Software Engineering Manager

Software Engineering Manager

As a Software Engineering Manager within MS TECH Order Fulfillment, you will provide strategic technical leadership and hands-on expertise to build industry-leading products. You are a systems thinker capable of driving large-scale transformations that maximize value for Ford, our Dealers, and our customers. This role requires a unique blend of high-level strategy—defining product vision and technical roadmaps—and deep execution, ensuring our solutions remain scalable, resilient, and highly available in a global environment.

Technical Leadership & Vision

• Serve as the primary technical authority for the Order Generation product suite, defining the evolution of the technology stack and architectural patterns.

• Lead cross-functional teams through complex integrations, managing dependencies across the broader Order Fulfillment ecosystem to ensure seamless data flow and system interoperability.

• Translate high-level business requirements into actionable technical strategies that align with Ford’s enterprise standards.

Product Strategy & Delivery

• Partner with business stakeholders to define and execute a multi-year product vision and roadmap focused on optimized order forecasting and generation.

• Champion an iterative, Agile delivery model, prioritizing the delivery of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and maintaining a high-velocity release cadence.

• Apply Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles to ensure technical solutions solve real-world problems for Dealers and customers.

Engineering & Operational Excellence

• Enforce rigorous engineering standards, including Test-Driven Development (TDD), robust CI/CD pipelines, and DevSecOps practices.

• Drive a culture of "Full Lifecycle Ownership," where the team is responsible for the design, security, deployment, and operational health of their services.

• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for system health, code quality, and delivery velocity.

Architectural Design

• Architect and oversee the development of Cloud-Native, microservices-based systems designed for global scale, multi-tenancy, and high-performance transactional processing.

People Leadership & Talent Development

• Cultivate a high-performing, diverse team of Software Engineers and Product Managers through active coaching, mentorship, and career pathing.

• Foster a culture of psychological safety and continuous learning, utilizing blameless retrospectives and regular feedback loops to drive team growth.

• Identify and close skill gaps within the team to keep pace with emerging technologies and industry trends.

Strategic Collaboration

• Act as a bridge between the product team and domain experts in Cloud Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, SRE, and DevOps to reduce portfolio complexity.

• Influence stakeholders across the organization to adopt modern engineering practices and standardized service contracts.

Technical Execution (Hands-on)

• Maintain deep technical fluency in the team’s primary languages and frameworks (e.g., Java, Spring Boot, GCP/Azure).

• Lead from the front by participating in code reviews, resolving complex technical blockers, and occasionally prototyping solutions for abstract or high-risk technology concepts.

Qualifications (Must Have)

• Experience: 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with a significant portion in leadership roles.

• Education: Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

• Certifications: Industry certifications relevant to software engineering (or a commitment to obtain them within 6 months). GCP Architect Certification is a plus.

• Cloud Expertise: 4+ years of experience delivering solutions on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

• Technical Depth: 

  • Expertise in Microservices, Cloud-Native architectures, Event-driven architectures, APIs, and Domain-Driven Design (DDD).

  • Hands-on experience with Java, Angular, Terraform, Postgres, APIGEE, Kubernetes, Docker, Serverless, and Containerization.

  • Thorough knowledge of multi-threading, concurrency, and parallel processing concepts.

  • Expertise in DevSecOps and monitoring tools such as Dynatrace or Google Cloud Monitoring.

  • Experience increasing "Developer Experience" by integrating AI Agents or AI skills into the development lifecycle.

• Leadership Qualities: 

  • Proven ability to lead large-scale transformations and apply systems thinking to complex problems.

  • Demonstrated ability to create psychologically safe team environments.

  • Strong influencing and communication skills, with the ability to navigate complex decision-making in rapidly changing environments.

  • Experience earning the respect of top individual technical talent through technical competence and mentorship.

Nice to Have

• Advanced Education: Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

• AI/ML Innovation

  • Awareness of AI/ML and experience with Vertex AI and MLOps in GCP.

• Platform Expertise: 

  • Technical expert with experience building platforms and underlying services for re-use across the enterprise.

  • Ability to translate product roadmaps into manageable features through quarterly scoping sessions.

  • Ability to jump in and assist product teams to resolve technical blockers directly.

  • Actively works to identify and remove/ mitigate risks and blockers to product delivery.

  • Assesses the overall health of the product and prompts key decisions to move it forward. 

 

• Business Acumen: Strong understanding of business priorities and technical feasibility to prioritize platform backlogs and manage dependencies. 

• Methodology: Experience with Lean methodology and eXtreme Programming (XP). 

• Advocacy: Experience as a champion for software processes, culture, and best practices within a large organization.

Experience Level

Mid Level