need:

  • Proven experience managing software engineering teams, built on a strong foundation as a software developer
  • Hands-on background in systems software, with deep expertise in C and/or C++ on Windows, macOS, and/or Linux
  • Experience designing, building, or operating software update or delivery systems at fleet scale, including versioning, staged rollout, atomic updates, and safe rollback
  • Deep familiarity with platform installation and update technologies, such as Windows Installer (MSI) and WiX, macOS installer packages and system extensions, Linux packaging (RPM/DEB), and OS service management
  • Solid understanding of the security requirements for privileged software on the endpoint, including code signing and signature verification, notarization, driver and system extension installation, and protection against local tampering
  • Cross-platform experience with the ability to reason about portability, behavioral consistency, and platform-specific constraints across operating systems and CPU architectures
  • Experience owning production software at scale, and a clear understanding of what a regression costs when software runs continuously on customer endpoints
  • Strong design and problem-solving skills, a genuine passion for engineering excellence, quality, security, and performance, and the ability to raise those standards across a team
  • Demonstrated success hiring, mentoring, coaching, and developing engineers, and leading distributed teams while maintaining trust, velocity, and clarity
  • Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with a track record of building credibility and influence across engineering, product, and program management
  • Clear, direct communication at every level, from individual contributors to executive leadership
  • Ability and willingness to travel occasionally for team offsites and in-person meetings
  • Proven experience utilizing AI technologies to enhance decision-making, streamline workflows and processes, improve efficiency and drive business outcomes.

    • Bonus Points:

  • Background in endpoint security, EDR, or endpoint agent software
  • Experience building modular package management or application delivery platforms, such as OS package managers, enterprise software distribution, or over-the-air (OTA) update systems
  • Experience with desired-state or declarative delivery models, such as Kubernetes controllers, GitOps, or image-based OS updates
  • Familiarity with software supply chain security, including signed manifests, artifact verification, and frameworks