Assistant Director, Software Engineering - Public Investments (Public Investments Lead)

northwesternmutual; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee seeks an Assistant Director, Software Engineering (Tech Lead) who owns end-to-end technical quality and delivery across UI, services, and data platforms. This role combines hands-on coding with leadership of engineers, partnering with Product Managers, Architects, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable solutions aligned with team objectives.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in software and data engineering, strong React front-end and REST API

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software and data engineering experience.
• Full-stack and data platform expertise.
• Experience leading engineers (formal or informal).
• Proven ability to mentor and elevate engineering maturity.
• Experience with Public Investment Management Systems preferred.
• Strong React web app and backend REST API experience.

Responsibilities

• Serve as hands-on technical lead for IMS implementations from design through delivery.
• Define and communicate technical direction for Public Investments team aligned with architecture, security and delivery standards.
• Translate product outcomes into pragmatic technical designs and plans.
• Lead design across front-end (React), backend services (Node.js, REST APIs), and data platforms (dbt, Snowflake).
• Review code and provide hands-on guidance to engineers.
• Drive decomposition and sequencing for initiatives across applications, pipelines, and data warehouses.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards for code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and ops readiness.
• Own technical risk management including architecture, integration, performance, and security risks.
• Ensure API and data integrations are resilient and well-documented.
• Improve data reliability and warehouse performance.

Skills

React

REST APIs

Data platforms

Leadership

Tools

dbt

Snowflake

Node.js

Job description

About the Job

The Assistant Director, Software Engineering (Tech Lead) owns end-to-end technical quality and delivery execution across UI, services, and data platforms. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role with direct engineer reports, accountable for technical direction, delivery excellence, and engineering leadership for the Public Investments engineering teams.

In this role, you will work side by side with engineers while partnering closely with Product Managers, Architects, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and supportable solutions aligned with team objectives. You are a technical authority who sets direction, raises standards, and develops engineering talent through coaching and influence. Informal leadership experience is welcome, and we are looking for someone who wants to grow in that area.

Strong experience in the public investments or asset management domain is essential. Hands‑on experience with large‑scale investment management system (IMS) implementations is preferred.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as the hands‑on technical lead for large‑scale Investment Management System (IMS) implementations, from design through delivery.
• Define and communicate technical direction for the Public Investments team, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, security, and delivery standards.
• Translate product and business outcomes into pragmatic technical designs and implementation plans.
• Lead solution design across front end (React), backend services (Node.js, REST APIs), and data platforms (dbt, Snowflake) with clear interface contracts and data lineage.
• Work through complex design problems with the team, reviewing code and stepping in to provide hands‑on guidance.
• Drive technical decomposition and sequencing for initiatives spanning applications, APIs, pipelines, and warehouse models.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards for code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and operational readiness.
• Own technical risk management, including early identification of architecture, integration, performance, and security risks.
• Ensure API and data integrations are resilient, well‑documented, and reusable across teams.
• Improve data reliability and trust by guiding data warehouse model quality, transformation design, and warehouse performance optimization.
• Support production stability by guiding incident response, root‑cause analysis, and preventive engineering improvements.

Technical Leadership & Team Development

• Serve as direct leader for engineers, responsible for coaching, growth, performance management, and career development.
• Lead through technical influence, coaching, pairing, and hands‑on guidance.
• Build a strong engineering culture centered on ownership, quality, learning, and constructive feedback.
• Lead regular technical and delivery reviews, fostering a healthy review and mentorship culture.
• Develop team capability through coaching, pairing, and intentional skills development.
• Partner with Engineering Management on hiring, onboarding, and succession planning.
• Set clear expectations and accountability for technical excellence, delivery outcomes, and operational readiness.

Cross Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Product Managers to balance delivery speed, quality, and long‑term maintainability.
• Coordinate cross‑team dependencies and release readiness for shared components, platforms, and data pipelines.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and other investment delivery teams' Technical Leads to align standards, patterns, and roadmaps.
• Communicate effectively with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders, providing clarity under ambiguity.

This role works closely with:

• Product Manager for Public Investments team
• Engineering Manager and Software/Data Engineers
• Enterprise Architecture
• Other investments delivery teams' Technical Leads

What You’ll Bring to the Role

• Strong experience in the public investments or asset management domain.
• Prior experience with one or more Public Investment Management Systems (e.g., Aladdin Enterprise, Calypso, Bloomberg, Charles River, etc.).
• 8+ years of software and data engineering experience, with strong full‑stack and data platform expertise.
• Strong hands‑on technical skills, including designing solutions and guiding engineers through code.
• Experience providing technical leadership, formal or informal, and a desire to grow in leadership.
• Proven technical leadership across multiple teams or complex cross‑functional initiatives.
• Strong experience building modern web applications with React.
• Strong experience building backend services and designing REST APIs.
• Strong experience with data warehousing best practices.
• Experience with database performance tuning, cost‑aware design, and data governance controls.
• Experience designing secure, scalable, and observable systems in enterprise environments.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and elevate engineering maturity.

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