{"slug": "se-radio-731-sonali-varde-on-ai-and-the-engineering-manager-role", "title": "SE Radio 731: Sonali Varde on AI and the Engineering Manager Role", "summary": "Senior Software Engineering Manager at LinkedIn Sonali Varde discussed how AI is changing the engineering manager role, including operational reviews, planning, communication, workflow automation, and preparation for leadership discussions. The conversation covered AI tool adoption, skills and practices for managers, and the impact on coaching, hiring, and team composition, emphasizing human judgment and technical understanding.", "body_md": "**Sonali Varde**, Senior Software Engineering Manager at LinkedIn, joins host [Kanchan Shringi](/team/kanchan-shringi/) to discuss how AI is changing the role of the engineering manager. They explore how AI is showing up in day-to-day management work, including operational reviews, planning, communication, workflow automation, and preparation for leadership discussions.\n\nThe conversation looks at how engineering teams are adopting AI tools and agents, what kinds of skills and practices are becoming more important, and how managers can think about context, review, testing, and operational rigor as AI-assisted development becomes more common. They also discuss how AI affects coaching, performance conversations, hiring, onboarding, team composition, and collaboration with peers and leadership. The episode considers both the opportunities and limits of AI for engineering management, with attention to human judgment, curiosity, ownership, and the continuing importance of technical and organizational understanding.\n\nBrought to you by [IEEE Computer Society](https://www.computer.org/) and [IEEE Software magazine](https://www.computer.org/software).\n\n## Show Notes\n\n### Related Episodes\n\n[SE Radio 730: Birgitta Boeckeler on Harness Engineering for AI Agents](/2026/07/se-radio-730-birgitta-boeckeler-on-harness-engineering-for-ai-agents/)[SE Radio 710: Marc Brooker on Spec-Driven AI Dev](/2026/03/se-radio-710-marc-brooker-on-spec-driven-ai-dev/)[SE Radio 728: Clare Liguori on the AWS Strands SDK for AI Agents](/2026/07/se-radio-728-clare-liguori-on-aws-strand-sdk-for-ai-agents/)[SE Radio 711: Scott Hanselman on AI-Assisted Development Tools](/2026/03/se-radio-711-scott-hanselman-on-ai-assisted-development-tools/)[SE Radio 352: Johnathan Nightingale on Scaling Engineering Management](/2019/01/se-radio-episode-352-johnathan-nightingale-on-scaling-engineering-management/)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/se-radio-731-sonali-varde-on-ai-and-the-engineering-manager-role", "canonical_source": "https://se-radio.net/2026/07/se-radio-731-sonali-varde-on-ai-and-the-engineering-manager-role/", "published_at": "2026-07-30 17:54:34+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-30 18:25:28.078422+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools", "ai-agents", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Sonali Varde", "LinkedIn", "Kanchan Shringi", "IEEE Computer Society", "IEEE Software magazine"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/se-radio-731-sonali-varde-on-ai-and-the-engineering-manager-role", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/se-radio-731-sonali-varde-on-ai-and-the-engineering-manager-role.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/se-radio-731-sonali-varde-on-ai-and-the-engineering-manager-role.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/se-radio-731-sonali-varde-on-ai-and-the-engineering-manager-role.jsonld"}}