Sr Manager, Application Development (HR/Finance & Delivery Management)

RK Management Consultants, Inc.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

RK Management Consultants, Inc. seeks a Sr Manager of Application Development to lead multiple agile teams focused on HR and Finance platforms, including Workday.

You will shape architecture, drive modernization, and partner with stakeholders to deliver secure, cloud-enabled enterprise applications in a regulated financial services environment. The ideal candidate has 15+ years in software engineering and 5+ years managing high-performing teams, with strong expertise in AWS, DevSecOps, and

Qualifications

• 15+ years software engineering and application development experience.
• 5+ years managing high-performing engineering teams.
• Experience leading enterprise portfolios including Workday HR/Finance, AWS, DevSecOps and Agile.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end software development lifecycle across HR/Finance platforms.
• Drive architecture decisions, delivery excellence and modernization efforts.
• Partner with stakeholders to translate business needs into technology roadmaps.
• Coach and develop engineering and delivery teams toward measurable outcomes.

Skills

Leadership

Agile/Scrum

AWS Cloud

Software Engineering

Delivery Management

Education

BS/MS in CS or Engineering

AWS certifications preferred

Tools

Workday

Kainos

CI/CD tooling

Azure DevOps

Job description

Sr Manager, Application Development (HR/Finance & Delivery Management)

The Sr. Manager, Application Development is a senior technology leader within IT Software Engineering & Delivery responsible for leading multiple application development teams in the design, development, modernization, delivery, and support of secure, scalable, cloud-enabled enterprise applications supporting business operations and strategic priorities.

This role leads two key domains: the organization’s Human Resources and Finance application portfolio, including Workday and related systems, and enterprise Agile delivery management, including the practices, roles, tools, and standards used across IT Software Engineering & Delivery.

The Sr. Manager is a highly technical engineering leader who guides architecture and design decisions, challenges technical assumptions, removes delivery impediments, and drives modern engineering practices. The role partners closely with business stakeholders, Product Owners, Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Data, Risk, Compliance, and IT leadership to translate business needs into sustainable technology solutions.

The ideal candidate has deep experience leading software engineering teams in Agile/Scrum environments, delivering AWS-based applications, implementing DevSecOps and CI/CD practices, modernizing legacy platforms, developing technical talent, and building high-performing teams in a regulated financial services environment. The role is accountable for delivery execution, engineering excellence, application reliability, security, talent development, and continuous improvement.

How You’ll Make an Impact

• Provide senior technology leadership across the HR and Finance application portfolio, including Workday, custom applications, SaaS platforms, integrations, workflows, and reporting solutions, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, reliable, and aligned with business priorities.
• Serve as a strategic technology partner to HR, Finance, and IT stakeholders, translating business needs into sustainable solutions while balancing business value, risk, platform capabilities, technical debt, and delivery capacity.
• Own and continuously improve enterprise Agile delivery practices, standards, coaching, tooling, and metrics to increase delivery predictability, quality, efficiency, and business value.
• Build high-performing engineering and delivery teams through strong leadership, talent development, accountability, and continuous improvement.

What You Can Expect

Technology Leadership & Engineering Excellence

• Lead the end-to-end software development lifecycle, including solution design, architecture alignment, development, testing, deployment, operational readiness, and production support.
• Provide technical leadership across the HR and Finance application portfolio, including Workday Human Capital Management, Finance and General Ledger capabilities, custom applications, SaaS platforms, integrations, workflows, and reporting.
• Ensure solutions are secure, scalable, reliable, maintainable, observable, and aligned with enterprise architecture standards.
• Guide teams in modern engineering practices, including clean architecture, API-first design, microservices where appropriate, reusable components, automated testing, secure coding, code reviews, and CI/CD.
• Partner with business owners, architects, and technology leaders to develop application roadmaps that balance business priorities, platform capabilities, modernization, technical debt, operational risk, and delivery capacity.
• Serve as a technical escalation point for complex architecture, integration, security, performance, production stability, and modernization challenges.

Cloud, AWS & DevSecOps

• Lead teams designing, building, deploying, and operating applications in AWS environments with a focus on security, reliability, scalability, automation, performance, and cost-conscious engineering.
• Drive adoption of cloud-native practices, including infrastructure as code, containerization, managed cloud services, automated deployment pipelines, and application telemetry.
• Champion DevSecOps by embedding security, quality, testing, governance, and compliance throughout the development lifecycle.
• Ensure applications have appropriate monitoring, logging, alerting, traceability, and operational support capabilities to improve reliability and reduce time to detect and resolve issues.

Enterprise Agile & Delivery Leadership

• Own and continuously improve the enterprise Agile framework, standards, processes, coaching model, and delivery tooling, including Microsoft Azure DevOps, while evaluating opportunities to evolve toward a scaled Agile operating model where appropriate.
• Lead and mature Agile delivery across Scrum and Kanban teams, strengthening backlog management, requirements decomposition, user story quality, dependency management, sprint and flow discipline, and measurable delivery outcomes.
• Provide leadership for enterprise delivery management resources, including Scrum Masters and Business Systems Analysts supporting Agile facilitation, requirements gathering, work decomposition, backlog refinement, and delivery execution.
• Partner with Scrum Masters, Product Owners, business stakeholders, and technology leaders to prioritize work, manage dependencies, remove impediments, and deliver incremental business value.
• Use Agile, engineering, and operational metrics to assess team health, delivery predictability, throughput, cycle time, quality, and improvement opportunities.

Business Partnership & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as a trusted technology partner and thought leader for HR, Finance, and other business stakeholders by understanding business processes, priorities, risks, and desired outcomes.
• Translate business needs into technology roadmaps, system capabilities, delivery plans, and practical solutions aligned with organizational strategic objectives.
• Lead effective tradeoff discussions involving scope, timing, cost, risk, quality, platform capabilities, and business value.
• Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership, business partners, risk and compliance stakeholders, vendors, and delivery teams.
• Proactively identify technology opportunities, delivery risks, resource constraints, and modernization needs and provide clear recommendations to leadership.

Talent Development & High-Performing Teams

• Hire, develop, coach, and retain high-performing engineering and Agile delivery talent, including managers, Scrum Masters, Business Systems Analysts, developers, DevOps engineers, quality engineers, and application support resources.
• Build a culture of accountability, craftsmanship, collaboration, inclusion, continuous learning, and strong business partnership.
• Establish clear performance expectations, provide meaningful feedback, support career development, and create growth and succession plans for technical and leadership talent.
• Foster psychological safety, collaboration, and ownership while maintaining accountability for delivery, quality, security, and operational outcomes.

Risk, Security, Compliance & Operational Readiness

• Ensure applications and engineering practices meet applicable security, audit, compliance, and regulatory expectations within a financial services environment.
• Partner with Cybersecurity, Risk, Compliance, Audit, and Infrastructure teams to embed appropriate controls throughout application design, development, testing, release, and support.
• Ensure Workday, SaaS platforms, custom applications, integrations, workflows, reporting solutions, and production changes are appropriately governed, tested, controlled, supported, and operationally ready.
• Promote secure coding, threat-aware design, vulnerability remediation, automated testing, segregation of duties, change control, and evidence-based audit readiness.

Strategy, Planning & Financial Management

• Contribute to application portfolio strategy, technology roadmaps, annual planning, budgeting, staffing models, and resource allocation.
• Support modernization initiatives involving digital transformation, application rationalization, API and data integration, cloud migration, platform resiliency, and legacy system transformation.
• Manage vendor and third‑party relationships as needed, ensuring delivery, quality, security, and architectural expectations are met.
• Track delivery performance, team capacity, financial impacts, operational health, and modernization outcomes to support leadership decision‑making.

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline; equivalent experience may be considered.
• 15+ years of software engineering and application development experience, including 5+ years managing high-performing engineering teams.
• Experience leading enterprise application portfolios that include SaaS platforms, custom applications, integrations, reporting, workflow automation, and Workday HR and Finance platforms. Experience with Workday quality assurance tools such as Kainos is preferred.
• Proven success delivering large‑scale, business‑critical applications using modern engineering practices, Agile/Scrum methodologies, and AWS cloud technologies.
• Strong technical expertise in application architecture, Angular, Java, .NET/.NET Core, APIs, microservices, CI/CD, DevSecOps, automated testing, cloud‑native architectures, secure coding, and integration patterns.
• Strong understanding of AWS services, cloud architecture, automation, scalability, resiliency, observability, and performance optimization.
• Demonstrated experience building, coaching, and developing high-performing engineering and Agile delivery teams while driving accountability, continuous improvement, and talent growth.
• AWS certifications and Agile/project management certifications such as PMP, CSM, PSM, or SAFe preferred.