Want to know if this job is worth applying to?
San Jose, California, United States
Onsite
Photoshop is one of the most iconic and commercially important products in software history. For more than 35 years, it has defined digital imaging and creative expression for professionals, businesses, and creators worldwide. Today, Photoshop powers millions of workflows and generates billions of dollars in annual revenue for Adobe.
The future of creativity will be AI-native, collaborative, and available everywhere. Adobe is building the world's leading AI Factory for creativity, and Photoshop plays a central role in that vision.
As Senior Director of Engineering for the Photoshop Ecosystem, you will direct engineering strategy and execution across desktop, web, mobile, and ecosystem platforms. You will help transform Photoshop into an AI-native creative system powered by intelligent agents, generative AI, and cloud services. You will shape how creators work through intelligent workflows and connected experiences.
This is a high-impact leadership role supporting one of Adobe's most strategic businesses. You will lead an international engineering group spanning Photoshop Desktop, Photoshop Web, Photoshop Mobile, ecosystem services, platform evolution, and AI infrastructure.
You will partner closely with leaders across Product Management, Design, Applied Research, Firefly AI, and Creative Cloud to define and deliver Photoshop's future direction.
We are looking for an experienced engineering leader with strong technical judgment, operational rigor, and a track record of delivering products through major technology shifts. The ideal candidate has modernized mature architectures, scaled organizations, and integrated AI into customer experiences at global scale.
Define and drive the engineering strategy for Photoshop across. Lead the next generation of AI-native and agent-based creative experiences.
Integrate generative AI, intelligent agents, and multimodal workflows into creator experiences in partnership with Adobe AI Research and Firefly teams.
Lead engineering execution and advance extensibility frameworks, developer experiences, and AI-powered workflows while delivering seamless experiences across devices and creative surfaces.
Build and scale Adobe's AI Factory strategy within Photoshop while modernizing imaging and rendering technologies, cloud-connected architectures, extensibility models, collaboration systems, ecosystem services, and AI-native workflows. Balance long-term architectural investments with rapid product innovation.
Build and develop a high-performing global engineering organization responsible for performance, scalability, reliability, and operational rigor. Foster accountability, technical excellence, innovation, and strong execution while partnering across Adobe to align strategy, priorities, and platform direction.
Represent Adobe externally through executive engagement, technical leadership, and a clear vision for shaping the next era of creativity.
Demonstrated ownership of business outcomes that delivered double-digit growth. Experience expanding product value and adoption among new and emerging creators, with a strong focus on activation, retention, and business impact.
15+ years of software engineering experience building and shipping products with a worldwide reach. Experience leading large distributed engineering organizations responsible for complex, business-critical platforms.
Proven experience integrating AI and machine learning technologies to enhance customer experiences, including generative AI, large language models, agent-based workflows, orchestration frameworks, inference systems, and multimodal experiences.
Demonstrated success modernizing platforms and leading large-scale AI adoption initiatives across mature engineering organizations and codebases. Experience improving engineering productivity through AI-assisted development and modern delivery practices. Strong technical depth across native applications, cloud-connected platforms, distributed systems, web, mobile, AI infrastructure, and developer ecosystems.
Deep understanding of scalability, reliability, performance optimization, platform architecture, and operational excellence. Experience supporting globally distributed products and services used at large scale.
Passion for creativity tools and a strong understanding of creator workflows, imaging technologies, graphics systems, extensibility, security, compliance, and enterprise requirements.
Proven ability to build and develop leadership teams across directors, managers, architects, and engineers. Experience driving alignment across executive collaborators and partnering with organizations such as Premiere, Illustrator, and Firefly to deliver connected creative workflows.
Exceptional communication, organizational leadership, and influence skills. Ability to inspire teams, shape strategy, and lead significant organizational change.
About Adobe
Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe’s industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Manager, and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact, powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.
Our 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We’re on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.
Let’s Adobe together
At Adobe, we believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. Learn more about Adobe life, including our values and culture, focus on people, purpose and community, Adobe for All, comprehensive benefits programs, the stories we tell, the customers we serve, and how you can help us advance our mission of empowering everyone to create.
Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Learn more.
Adobe aims to make our Careers website and recruiting process accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process, email accommodations@adobe.com or call +1 408-536-3015.
AI Use Guidelines for Interviews:
Our interviews are designed to reflect your own skills and thinking. The use of AI or recording tools during live interviews is not permitted unless explicitly invited by the interviewer or approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation. If these tools are used inappropriately or in a way that misrepresents your work, your application may not move forward in the process.
At Adobe, we empower employees to innovate with AI — and we look for candidates eager to do the same. As part of the hiring experience, we provide clear guidance on where AI is encouraged during the process and where it’s restricted during live interviews. See how we think about AI in the hiring experience.
Expected Pay Range:
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $209,300 -- $429,350 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

In California, the pay range for this position is $276,200 - $429,350

At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).
In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.
State-Specific Notices:
California:
Fair Chance Ordinances
Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.
Colorado:
Application Window Notice
If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting), the application window will remain open until at least the date and time stated above in Pacific Time, in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location, no specific application window applies, and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.
Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Legal Notice
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.