Manager Engineering

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:   

Designing Solutions  

• Review technical solution design and architecture and provide guidance and direction.  

• Take part in system design and architecture conversations with the team to land approaches to deliver solutions.  

• Review technical solution and supports the execution of the solution  

Developing Software  

• Has Developed software.   Can read code and stays up to date on best practices.  

• Ensure Code reviews are completed - Problem solving and analytical skills  

Learning and applying new techniques  

• Promotes and empowers sharing ideas, best practices, etc. They need to make space so teams can take time for these activities.  

• Anticipates and analyzes trends in technology and assesses the impact of emerging technologies on the business  

Collaborating within team  

• Supports the team agile practices and learning events / trainings  

• Helps break down barriers for the team  

• Engages in sprint demos; Understands the desired and actual outcomes as well as the technology delivered by the team  

• Partner with Product Manager on Initiatives/ Features/ Epics and provides clarity on desired outcomes as well as technical expertise.  

• Collaborates with Product manager for strategies, operating plans, targets and measures for product groups   

• Creating a positive team environment where individuals have psychological safety and work collaboratively while understanding, respecting, challenging and appreciating each other’s ideas  

Collaborating across teams  

• Supports and empowers teams to broker solutions across products  

• Understands how the product integrates with other products and ensures consistency in approach to work towards a common goal / outcome.  

• Builds strong working relationships with peers across teams  

• Proactively identifies cross team challenges and works to empower teams in solve collaboratively  

Collaborating across the organization  

• Align your team with the priorities of the company and the technology organization for a given product area  

Setting product/platform technology strategy  

• Participates in setting the product and platform technology vision, strategies, initiatives, roadmaps , objectives and alignments  

• Represents the business value of technology upgrades, etc. and influences prioritization in the product roadmap  

• Empowers the team to select the right tool and platforms for the given product area.  

Defining Engineering standards/patterns  

• Collaborating with Engineers to ensure Engineering practices and be an advocate to bring the engineering disciplines.  

• Promoting engineering practices and continuous improvement such as DevOps nd observability  

• Contributes to the creation of enterprise frameworks and patterns  

DevOps  

• Define and supports the development Lifecyle processes  

• Supports the team and removes barriers to resolving production incidents/problems  

• DevOps continuously evaluated through observability, monitoring and alerting  

• Understands the health of technology products and promotes prioritization of work to maintain and continuously improve  

• Serve as an escalation point in product level support for ongoing maintenance and production issues   

Selecting & Managing Technology Vendors  

• Be an advocate to the team to define criteria’s for selecting the right platform/technology  

• Guides the team to build consensus on an approach and driving a build vs buy decision with the team. In a buy decision, works with the team to decide on criteria and vendor selection.  

• Execute or manage the overall technology solutions, platforms for the product groups and associated vendor relationships.  

Coaching Engineers  

• Holding regular 1:1s with team members and team meeting,  provides constructive feedback, guidance and coaching to help engineers grow their skills and experience.  

• Provides career planning advice to engineers and creates development plans to help them achieve their career goals which leverages their skills and capabilities and provides them with learning opportunities.  

Recruiting/building talent  

• Leads the process of selecting and engaging the right consulting partners  

• Planning in advance for future people needs for the product groups, collaborate with the other teams on the recruitment process  

• Recruits, develops, and sustains a high-performing team while promoting a culture of shared accountability, operational excellence, and partnership across the organization.  

• Models Thrivent’s leadership competencies – courage, collaboration, and commitment by demonstrating resiliency, working together to make the best decisions, and holding yourself and others accountable.  ​  

• Supports and/or develops an environment in which Thrivent employees and colleagues are focused on continuous improvement, exceptional employee engagement, and an unwavering commitment to our clients.  Shapes and/or supports a culture that represents the Thrivent purpose, promise and values, ensuring that Thrivent’s trust and reputation remain strong with its clients.    

• Manage a team of direct and indirect staff   

QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:   

 Required: 

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or other technical field or equivalent work experience  

• 8+ years of progressively responsible positions in Information Technology including 5+ years’ experience in IT discipline, e.g., wealth management advisor solutions, 3rd party Saas Vendor file management, portfolio strategy and roadmap development.  

• 3+ years’ management/supervisory experience in specific IT functional area discipline, e.g. applications development or equivalent skills leading major technical projects with accountability for enforcing talent management needs and performance standards.  

• Demonstrated leadership and experience managing multidiscipline, high-performance work teams.  

• Strong competency in project management and execution of multiple or large projects.  

• Experience working with customers to develop solutions to complex business problems.  

• Proven ability to communicate effectively with internal/external stakeholders to support business initiatives.  

• Proven ability to function in an environment which requires flexibility, good judgment and intelligent decision making, often based on limited information and/or extreme conditions. 

• Ability to formulate, implement and evaluate plans, programs and procedures applicable to customer relationship and demand management.  

 Preferred:   

• MBA  

• Financial Services industry experience  

• 5+ years of experience in hands on development with modern data tools and technologies such a Python, Lambda, AWS with proven ability to design, build and maintain data architecture and pipelines.  

• Guide architectural decisions and ensure best engineering practices.  

• Review code, design documents, and technical proposals.  

• Stay hands-on with coding when necessary, especially for prototyping or critical issues. 

• Experience with data modeling, 3rd party vendor file management. 

• Experience in IT planning and business relationship management  

• Experience working in a matrix management organization  

• Experience with product development and management