Software Engineering Manager

Software Engineering Manager role at UKG

We are seeking a Software Engineering Manager with SaaS application experience to join our dynamic team. As a first-line manager, you will lead a team of talented engineers, driving technical excellence, fostering a culture of ownership, and ensuring the successful delivery of high-impact projects. You will be responsible for guiding technical decisions, managing team performance, and aligning engineering efforts with business goals.

• Provide technical leadership and direction for major projects, ensuring alignment with business goals and industry best practices.
• Be hands‑on with code, maintaining high technical standards and actively participating in design and architecture decisions, code reviews, and helping engineers optimize their code.
• Ensure that high standards of performance, scalability, and reliability are maintained when architecting, designing, and developing complex software systems and applications.
• Ensure accountability for the team’s technical decisions and enforce engineering best practices (e.g., documentation, automation, code management, security principles, leverage CoPilot).
• Ensure the health and quality of services and incidents, proactively identifying and addressing issues. Utilize service health indicators and telemetry for action. Implement best practices for operational excellence.
• Play a pivotal role in the R.I.D.E. (Review, Inspect, Decide, Execute) framework.
• Understand CI/CD pipelines from build, test, to deploy phases.

• Lead and manage a team of software engineers, fostering a collaborative and high‑performance environment. Conduct regular performance reviews, provide feedback, and support professional development.
• Foster a culture of service ownership and enhance team engagement.
• Drive succession planning and engineering efficiency, focusing on quality and developer experience through data‑driven approaches.
• Promote a growth mindset, understanding and driving organizational change.
• Actively seek opportunities for team growth and cross‑functional collaboration.
• Works and guides the team on how to operate in a Dev Ops Model. Taking ownership from working with product management on requirements to design, develop, test, deploy and maintain the software in production.

• Grow and develop the team technically and with a quality mindset, providing strong and actionable feedback.
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers at all levels, fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement, encouraging the team to experiment, learn, and iterate on processes and technologies.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends, advocating for their adoption where appropriate to drive innovation and productivity within the team.

• Oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of high-impact software projects, ensuring they are completed on time and within budget.
• Manage team workload and capacity, setting priorities and managing risks and tradeoffs.
• Align team efforts with the strategic direction of the company, understanding the big picture and business needs.
• Demonstrate engineering excellence and service ownership, including cost and quality management of services, and effective production management.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product management, design, and operations, to ensure alignment and successful delivery of projects. Communicate effectively with stakeholders at all levels.
• Make deployment decisions with appropriate risk mitigation.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in software development to include work with SaaS applications, with 3+ years in a technical leadership role and 2+ years in a people management role.
• Proven track record of leading and delivering large-scale, complex software projects.
• Deep expertise in one or more programming languages such as Java (preferred) or C#.
• Extensive experience with software architecture and design patterns.
• Stron…