Software Engineering Manager

Software Modernization Manager

***Person must be local to SNJ or Philadelphia due to the need to be in the office a few days per week. Applicants outside of this area will not be considered***

We are seeking a highly technical Software Modernization Manager to lead multiple engineering teams through a large-scale application transformation. This individual will combine strong people leadership with a deep technical foundation in Java development, application architecture, microservices, and modern engineering practices.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and manage multiple software engineering teams responsible for a major application modernization initiative.
• Drive the incremental transformation of a large, production Java monolith into an API-first, event-driven microservices architecture.
• Provide technical leadership across architecture, system design, code quality, scalability, reliability, and production readiness.
• Remain actively involved in architecture discussions, technical design reviews, code reviews, and key engineering decisions.
• Partner with Architecture, Platform, SRE, QA, Product, and other stakeholders to drive modernization efforts and delivery.
• Own team performance, execution, roadmap delivery, technical quality, and engineering outcomes.
• Build and develop engineering teams, including hiring, mentoring, performance management, and career development.
• Establish engineering standards and promote accountability, continuous improvement, observability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Manage both internal engineering resources and external/consulting development teams.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of software development experience, including significant experience in the Java ecosystem.
• 5+ years of software engineering leadership/management experience.
• Prior hands-on development experience with Java, Spring, Spring Boot, Hibernate, or similar technologies.
• Demonstrated experience leading or participating in large-scale application modernization, ideally including the decomposition of monolithic applications into microservices.
• Strong understanding of event-driven architecture, distributed systems, REST APIs, API-first development, and microservices design principles.
• Ability to remain technically engaged and effectively challenge designs, assess code quality, mentor engineers, and guide complex technical decisions.
• Experience with modern CI/CD, observability, containerization, Infrastructure as Code, and production engineering practices.
• Experience with Azure or another major cloud platform preferred.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical decisions, tradeoffs, risks, and resource needs for both engineering teams and senior leadership.

Ideal Background

This opportunity is well suited for a current Software Development Manager, Engineering Manager, or Senior Engineering Manager who began their career as a hands-on Java developer and has maintained strong technical depth while moving into leadership.

The ideal candidate has firsthand experience helping organizations move from legacy or monolithic Java applications toward modern, event-driven microservices environments, while successfully leading and developing engineering teams.

Technical Environment

• Java, Spring, Spring Boot, Hibernate
• Monolith-to-microservices application modernization
• Event-driven architecture and distributed systems
• REST APIs and API-first development
• Azure/cloud-native application development
• CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code and observability