Software Engineering Manager

NPAworldwide; Sioux Falls (SD); On-site; USD 160,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

NPAworldwide is seeking a Software Engineering Manager to lead a technically focused software organization building mission-critical systems. You will balance people management with hands-on technical leadership to guide architecture and delivery.

You will mentor engineers, drive hiring and performance management, promote modern engineering practices, and align software initiatives with broader organizational goals while preserving engineering excellence and autonomy.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience developing complex systems.
• 2+ years leading software engineers or technical teams.
• Strong foundation in software architecture, system design, development, integration, debugging, and testing.
• Ability to understand complex systems at architectural and implementation levels.
• Experience with modern development practices, configuration management, automated testing, CI/CD, and software lifecycle management.
• Strong planning, estimation, resource management, prioritization, and communication skills.
• A leadership style built on technical credibility, curiosity, humility, and accountability.
• Ability to challenge ideas constructively, listen to opposing viewpoints, and change direction when the facts warrant it.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop software engineers and technical leads.
• Drive hiring, career development, performance management, and team growth.
• Build a culture of technical excellence, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Allocate engineering resources and develop staffing and capacity plans.
• Remove obstacles and give teams the resources and autonomy needed to succeed.
• Develop a strong understanding of the organization's software architecture, systems, and technical challenges.
• Engage directly in architecture and design discussions and constructively challenge technical decisions.
• Identify technical debt, architectural weaknesses, and risks affecting reliability, performance, and maintainability.
• Promote modern engineering practices, automation, testing, CI/CD, tooling, and software reuse.
• Help teams make effective tradeoffs between schedule, cost, performance, risk, and long-term maintainability.
• Lead a software engineering community of practice to share knowledge and establish consistent engineering standards.
• Ensure teams have clear plans, realistic estimates, appropriate resources, and measurable objectives.
• Maintain visibility into technical health, development progress, risks, and dependencies.
• Support project planning, resource management, proposals, estimates, and corrective actions.
• Partner with Chief Engineers, Product Management, Product Assurance, and other engineering leaders.
• Coordinate software development with systems, electrical, mechanical, aerospace, test, manufacturing, and operations teams.
• Represent software engineering in organizational planning and technical leadership activities.

Skills

Software architecture

People management

Technical leadership

CI/CD practices

Staffing and hiring

Education

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

Tools

CI/CD tooling

Automation frameworks

Linux

Job description

Job Description

We are seeking a Software Engineering Manager to lead a highly technical software organization developing complex, mission-critical systems. This role combines technical leadership, people management, and engineering strategy, with a strong emphasis on building high-performing teams and delivering reliable software.

The ideal candidate is an experienced software engineer who has transitioned into leadership but remains technically engaged. You will work closely with software leads and engineers to understand architectures, identify technical risks, challenge assumptions, and help teams make sound engineering decisions without taking ownership away from the experts closest to the work.

This is an opportunity to shape people, technology, and engineering culture while working across a multidisciplinary organization.

What You’ll Do

• Lead, mentor, and develop software engineers and technical leads.
• Drive hiring, career development, performance management, and team growth.
• Build a culture of technical excellence, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Allocate engineering resources and develop staffing and capacity plans.
• Remove obstacles and give teams the resources and autonomy needed to succeed.

Provide Technical Leadership

• Develop a strong understanding of the organizations software architecture, systems, and technical challenges.
• Engage directly in architecture and design discussions and constructively challenge technical decisions.
• Identify technical debt, architectural weaknesses, and risks affecting reliability, performance, and maintainability.
• Promote modern engineering practices, automation, testing, CI/CD, tooling, and software reuse.
• Help teams make effective tradeoffs between schedule, cost, performance, risk, and long-term maintainability.
• Lead a software engineering community of practice to share knowledge and establish consistent engineering standards.

Drive Execution

• Ensure teams have clear plans, realistic estimates, appropriate resources, and measurable objectives.
• Maintain visibility into technical health, development progress, risks, and dependencies.
• Support project planning, resource management, proposals, estimates, and corrective actions.

Collaborate Across Engineering

• Partner with Chief Engineers, Product Management, Product Assurance, and other engineering leaders.
• Coordinate software development with systems, electrical, mechanical, aerospace, test, manufacturing, and operations teams.
• Represent software engineering in organizational planning and technical leadership activities.

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience developing complex systems.
• 2+ years leading software engineers or technical teams.
• Strong foundation in software architecture, system design, development, integration, debugging, and testing.
• Ability to understand complex systems at both the architectural and implementation levels.
• Experience with modern development practices, configuration management, automated testing, CI/CD, and software lifecycle management.
• Strong planning, estimation, resource management, prioritization, and communication skills.
• A leadership style built on technical credibility, curiosity, humility, and accountability.
• Ability to challenge ideas constructively, listen to opposing viewpoints, and change direction when the facts warrant it.

Preferred Experience

• Software engineering management experience.
• Embedded, distributed, networked, or mission-critical software.
• Linux, C/C++, Python, web applications, containers, or related technologies.
• Multidisciplinary products involving software, electronics, communications, sensors, or physical systems.

Why This Role

This is a chance to have a meaningful impact at both the technical and organizational level developing exceptional engineers, influencing software architecture and engineering practices, and helping teams solve challenging problems without unnecessary bureaucracy.

We’re looking for a leader who is technical enough to earn the teams respect, humble enough to listen, and decisive enough to move the organization forward.

Salary

Salary Type: Annual Salary

Salary Min: $ 160000

Salary Max: $ 190000

Currency Type: USD