Manager, Software Engineering

Manager, Software Engineering

Vestmark is building the AI-native future of wealth management technology. We are looking for a Manager who can build and lead the team that delivers it. You will own a team of up to 12 engineers, drive delivery through a kanban-based process you co-own with product management, and operate as a peer to a Principal Engineer who sets the technical direction. The technical authority is theirs. The delivery, the people, and the outcomes are yours.

This role demands high judgment and a genuine bias for action. You will make calls with incomplete information, adapt quickly as tools and priorities evolve, and hold your team accountable for outcomes while investing in their growth. AI fluency is not optional here: you are expected to model the same AI-native practices you require of your team.

Vestmark is a leading provider of wealth management solutions and services that enable financial advisors and institutions to efficiently manage and trade their clients' portfolios using a purpose-built SaaS ecosystem. With over $2 trillion in assets and 5+ million accounts, we are a trusted partner to some of the largest and most respected players across the wealth management industry.

What You'll Do

Own Delivery

• Co-own the kanban process with product management: maintain flow, manage WIP, prioritize ruthlessly, and hold the team to delivery commitments
• Translate business priorities into clear, sequenced work with defined outcomes and measurable success criteria
• Surface blockers and risks early and resolve them; stakeholders should always have an accurate picture of where things stand
• Apply the principle "fix the process, don't automate the broken one": engage deeply enough with the work to know when the solution is right, not just when it is done

Build & Develop the Team

• Recruit, hire, onboard, and develop a team of engineers, including both existing Vestmark engineers and new hires aligned with the AI-native profile we are building toward
• Manage performance actively: set clear expectations, provide direct feedback, recognize strong performance, and address underperformance without delay
• Integrate engineers from different starting points into a cohesive team with shared standards, mutual accountability, and consistently high output
• Invest in each person's growth, with particular focus on building AI fluency across the team regardless of starting point
• Contribute to the growth and development of our core values: We Before Me, Positive Energy, Knowledge Explorer, and Own It

Drive AI-Native Practice

• Model AI-native development practices yourself: use AI tools actively in how you plan, communicate, analyze work, and operate as a manager
• Reinforce the team's AI-native standards in every interaction: planning sessions, reviews, retrospectives, and day-to-day decision-making
• Partner with the Principal Engineer to ensure delivery practices support, rather than constrain, the team's ability to build agentic and AI-driven solutions
• Stay current on AI tooling and agentic system capabilities; the expectation is that you adapt quickly to new tools and approaches as they emerge

Operate with Judgment & Adaptability

• Make decisions with the information available; waiting for certainty is not an option in an environment that moves at this pace
• Adapt quickly as priorities, tools, and circumstances change; bring the team with you without losing momentum
• Navigate ambiguity at the team level while maintaining clarity for the individuals on your team about what they are working on and why
• Build and maintain strong working relationships across engineering, product management, and operations to keep work flowing and dependencies resolved

What We're Looking For

Leadership & People Management

• Demonstrated experience managing a software engineering team of meaningful size; you have hired, developed, and managed out, and you can speak to each with specificity
• Track record of building high-performing teams, including integrating engineers with different skill levels and backgrounds into a cohesive unit
• Direct, honest communicator: equally effective giving feedback to an individual engineer and presenting delivery status to senior leadership
• You treat performance management as a core competency: you set clear expectations, give direct feedback, and don't let underperformance linger

Delivery Ownership

• Proven ability to own end-to-end delivery across multiple concurrent workstreams with genuine accountability for outcomes
• Fluency with kanban-based delivery: WIP management, flow metrics, continuous prioritization, and outcome-based planning
• Ability to engage with business problems deeply enough to make good sequencing and trade-off decisions, not just manage tasks
• Bias for action: you make the call, communicate it clearly, and adjust if you are wrong

AI Fluency & Adaptability

• You use AI-assisted development tools and agentic systems regularly and with genuine depth: you have opinions about them, you are actively developing your practice, and you model that standard explicitly for the engineers on your team
• Demonstrated ability to adapt quickly to new tools, processes, and circumstances; your default response to change is to engage, not to resist
• Curiosity about where AI-native engineering is heading and how it will continue to change the work of building and leading software teams

Judgment & Communication

• High judgment in ambiguous situations: able to weigh competing priorities, make defensible calls, and take accountability for the outcome
• Ability to maintain clarity and focus for a team operating in a fast-moving, sometimes uncertain environment
• Strong written and verbal communication; the team and the organization should always know where things stand and why decisions were made

Product Mindset

• Track record of driving scope and priority decisions at the team level: connecting what the squad is building to measurable business outcomes and pushing back when the work doesn't align
• You engage with the business problem your team is solving, not just the delivery plan; you can distinguish between a well-scoped initiative and one that will move the wrong metric

What Will Help You Stand Out

• Experience leading a team through a meaningful shift in how they work: a new delivery model, a major change in tooling, or a significant restructuring of how engineering and product collaborated
• Hands-on experience with AI-native or agentic development environments, either as an engineer or as a manager of engineers doing that work
• Background in financial services technology or other highly regulated, operationally complex domains
• A track record of integrating tenured employees and new hires into a cohesive unit, particularly where cultural alignment and skill development were part of the challenge

Why Vestmark

• Lead a team building AI-native systems in production, in a domain where the business consequences are direct and measurable: $2 trillion in assets, millions of accounts, and a business model that is actively transforming
• Operate as a genuine peer to a Principal Engineer, with clear ownership of delivery and people in a function that has executive sponsorship and dedicated funding
• Build something net-new: the team, the operating model, and the culture are yours to shape
• The Efficiency Build mission is concrete and measurable; you will always know whether the work is moving the right metrics

Education & Experience

• B. S. in Computer Science or equivalent work experience
• 5+ years of software engineering experience; strong enough technical background to evaluate engineering trade-offs, read designs critically, and earn the respect of the Principal-level engineers on your team
• 3+ years of people management experience in a software engineering context, managing a team of at least 5 engineers with clear evidence of hiring, developing, and managing direct reports

Vestmark is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Vestmark prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability status