The Software Engineering Manager is a hands-on technical leader responsible for the development, modernization, integration, and support of custom business applications that enable critical operations across Hallmark Media. This role combines people leadership with direct technical involvement, guiding a team of software engineers while contributing to architecture, design reviews, troubleshooting, and strategic technology decisions.
The ideal candidate is a player-coach who can balance technical leadership, delivery execution, and team development while partnering closely with business stakeholders, project managers, infrastructure teams, information security, and external vendors. They bring experience across multiple programming languages and modern development frameworks and can help guide the organization's evolution from legacy technologies toward scalable, cloud-enabled solutions.
The salary range for this job is between $127,200-$175,400 annually. Salary rate will take into consideration several factors including location.KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:Leadership & Team Management - Lead, coach, and develop a team of software engineers, fostering accountability, innovation, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.
- Establish engineering standards and best practices across architecture, development, testing, deployment, and support activities.
- Provide technical leadership through architecture reviews, code reviews, troubleshooting, and technical decision-making while developing team capabilities in cloud technologies, integrations, automation, AI, and modern engineering practices.
Software Engineering & Delivery- Lead the development, support, and modernization of custom applications, APIs, and integrations, driving the transition from legacy systems to cloud-ready, API-first architectures.
- Reduce technical debt and architectural risk while evaluating and introducing technologies that improve scalability, maintainability, security, and business value.
- Partner with stakeholders, vendors, and technology teams to define integration strategies and ensure reliable, secure, and adaptable solutions.
Engineering Excellence, DevOps & SDLC Discipline- Improve software delivery practices through strong source control, testing, CI/CD, documentation, release management, and code quality standards.
- Partner with Information Security, Architecture and Infrastructure teams to ensure compliance with security, governance, and operational requirements.
- Promote disciplined change management and support operational stability across the application portfolio.
Cross-Functional Partnership, Planning & Governance- Partner with business leaders, PMO, project managers, analysts, and technology teams to prioritize and deliver solutions that support strategic objectives.
- Provide effort estimates, resource planning, technical roadmaps, status reporting, and risk management.
- Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
AI, Automation & Continuous Improvement- Identify opportunities to responsibly apply automation and AI-enabled capabilities to improve engineering productivity, software quality, support efficiency, or business workflows.
- Evaluate AI-assisted development and workflow tools pragmatically, ensuring usage aligns with security, compliance, and governance expectations.
- Foster research and development initiatives by encouraging the exploration, evaluation, and adoption of emerging technologies that can create measurable business value.
QUALIFICATIONS:Required- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 7+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including meaningful experience leading or mentoring software engineers in an enterprise environment.
- Demonstrated success leading custom application development and integration work supporting business-critical operations.
- Strong hands-on software development experience with C#/.NET and experience in one or more modern programming languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, or similar technologies.
- Ability to evaluate and apply the appropriate technology stack based on business and technical requirements.
- Experience designing, developing, or modernizing applications using contemporary software development frameworks, cloud-native architectures, and modern programming languages.
- Strong experience with SQL Server and related data access technologies.
- Experience designing and supporting secure RESTful APIs, enterprise integrations, authentication frameworks, and cloud-based solutions.
- Experience with modern software delivery practices including Git-based source control, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, Agile delivery methods, and structured release management..
- Experience leading architecture discussions, code reviews, debugging efforts, and technical decision-making for medium-to-large initiatives.
- Experience working across multiple stakeholders, vendors, and technical teams to deliver solutions in a complex enterprise environment.
- Working knowledge of IT Service Management principles and their relationship to incident, problem, and change management.
Preferred Experience:- Experience in cable television, broadcast, streaming, media, advertising, rights, scheduling, or production finance environments.
- Experience modernizing legacy applications and integration patterns in a phased, low-disruption manner.
- Experience with modern full-stack development technologies including JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Angular, Node.js, Python, or similar frameworks and platforms.
- Experience with Blazor, Entity Framework, Power Automate, or comparable workflow and automation tooling.
- Exposure to observability, logging, and application performance monitoring practices.
- Experience introducing AI-assisted development or automation capabilities in a controlled enterprise setting.
Leadership & Core Competencies- Strong people leadership, coaching, and team development skills.
- Technical credibility and sound architectural judgment.
- Ability to influence across business and technology teams without relying solely on direct authority.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and prioritization skills.
- Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences and business stakeholders.
- Comfortable operating in a high-accountability environment with competing priorities, operational demands, and delivery deadlines.
- Collaborative, pragmatic, and improvement-oriented leadership style.
What Success Looks Like (First 12 Months):- Establish credibility as a technical leader by improving engineering standards, team effectiveness, and delivery execution.
- Develop and begin executing a modernization roadmap for priority applications and integrations.
- Improve SDLC maturity through stronger code reviews, testing, CI/CD practices, documentation, and release management.
- Reduce operational risk while building team capabilities in cloud technologies, integrations, automation, AI, and modern software engineering practices.
Work Conditions:- Occasional evening or weekend work may be required to support project deadlines, releases, incidents, or other business-critical events.
- Some travel may be required for off-site meetings, training, implementation support, or vendor coordination.
- This role requires sustained collaboration across distributed teams, business units, and external partners.
