Software Engineering Manager
The Judge GroupAbout the role
Software Engineering Manager (Hands-On Technical Leader)
Direct Hire/W2 only/sponsorship not available
Hybrid - Chicago
Overview
We are seeking a highly motivated Software Engineering Manager to lead a team of talented engineers responsible for designing, building, and supporting large-scale, high-availability software platforms. This role combines people leadership, technical ownership, and hands-on software development, making it ideal for leaders who enjoy mentoring teams while remaining actively engaged in architecture, coding, and technical problem solving.
The ideal candidate has experience managing engineering teams, developing distributed systems, and delivering mission-critical software in a fast-paced environment.
Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership & Management
Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 5-8 software engineers.
Foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Partner with Product, Engineering, and Operations stakeholders to define technical requirements and execution plans.
Drive Agile development practices and ensure successful delivery of engineering initiatives.
Conduct performance management, career development, coaching, and hiring activities.
Technical Leadership
Provide architectural guidance and technical direction throughout the software development lifecycle.
Review and approve software designs, technical approaches, and implementation strategies.
Drive engineering best practices around scalability, reliability, performance, testing, and maintainability.
Present and defend architectural decisions to technical and business stakeholders.
Evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities for process and platform improvements.
Hands-On Development
Remain actively involved in software design, coding, code reviews, troubleshooting, and technical problem-solving.
Lead the development lifecycle including architecture, prototyping, implementation, testing, deployment, and support.
Produce and review technical specifications and design documentation.
Support software releases, upgrades, and production deployments.
Contribute to complex development efforts and critical technical initiatives as needed.
Platform Support & Innovation
Lead investigation and resolution of production issues.
Ensure system stability, scalability, and operational excellence.
Collaborate with global engineering teams to share knowledge and drive innovation.
Champion continuous improvement initiatives across tools, processes, and engineering practices.
Explore and leverage emerging technologies, including AI-assisted software development practices.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
5+ years of software engineering experience with increasing technical responsibility.
Prior experience managing and mentoring software engineers.
Strong hands-on development experience with C/C++.
Deep understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, and large-scale application development.
Experience designing and building mission-critical, highly available systems.
Strong database design and data modeling experience.
Experience with network programming and performance optimization.
Solid understanding of SDLC, Agile methodologies, and software engineering best practices.
Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with Golang.
Experience building high-throughput, low-latency distributed platforms.
Exposure to cloud-native architectures and modern infrastructure technologies.
Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and Agentic AI concepts within the SDLC.
Experience supporting large-scale transaction processing platforms.
Background in digital media, advertising technology, streaming, or high-volume online platforms.
What We're Looking For
A leader who enjoys balancing engineering management and hands-on development.
Someone who can guide technical strategy while still contributing code and solving complex engineering challenges.
A collaborative manager who excels at mentoring engineers and building high-performing teams.
A technically curious professional with a passion for innovation, scalability, and continuous learning.
This is a highly visible leadership role for a hands-on engineering manager who wants to influence architecture, grow engineering talent, and help build scalable software platforms that operate at significant scale.
Responsibilities
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 5-8 software engineers
- Foster a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement
- Partner with stakeholders to define technical requirements
- Drive Agile development practices
- Conduct performance management and career development
- Provide architectural guidance and technical direction
- Review and approve software designs and implementation strategies
- Remain actively involved in software design and coding
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field
- 5+ years of software engineering experience
- Prior experience managing and mentoring software engineers
- Strong hands-on development experience with C/C++
- Deep understanding of software architecture and distributed systems
- Experience with Agile methodologies and software engineering best practices
Skills mentioned
About The Judge Group
The Judge Group is an international leader in business technology consulting, talent solutions, and learning and development. With over 30 locations across the U.S., Canada & India, Judge is proud to partner with the best and brightest companies in business today, including over 60 of the Fortune 100. We serve organizations in financial services, healthcare, life sciences, insurance, government, aerospace & defense, manufacturing, and technology & telecommunications. Judge has always been committed to doing what’s right – for our colleagues, our client partners, and our communities. At Judge, we cultivate an inclusive environment that empowers our employees to produce their best work. As a family-owned business, we’re not just a high-performing team, but a high-performing family. Through building relationships and our cultural commitment to caring, we support one another. Our People-powered Business Solutions Talent & Executive Search From temporary consultants to C-level executives, The Judge Group works across all industries and domains to find exceptional talent. IT Consulting We take an end-to-end approach to technology, working alongside your teams to design, build, implement, and manage all of your organization’s IT resources. Our enterprise IT consulting services and solutions encompass the full technology spectrum, from IT and business transformation, and cloud migration to digital strategies and execution, strategic roadmaps and delivery, process and governance optimization, and IT infrastructure and wireless solutions. Learning Solutions As a leading provider of corporate learning services for companies of all sizes and industries, Judge employs a strategic approach to learning that meets organizational training goals while strengthening business outcomes. Regardless of when, where, or how you want to train your team, our solutions are engineered to engage and support employees throughout their learning journey.
H-1B sponsorship history
Historical employer filing data was found for The Judge Group. The employer record includes 1 historical certified applications. This is employer-level history, not a guarantee that this role currently offers sponsorship.