Job Description
Software Engineering Manager (SEM) is the people manager for a team of software engineers and is ultimately responsible for building products and experiences that support business requirements. They establish individual goals for our team members that accelerate growth. They define and evaluate specific vendor objectives, when vendors are used. They establish team goals that enable the team to improve and deliver on the products and experiences the team is responsible for.
An SEM must have deep technical understanding of the products they own and the ability to work with product teams and other stakeholders to map requirements to a sustainable solution. They will work with their team to establish the SDLC, develop architectural solutions, and drive operational excellence.
CORE WORK ACTIVITIES:
PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT: An SEM’s primary task is to enable their team to be successful. The team is only as successful as the people on it, so the SEM is first and foremost a people leader. They develop, coach, and mentor our engineers. They meet regularly with direct reports to discuss individual strengths and opportunities to grow. They actively recruit and hire qualified people who fit well with the team and contribute to its success.
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE: Approves the system design and architecture for new and existing systems. Capable of understanding and translating complex functional and technical requirements. Ensures subject matter experts are brought in to review designs, especially when integrating with other systems. Ultimately responsible for their engineering team’s Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
BUILDING: Drives full stack development (backend to frontend) of all products and features by validating all requirements are met; ensuring DRY, SOLID, and YAGNI code design principles are used to write, review, and test code; and drives best practices for quality validation and continuous deployment. Actively observes and iterates on the established SDLC. SEMs should be capable of writing code, but are not expected to be writing it as part of their role. They are responsible for making sure that the code written by their team is done so correctly and best practices are followed.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: Continually improves the performance of all team owned systems and processes by monitoring operational metrics, documenting and communicating impactful issues, escalating significant customer impacting issues, and driving changes to avoid future issues.
VENDOR MANAGEMENT: When leveraging vendors to accelerate product development, an SEM focuses on managing the vendor execution and is responsible for ensuring they are meeting the needs of the business and completing their work as agreed upon. The SEM is ultimately responsible for what is built and must validate the work and the progress of the vendor. They must identify and escalate any shortcomings.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL PERFORMANCE:
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: