Manager, Application Development (Hands-On Technical Lead)

About the Role The Manager, Application Development is a hands‑on technical leader responsible for both software engineering delivery and team leadership. This role combines application development management with active participation in architecture, design, coding, code reviews, and technical decision‑making. The incumbent will lead a team of developers while driving the development and continuous improvement of modern application and data solutions that support business objectives. Responsibilities Act as a hands‑on technical leader, contributing to application architecture, software design, code reviews, and complex development initiatives while providing day‑to‑day leadership, coaching, and direction to the development team. Monitor and evaluate the performance of staff and business processes to streamline tasks and initiate new or revised systems. Define the application architecture and manage the lifecycle of improvements, upgrades and continuous maintenance. Research technologies and best practices to support continuous improvements in systems and applications quality, efficiency, and ROI. Lead team members on data analysis and integration of applications. Provide technical documentation updates to the latest enhancement or release. Ensure that the team follows standards for development tools, platforms, methodology, and controls to ensure efficiency, quality and consistency in application development. Ensure that projects follow specific project plans and timelines; deliver status reports, issue logs and generate appropriate documentation. Ensure that project work meets all contractual service levels associated with quality estimation and incident resolution. Manage external vendor relationships with contract administrators to review, negotiate, and revise relevant contracts. Design and implement applications to meet business SLAs. Qualifications To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements below represent the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. 5+ Years experience managing systems architecture, software design and development – Required. 5+ Years experience managing an application development team – Required. Expert‑level experience developing production applications using modern Python (Python 3.13+ preferred). Strong experience with modern Python development tooling: Astral uv, Pydantic, pytest for automated testing, mypy, ty, and ruff. Strong experience designing and developing solutions utilizing Microsoft SQL Server 2019+. Experience developing and optimizing data solutions within Snowflake. Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor engineering teams while remaining actively engaged in technical design and development activities. Proven experience balancing people leadership responsibilities with hands‑on software engineering contributions. Ability to establish technical direction, conduct architecture reviews, and guide engineering teams through complex technical decisions. Able to assimilate research data, analyze, and recommend appropriate courses of action. Able to work under stress and pressure when faced with high workloads and deadlines. Able to design applications using new or existing methodologies. Able to adapt to change and work independently with minimum supervision. Able to prepare and analyze reports and other business correspondence. Able to identify risk, needs, opportunities and develop action plans. Strong organizational and time‑management skills, driving tasks to completion. Education Bachelor’s Degree in a related field or equivalent demonstrated through experience, training, military service, or education – Required. Master’s Degree in a related field or equivalent – Preferred. Certifications No certifications listed for this job. Work Authorization & Sponsorship Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full‑time basis without requiring employer sponsorship to commence employment. Compensation Base pay range: Minimum $112,500.00 USD – Maximum $190,000.00 USD. Benefits Benefits are designed to support you, your family and your well‑being. Risk Culture We embrace a strong risk culture and all professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management. EEO Statement At Santander, we value and respect differences in our workforce. We actively encourage everyone to apply. Santander is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law. Working Conditions Frequent minimal physical effort such as sitting, standing and walking is required. Depending on location, occasional moving and lifting light equipment and/or furniture may be required. Employer Rights This job description does not list all of the job duties. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate your employment at any time for any reason. #J-18808-Ljbffr Santander Consumer USA Inc.