Senior Manager of Software Engineering

Morningstar; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 148,000 - 226,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment

Wellness programs

Retirement contributions

Job summary

Morningstar is seeking a Senior Engineering Leader in Chicago to guide the Retirement group’s North America teams focused on Plan Advantage and Fiduciary Services. You will hire, coach, and develop technical leaders while fostering ownership and continuous learning.

You will establish architecture standards and drive modern practices, including AI-native engineering with guardrails, and partner with Product to shape roadmaps across multiple applications to ensure delivery and quality.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 5+ years leading teams.
• Strong depth in distributed systems, including architecture, APIs, data consistency and resilience.
• Hands-on proficiency with Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, and AWS cloud-native development, with frontend depth for review.

Responsibilities

• Lead North America engineering teams supporting Morningstar Plan Advantage and Fiduciary Services.
• Hire, coach, and develop technical leads and engineers; foster ownership and continuous learning.
• Provide technical leadership with architecture standards and design review processes; enable teams to deliver predictably.

Skills

Lead engineering teams

Distributed systems

Java/Spring Boot

Cloud AWS

Strong communication

Education

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

Tools

CI/CD

Observability tooling

Job description

The Group

Morningstar's mission is to create products that help investors achieve their financial goals. For the Retirement group, that means building products and solutions that help employers maximize the value of their workplace retirement plans and put individuals on the path to better retirement outcomes. Retirement is a high-growth area for Morningstar offering a diverse suite of technology and investment-based solutions. Our unique client base includes retirement plan providers, sponsors, advisors, consultants, and participants.

The Group

Morningstar's mission is to create products that help investors achieve their financial goals. For the Retirement group, that means building products and solutions that help employers maximize the value of their workplace retirement plans and put individuals on the path to better retirement outcomes. Retirement is a high-growth area for Morningstar offering a diverse suite of technology and investment-based solutions. Our unique client base includes retirement plan providers, sponsors, advisors, consultants, and participants.

The Job Responsibilities

Team Leadership

• Lead the North America engineering teams supporting Morningstar Plan Advantage and Fiduciary Services.
• Hire, coach, and develop technical leads and engineers while fostering a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous learning.

Technical Leadership

• Provide technical leadership by establishing clear ownership, decision-making practices, architecture and design review standards, and consistent engineering expectations while enabling technical leads and teams to operate independently and deliver predictably.
• Continuously improve how engineering teams build and operate software by adopting modern development practices, automation, and operational excellence.

AI-Native Engineering

• Lead teams through the shift from AI-assisted to agentic engineering — engineers set direction, build the context and guardrails agents work within, and verify outcomes rather than producing the implementation themselves.
• Own the engineering environment that makes agent-authored work trustworthy: context, standards enforced through automated checks, and feedback that catches defects before human review. Accountability for what ships stays with engineers — AI-generated work doesn't reduce or transfer it.
• Measure whether it's working — cycle time across the full delivery lifecycle rather than coding alone, rework rate on agent-authored work, and no compromise in quality, security, compliance, or accessibility.

Delivery & Cross-functional Execution

• Own successful execution of initiatives that span multiple applications and engineering teams by driving alignment, managing dependencies, removing blockers, and maintaining delivery momentum.
• Partner closely with Product Management to shape roadmaps, clarify priorities, and balance near‑term needs with platform modernization.
• Build strong working relationships across engineering and product organizations, encouraging direct communication, shared ownership, and collaborative problem solving.

The Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading engineering teams with direct people management responsibility.
• Strong technical depth in distributed systems, including service architecture, API design, data consistency, resiliency, and performance, with the ability to review designs and identify scalability and operational risks.
• Hands‑on proficiency with Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, and cloud‑native development on AWS, with enough front‑end depth in modern component‑based JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks to review full‑stack designs end to end, and the ability to review architecture, designs, and code and provide technical guidance to engineering teams.
• Demonstrated experience delivering complex initiatives spanning multiple engineering teams and applications, driving execution, managing dependencies, and resolving cross‑team technical challenges.
• Experience adopting AI‑assisted engineering practices including coding agents, AI‑assisted code reviews, testing, and documentation with the ability to establish appropriate guardrails, verification practices, and engineering standards while maintaining high standards for quality, security, and engineering judgment.
• Working knowledge of modern software engineering practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, observability, SLOs, secure SDLC, and cloud‑native operational practices.
• Experience developing engineers and technical leads with a track record of growing individuals into broader technical and leadership responsibilities.
• Demonstrated ability to build collaborative engineering teams and foster a culture of ownership, accountability, continuous improvement, and direct cross‑functional communication.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence technical decisions, navigate ambiguity, and build trusted partnerships across groups.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Compensation And Benefits

At Morningstar we believe people are at their best when they are at their healthiest. That’s why we champion your wellness through a wide range of programs that support all stages of your personal and professional life. Here are some examples of the offerings we provide:

• Financial Health
  • 100% 401k match up to 6% of salary
  • Stock Ownership Potential
  • Company provided life insurance - 1x salary + commission
• Physical Health
  • Comprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company‑provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coverages
  • Additional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annual
  • Company‑provided long‑and short‑term disability insurance
• Emotional Health
  • Trust-Based Time Off
  • 6-week Paid Sabbatical Program
  • 6-Week Paid Family Caregiving Leave
  • Competitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental Leave
  • Adoption Assistance
  • Leadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship Opportunities
  • Annual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well‑being expenses
  • Tuition Reimbursement
• Social Health
  • Charitable Matching Gifts program
  • Dollars for Doers volunteer program
  • Paid volunteering days
  • 15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups

Total Cash Compensation Range

$147,550.00-226,233.33

Inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive

If you receive and accept an offer from us, we require that personal and any related investments be disclosed confidentiality to our Compliance team (days vary by region). These investments will be reviewed to ensure they meet Code of Ethics requirements. If any conflicts of interest are identified, then you will be required to liquidate those holdings immediately. In addition, dependent on your department and location of work certain employee accounts must be held with an approved broker (for example all, U.S. employee accounts). If this applies and your account(s) are not with an approved broker, you will be required to move your holdings to an approved broker.

Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to collaborate in-person each week as we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis. In most of our locations, our hybrid work model is four days in‑office each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.

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