Assistant Director, Software Engineering-Real Estate

Northwestern Mutual - Denver; Milwaukee (WI); Hybrid; USD 176,000 - 264,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual is seeking an Assistant Director of Software Engineering to own technical quality and delivery across UI, services, and data platforms. You will lead Real Estate engineering teams, drive security, reliability, and scalability, and mentor engineers to raise the team's maturity.

You will align with product managers and architects to translate business outcomes into pragmatic designs, overseeing frontend React, Node.js REST APIs, and data pipelines with strong data lineage.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software and data engineering experience with strong full-stack and data platform expertise.
• Experience leading engineers directly or readiness to step into people 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.
• Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Define and communicate technical direction for Real Estate team, aligning with architecture, security, and delivery standards.
• Translate product 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).
• Drive decomposition and sequencing for initiatives spanning applications, APIs, pipelines, and warehouse models.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards for code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, and reliability.
• Own technical risk management including architecture, integration, performance, and security risks.
• Ensure API and data integrations are well-documented, reusable, and resilient.
• Improve data reliability by guiding warehouse model quality, transformations, and performance.
• Guide incident response, root-cause analysis, and preventive engineering improvements.
• Serve as direct people leader for engineers, coaching, growth, and career development.
• Build engineering culture focused on ownership, quality, learning, and feedback.
• Lead regular technical and delivery reviews, fostering mentorship.
• Develop team capability through coaching, pairing, and skill development.
• Partner with Engineering Management on hiring, onboarding, and succession planning.
• Set clear expectations for technical excellence and operational readiness.

Skills

Databases & Data Platforms

Data Interpretation

Adaptive Communication

Engineering Expertise & Practices

Talent Development & Planning

Coaching & Mentoring

Product Roadmap

Job description

About the Role

The Assistant Director, Software Engineering, owns end-to-end technical quality and delivery execution across UI, services, and data platforms. This role is accountable for technical direction, delivery excellence, and people leadership for the Real Estate engineering teams.

In this role, you will lead engineers directly while partnering closely with Product Managers, Architects, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and supportable solutions aligned with team's objectives. You are both a technical authority and a people leader—setting direction, raising standards, and developing engineering talent.

What You'll Do in the Role:

• Define and communicate technical direction for Real Estate 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.
• 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.

People Leadership & Team Development

• Serve as direct people leader for engineers, responsible for coaching, growth, performance management, and career development.
• 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.

What You'll Bring to the Role:

• 8+ years of software and data engineering experience, with strong full-stack and data platform expertise.
• Prior experience leading engineers directly (or demonstrated readiness to step into people 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.
• Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience in investment services domains.
• Experience modernizing legacy applications and data pipelines.
• Experience with platform migration programs and phased cutover strategies.
• Experience defining shared engineering standards across multiple teams.

Skills You Have:

• Databases & Data Platforms: Advanced
• Data Interpretation: Advanced
• Adaptive Communication: Advanced
• Engineering Expertise & Practices: Advanced
• Talent Development & Planning: Advanced
• Coaching & Mentoring: Expert
• Product Roadmap: Advanced

#LI-Hybrid

Compensation Range:

Pay Range - Start:

$176,000.00

Pay Range - End:

$264,000.00

Geographic Specific Pay Structure:

Structure 110:

Structure 115:

We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.