Hands-On Software Development Manager

Citadel Aviation; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Citadel Aviation in Dallas, TX seeks a Manager of Software Development who leads a hands-on, player-coach engineering team and aligns delivery with business goals. You will mentor developers, own the software delivery lifecycle, drive agile practices, and ensure AI-assisted development meets security and quality standards.

This on-site role requires strong leadership, architectural judgement, and collaboration with IT and HR to build a high-performing team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, IT, or related field or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of professional software development experience with .NET, C#, web technologies, SQL Server, API design, and system integration.
• 3+ years managing or supervising software developers with delivery and people accountability.
• Active hands-on development practice; candidate writes, reviews, and ships production code today.
• Experience taking projects from concept to production using agile, code reviews, CI/CD, and Git.
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools and validating AI-generated code.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day work of the software development team with prioritization and on-time delivery.
• Establish readiness standards with stakeholders for business outcomes and acceptance criteria.
• Break projects into components, create estimates, and manage to dates with transparency.
• Provide regular status updates to IT leadership and business stakeholders.
• Run agile ceremonies and metrics to balance delivery, quality, and team capability.
• Coach and develop developers into independent contributors.
• Collaborate on recruiting and onboarding to raise throughput and quality.
• Provide architectural direction across the portfolio and guide AI-assisted development.
• Oversee automated testing, CI/CD, security practices, and production support.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Agile delivery

Coaching

Hands-on coding

AI-assisted development

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related

Tools

Git

CI/CD

SQL Server

.NET/C# stack

Job description

Citadel Aviation in Dallas, TX seeks a Manager of Software Development who leads a hands-on, player-coach engineering team and aligns delivery with business goals. You will mentor developers, own the software delivery lifecycle, drive agile practices, and ensure AI-assisted development meets security and quality standards.

This on-site role requires strong leadership, architectural judgement, and collaboration with IT and HR to build a high-performing team.