Software Engineering 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

CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code and observability #J-18808-Ljbffr