Manager - C++ Software Engineer

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

Software Engineering Manager (Hands-On Technical Leader)

Direct Hire/W2 only/sponsorship not available

Hybrid - Chicago

Overview

We are seeking a highly motivated Software Engineering Manager to lead a team of talented engineers responsible for designing, building, and supporting large-scale, high-availability software platforms. This role combines people leadership, technical ownership, and hands-on software development, making it ideal for leaders who enjoy mentoring teams while remaining actively engaged in architecture, coding, and technical problem solving.

The ideal candidate has experience managing engineering teams, developing distributed systems, and delivering mission-critical software in a fast-paced environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 5-8 software engineers.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Operations stakeholders to define technical requirements and execution plans.
• Drive Agile development practices and ensure successful delivery of engineering initiatives.
• Conduct performance management, career development, coaching, and hiring activities.

Technical Leadership

• Provide architectural guidance and technical direction throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Review and approve software designs, technical approaches, and implementation strategies.
• Drive engineering best practices around scalability, reliability, performance, testing, and maintainability.
• Present and defend architectural decisions to technical and business stakeholders.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities for process and platform improvements.

Hands-On Development

• Remain actively involved in software design, coding, code reviews, troubleshooting, and technical problem-solving.
• Lead the development lifecycle including architecture, prototyping, implementation, testing, deployment, and support.
• Produce and review technical specifications and design documentation.
• Support software releases, upgrades, and production deployments.
• Contribute to complex development efforts and critical technical initiatives as needed.
• Lead investigation and resolution of production issues.
• Ensure system stability, scalability, and operational excellence.
• Collaborate with global engineering teams to share knowledge and drive innovation.
• Champion continuous improvement initiatives across tools, processes, and engineering practices.
• Explore and leverage emerging technologies, including AI-assisted software development practices.

Required Qualifications

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

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Golang.
• Experience building high-throughput, low-latency distributed platforms.
• Exposure to cloud-native architectures and modern infrastructure technologies.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and Agentic AI concepts within the SDLC.
• Experience supporting large-scale transaction processing platforms.
• Background in digital media, advertising technology, streaming, or high-volume online platforms.

What We're Looking For

• A leader who enjoys balancing engineering management and hands-on development.
• Someone who can guide technical strategy while still contributing code and solving complex engineering challenges.
• A collaborative manager who excels at mentoring engineers and building high-performing teams.
• A technically curious professional with a passion for innovation, scalability, and continuous learning.

This is a highly visible leadership role for a hands-on engineering manager who wants to influence architecture, grow engineering talent, and help build scalable software platforms that operate at significant scale.