Senior Software Engineering Manager (Greater Chicago Area)

Senior Software Engineering Manager – Azure Native focus

Hybrid WFH – 3 days onsite, 2 days work from home

Chicago, NYC, Dallas or Houston based

Summary:

This Senior Software Engineering Manager will focus leading and managing an Azure-Native software engineering team of 10-25, with a mix of both FTEs and contractors, from both junior to senior/lead levels – the team is getting built out in parallel with us hiring for this Manager role.

This role is open due to growth, so this person will be managing new software development initiatives, in an exciting team for our global organization where we’re making significant investments into AI – although this is not an AI focused role, you’ll drive productivity increases using various AI tools, with a heavy focus on building Azure native .NET applications, with a React front-end – the technical environment is summarized below.

We’re looking for managers who have stayed hands on, and can provide “buck stops here” development support for your team, and assist with developing less experienced engineers on your team – this is a technical leadership role first, a people leadership role second. So you must be strong technically with the Azure .NET stack , and any front-end experience would be more of a nice to have.

And we’re looking for experienced managers who have been managing engineering teams for at least 3 years – ideally comparable in size (10-25), but at least a team of 5.

If this sounds like you, apply today!

What you’ll be doing

• Design and evolve the distributed system architecture for the cloud-native automation platform, including Azure Container Apps, Service Bus, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Blob Storage
• Design event-driven architectures using Azure Service Bus for high-volume asynchronous processing
• Optimize platform performance, cost, and operational complexity through architectural improvements
• Lead .NET backend development including ASP.NET Core APIs, CQRS pattern with MediatR, Entity Framework Core, and FluentValidation
• Conduct code reviews ensuring adherence to SOLID principles, async programming best practices, and distributed systems patterns
• Own and evolve multi-stage Azure DevOps YAML pipelines including multi-phase infrastructure deployment, container image builds, and environment-specific deployments
• Manage and mentor software engineers, focusing on cloud engineering skill development

Skills we’re seeking

• Bachelor’s Degree is a hard requirement
• Ideally in CS or an IT related field, but any Bachelor’s Degree checks the box
• 10+ years of experience with .NET Development
• Must have experience with .NET 6+ (ideally 8+)
• 5+ years of experience with Azure-native .NET Development
• The more experience with Azure services the better, some of the key services we use: Azure DevOps, Azure Container Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Service Bus, Azure database services including Azure SQL Database with Elastic Pools, Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server, managed identity authentication, connection pooling, and private endpoint configuration
• Proven track record delivering distributed systems in production using microservices architecture and event-driven patterns.
• 3+ years of experience with managing software engineering teams, of at least 5 engineers
• Must have experience leading software engineering teams in Agile environments
• Strong code review skills with ability to provide constructive feedback on backend APIs, infrastructure code, and integration logic systematic troubleshooting approach for complex distributed systems issues.

Nice to haves

• Experience with .NET 8+
• Experience with Azure DevOps YAML pipelines including multi-stage pipelines, pipeline templates, variable groups, and environment-based deployments
• Container image build and deployment workflows including Dockerfile optimization, multi-stage builds, and Azure Container Registry integration.
• Proficiency in ReactJS/TypeScript/JavaScript including js development, Async patterns (Promises, async/await), npm/pnpm package management, Module systems (CommonJS, ES modules), etc.
• Scripting proficiency in Bash or PowerShell for deployment automation and troubleshooting.

Advanced technical nice to haves (not expecting candidates to be strong in these areas, but you’ll stand out if you are):

• Experience with .NET Aspire for cloud-native application orchestration and service discovery
• Expert-level Bicep or Terraform proficiency with ability to read, write, and debug complex Infrastructure-as-Code modules (500+ lines)
• Experience with CQRS and Mediator patterns (MediatR or equivalent)
• Event Grid and Event Hubs for event-driven architectures

• Deep Azure networking expertise including VNETs, subnets, Network Security Groups, private endpoints, Private DNS Zones, VNET peering, Application Gateway, and NAT Gateway
• Ability to diagnose Azure networking problems including DNS resolution failures, private endpoint connectivity issues, and Application Gateway routing problems

Nice to have certifications:

• AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions
• AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
• AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure
• AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator
• Certified Scrum Master