Software Development Manager

Lulus; Chico (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Lulus is seeking a Software Development Manager to lead software teams and drive high-quality delivery. The role emphasizes coaching, performance management, and a strong technical foundation to guide architectural decisions.

Based in Chico with a hybrid schedule, the manager will collaborate with the Director of Development and cross-functional partners to meet KPIs, improve processes, and foster a culture of quality and accountability.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software development and/or engineering management experience.
• 2+ years of direct people management experience, with a proven ability to lead, coach, develop, and retain high-performing software engineering teams.
• Excellent communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work under pressure with multiple deadlines.
• Strong foundation to evaluate technical solutions and participate in architectural decisions.

Responsibilities

• Maximize development team throughput by ensuring requirements, risks, and status are clearly communicated between developers, product, and QA.
• Foster individual and team growth, engagement, and retention.
• Manage the development team including performance reviews and promotions, hiring and separation, workload, and performance metrics.
• Develop and execute the technical roadmap in partnership with cross-functional teams.
• Identify bottlenecks and improve engineering processes and delivery.
• Drive improvements in engineering practices, tooling, automation, and developer experience.
• Lead adoption of AI-assisted development tools and establish usage guidelines.
• Own team deliverables and timelines, defend technical opinions on design and scope.
• Monitor and enforce software development practices and processes.

Skills

Engineering leadership

People management

Software development

Communication

Agile methodologies

Scrum master

AI tooling adoption

Architectural thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Claude

Cursor

Job description

The Software Development Manager oversees individual Software Developers and Development teams ensuring Lulus is meeting internal and external stakeholder needs for support and roadmap deliverables. They will ensure development teams are delivering against timelines as well as ensuring developer productivity, efficiency, quality, and documentation of the software development process for developers. The Development Manager will be a well-balanced leader, cultivating a culture of quality and timely software delivery from a technical aspect while placing equal emphasis on the growth and impact of each team member from a coaching perspective. The Development Manager will remove obstacles that impede delivery and create an environment where engineering teams can consistently deliver high-quality software. The Development Manager will work closely with the Director of Development on day-to-day operations to ensure KPIs for individuals and teams are measured and reported transparently, as well as help enforce and roll out process change to meet goals and objectives.

Schedule

: The role follows a hybrid schedule based out of our Chico office, working onsite Tuesday through Thursday during standard business hours (approximately 9:00 AM–5:00 PM).

What You’ll Do

• Maximize development team throughput by ensuring requirements, risks, and status are clearly and honestly communicated between developers, product, and QA, enforcing scope and estimation discipline, and proactively addressing performance or engagement issues before they impact delivery
• Foster individual and team growth, engagement, and retention
• Manage the development team including performance reviews and promotions, hiring and separation of employees and task assignment, workload, and performance metric monitoring of team and individual employees
• Develop and execute the technical roadmap in partnership with cross-functional teams
• Identify systemic bottlenecks and implement improvements to engineering processes and delivery
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across engineering practices, tooling, automation, and developer experience
• Drive team adoption of AI-assisted development tools and practices, establishing usage guidelines and mentoring developers to improve productivity and code quality
• Own team deliverables and timelines, forming and defending technical opinions on design and scope rather than simply relaying team status to stakeholders
• Monitor and enforce software development practices and processes with teams and individuals
• Participate in on-call schedule and response to incidents, ensuring they are resolved quickly with minimal impact
• Lead technical design discussions and facilitate architectural decision-making
• Monitor and enforce code quality standards

What You’ll Need

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering
• 8+ years of relevant software development and/or engineering management experience
• 2+ years of direct people management experience, with a proven ability to lead, coach, develop, and retain high-performing software engineering teams, including setting performance expectations, providing feedback, managing performance, and supporting career development
• Excellent communication; written, oral and group facilitation with the ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Can work well under pressure; meeting multiple, and sometimes, competing deadlines
• Ability to build and maintain positive relationships with teams and individuals
• Strong technical foundation in software engineering, with the ability to evaluate technical solutions, participate in architectural decisions, and effectively partner with senior engineers.
• Knowledge of modern software development tools, technologies, and application hosting platforms.
• Experience establishing and improving engineering practices that support software quality, reliability, security, and maintainability.
• Strong Agile software development knowledge and experience
• Scrum master experience
• Hands-on experience with AI coding assistants (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor) and a track record of driving team adoption, establishing usage guidelines, or measuring productivity impact.

Nice to Have - Bonus Points!

• Practical experience embedding AI throughout the SDLC — leveraging AI-assisted and spec-driven (SDD) development practices across planning, code review, QA, and release automation to improve engineering velocity and quality
• Familiarity with AI/LLM integration patterns (prompt engineering, RAG, agentic workflows, or MCP servers) sufficient to evaluate vendor proposals, guide architecture decisions, and mentor engineers on responsible AI use

We’re ready to meet you! Come help us achieve our ambitious goals!

At Lulus, we believe our people are our greatest asset and we seek to structure competitive compensation offers to ensure that we can attract and retain the best talent. Our job postings include an annual base salary range for the role. The stated base salary range represents our good faith estimate as to what candidates are likely to expect, and we tailor our offers within the range based on several factors, including the selected candidate's educational and professional experience, industry knowledge, location, technical and communication skills, and other factors that may prove relevant during the selection process. Base salary is a part of a total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include an annual bonus and other benefit programs.