Hands-On Engineering Manager: C++ & Distributed Systems Leader

The Judge Group; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

The Judge Group is seeking a Software Engineering Manager to lead a team of engineers in Chicago hybrid, shaping architecture and delivering high-availability platforms. This hands-on leadership role blends people management with active coding, architecture reviews, and technical problem solving.

You will mentor 5-8 engineers, drive Agile practices, and collaborate with Product and Operations to define requirements while maintaining technical excellence and scalability across global teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years of software engineering with increasing responsibility.
• Prior experience managing and mentoring software engineers.
• Strong hands-on experience with C/C++.
• Deep understanding of architecture, distributed systems, and large-scale apps.
• Experience with mission-critical, highly available systems.
• Strong database design and data modeling.
• Experience with network programming and performance optimization.
• Knowledge of SDLC, Agile methods, and best practices.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 5-8 software engineers.
• Foster technical excellence, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Operations to define requirements and plans.
• Drive Agile development practices and deliver engineering initiatives.
• Conduct performance management, career development, coaching, and hiring.
• Provide architectural guidance throughout the software lifecycle.
• Review designs and implementation strategies.
• Ensure scalability, reliability, performance, testing, and maintainability.
• Present architectural decisions to stakeholders.
• Stay hands-on with software design, coding, reviews, and debugging.
• Lead releases, upgrades, and deployments.
• Collaborate with global teams to share knowledge.
• Champion continuous improvement in tools/processes.
• Explore emerging technologies including AI-assisted development.

Skills

C/C++ hands-on

Distributed systems

SDLC & Agile

Leadership & mentoring

Problem solving

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Golang

Cloud-native

AI-assisted tools

Networking optimization

Job description

The Judge Group is seeking a Software Engineering Manager to lead a team of engineers in Chicago hybrid, shaping architecture and delivering high-availability platforms. This hands-on leadership role blends people management with active coding, architecture reviews, and technical problem solving.

You will mentor 5-8 engineers, drive Agile practices, and collaborate with Product and Operations to define requirements while maintaining technical excellence and scalability across global teams.