Senior Manager - Digital Engineering

Job Description

Job Description:\n\nWho We Are Oncourse Home Solutions, also operated as American Water Resources, is a trusted home protection provider helping homeowners across the country protect what matters most. We are a $500 million organization backed by private equity firm Apax Partners, serving 2 million customers across 43 states. We partner with 25+ utilities and municipalities (and growing!) to provide customized solutions tailored to any community - delivering real value where people live. We help homeowners protect the essential systems that keep their homes running - from HVAC, appliances, and electrical to water, sewer, gas lines, and more - so they can avoid the stress and financial impact of unexpected repairs. Our work helps homeowners stay safe, comfortable, and confident in their homes every day. At Oncourse, our people are what makes that possible. We call ourselves SUPERs - Successful, United, Progressive, Empathetic, and Reliable - because that’s how we show up for our customers and for each other. We invest in our employees through competitive benefits, an inclusive culture, and employee-led resource groups that strengthen connection, community, and belonging across the company. As an equal opportunity employer, our employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, marital status, parental status, mental or physical disability, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law. Oncourse Home Solutions is committed to recruiting and retaining talented applicants and to providing all employees with a workplace free from discrimination and/or harassment.  Position Summary Reporting to the Senior Director of Digital Engineering, this role brings together what are often separate disciplines—front-end, full-stack, back-end engineering, and QA—into a single accountable team. The Senior Manager will build and lead the engineering and QA org, set the technical and quality bar, drive velocity without sacrificing reliability, and partner closely with product, marketing, operations, infrastructure, and security to deliver digital products that customers love and the business can count on. Located at our office in Naperville, IL. Our office environment is a key driver of our company culture and employee experience, so a regular in-office hybrid model (generally T-TH in office and M & F remote) is required. Responsibilities include but are not limited to: End-to-End Digital Experience OwnershipOwn the full digital experience—A to Z—across the corporate web presence, customer portal, payment hub, self-service flows, and the supporting APIs and integrations. Partner with the Senior Director of Digital Engineering and product management to translate the digital roadmap into a credible delivery plan; lead execution from discovery through launch and post-launch iteration. Serve as the single point of accountability for release health, user experience quality, performance, and availability of the digital stack. Champion a product and customer mindset inside engineering—measure what customers feel (conversion, page performance, error rates, CSAT), not just what engineering ships. Engineering Leadership & DeliveryLead, mentor, and grow a blended team of front-end, full-stack, and back-end engineers (internal and contractor), including tech leads who manage day-to-day technical decisions. Set and enforce architectural standards in partnership with enterprise architecture, infrastructure, and security—scalable, reliable, secure, and cost-aware. Drive adoption of modern engineering practices: trunk-based development, code review, automated testing, CI/CD, feature flagging, observability, and incident post-mortems. Run the sprint and release cadence using Scrum or Kanban; actively remove blockers and surface risks early. Aggressively manage technical debt while staying on budget; make defensible trade-offs between new features, platform health, and cost. Quality & QA OwnershipOwn the quality strategy end-to-end—manual QA, automation, performance testing, regression, and release readiness—as a first-class discipline on the team, not an afterthought. Build and lead the QA function: hire, coach, and retain manual and automation QA engineers; define career ladders and success metrics. Establish and scale a test automation framework (unit, integration, end-to-end, API, performance) across web and API layers; drive coverage, flake reduction, and fast feedback loops in CI. Define and publish quality gates for every release: entry/exit criteria, code coverage thresholds, critical-path automation, non-functional testing (performance, accessibility, security), and go/no-go decision rights. Institute a release management practice—change calendar, deployment playbooks, rollback procedures, and production readiness reviews. Own production quality KPIs (defect escape rate, MTTD/MTTR, change failure rate, availability/SLOs) and drive continuous improvement against them. Vendor, Offshore & Partner ManagementManage a blended workforce of FTEs, onshore contractors, and offshore vendor pods; set clear SLAs, throughput expectations, and quality bars for every pod. Participate in vendor selection, statement-of-work scoping, and ongoing performance governance; hold partners accountable to commitments. Drive knowledge transfer, documentation, and process maturity so that work is portable across pods and not locked into individuals. Optimize the onshore/offshore mix to hit velocity and cost targets without compromising quality or security. Cross-Functional PartnershipPartner with product management, marketing, sales, and operations to understand business needs and translate them into technical solutions that drive measurable outcomes. Collaborate with infrastructure, security, data, and platform teams to ensure the digital stack is scalable, observable, compliant, and resilient. Communicate technical concepts, trade-offs, and risks clearly to non-technical stakeholders and senior leadership. Represent digital engineering and QA in steering committees, executive reviews, and PE-sponsor updates as needed. Team Building & CultureRecruit, develop, and retain high-caliber engineering and QA talent; build a bench and a clear succession plan for key positions. Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, continuous learning, and intellectual honesty; recognize excellent performance and address underperformance head-on, without delay. Drive continuous improvement across the SDLC—streamline intake, planning, delivery, and release processes to shorten cycle time and increase quality. We're Excited if this is You! Experience and Qualifications of the Role:7–10 years of experience in software engineering, with increasing responsibility across digital product development, web engineering, and quality. At least 4–5 years in an engineering leadership role managing three or more teams or pods (engineering + QA; FTEs and vendor/offshore resources), including managing tech leads and senior individual contributors. Proven track record of owning the end-to-end delivery of customer-facing web applications, customer portals, or e-commerce/payment experiences at scale. Demonstrated experience building and running a modern QA function—manual + automation—including framework selection, coverage strategy, and release-readiness processes. Experience managing onshore and offshore vendor relationships, including SOW scoping, performance governance, and offshore integration. Technical DepthStrong hands-on foundation in modern web technologies: JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Angular, Node.js; server-side frameworks such as Spring/Hibernate; REST and event-driven integration patterns. Practical experience with cloud infrastructure (Azure and/or AWS), containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes), and microservices architectures. Working knowledge of authentication and authorization (OAuth, SAML, SSO), API security, and secure SDLC practices. Experience with CMS, personalization, and experience platforms (e.g., ContentStack, Adobe, Salesforce, Vtex, Optimizely, Nosto) and payment solutions (e.g., Stripe, Worldpay, Adyen) is strongly preferred. Strong test automation and tooling experience: Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, Jest, JUnit, RestAssured, k6/JMeter, and CI/CD tooling (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Azure DevOps). Comfort with observability and production operations: APM, logging, alerting, SLOs, and incident response. Leadership & DeliveryDeep fluency in Agile delivery (Scrum/Kanban), CI/CD, DORA-style delivery metrics, and engineering productivity practices. Track record of recruiting and retaining strong engineers and QA engineers, and of coaching tech leads and senior ICs into their next level. Experience creating and owning technical and quality KPIs (velocity, defect escape rate, MTTR, change failure rate, automation coverage, availability). Excellent written and verbal communication; able to translate technical complexity into business terms and vice versa. Proven ability to manage budgets, vendor spend, and SG&A commitments. MindsetOwnership-first operator: if it touches the digital experience, it's yours to make sure it works. Quality-obsessed but speed-aware—understands that shipping well and shipping fast are not opposites. Customer-focused with a product mindset; grounds technical decisions in business and customer outcomes. Comfortable in ambiguity; makes decisions with incomplete information and iterates quickly. High integrity; builds trust with engineers, peers, vendors, and executives alike. Computer skills Needed to Perform the Job:Proficiency in Microsoft Office 365 Education:Bachelor’s degree in degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience. MBA or advanced degree preferred. Certificates, Licenses, Registrations: N/A We offer a compelling total rewards package that includes a competitive base salary and comprehensive benefits to support your total wellbeing.  The base pay range for this position is $155,040 - $210,000 USD Annual. The specific pay offered will depend on qualifications, experience, education and skill set. The compensation offered may also include an annual performance-based bonus, sales incentive plan or commission target. Our benefits include, but are not limited to, healthcare, life insurance, paid time off, retirement, commuter benefits, and education reimbursement. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location. Join our SUPER Team and Enjoy Amazing Benefits!Competitive Compensation: We value your hard work and are proud of our competitive pay for performance philosophy.Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision insurance options, plus paid short-term and long-term disability coverage.401(k) Plan with 4% Company Match: Secure your future with our robust retirement plan.Generous Paid Time Off: Take the time you need to recharge and relax.Education Assistance Program: Invest in your growth and development with our support.FSA/HSA Options: Flexible spending and health savings accounts to manage your transportation and dependent care expenses.Employee Wellness: Access to EAP, health, legal, and financial resources to support your overall well-being.Vibrant Company Culture: Monthly Townhalls, employee recognition programs, and Employee Business Resource Groups (EBRGs) to keep you engaged and connected. Competencies: Action Oriented - Enjoys working hard; is action oriented and full of energy for the things that he/she sees as challenging; not fearful of acting with a minimum of planning; seizes more opportunities than others. Dealing with Ambiguity - Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn't upset when things are up in the air; doesn't have to finish things after moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty. Timely Decision Making - Makes decisions in a timely manner, sometimes with incomplete information and under tight deadlines and pressure; able to make a quick decision. Peer Relationships - Can quickly find common ground and solve problems for the good of all; can represent his/her own interests and yet be fair to other groups; can solve problems with peers with a minimum of noise; is seen as a team player and is cooperative; easily gains trust and support of peers; encourages collaboration; can be candid with peers. Innovation Management - Is good at bringing the creative ideas of others to market; has good judgment about which creative ideas and suggestions will work; has a sense about managing the creative process of others; can facilitate effective brainstorming; can project how potential ideas may play out in the marketplace. Managerial Courage - Doesn't hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and "actionable" positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.