Application Development Manager (Program Manager II)

Farmers Insurance Careers•East Grand Rapids, MI

2d•$96,075 - $182,625•Hybrid

About The Position

We’re hiring an Application Development Manager to lead a team responsible for enhancing, supporting, and gradually modernizing business-critical applications. This role is best suited for a strong people leader who can foster credibility and rapport, create stability, and help the team deliver reliably in a diverse IT ecosystem. You’ll balance feature delivery, production support, and incremental modernization of legacy applications—while strengthening team routines, communication, and execution.

Requirements

4 years experience in an IT environment, including 1 year in a supervisory role or 1 year as a Program Manager I.
Proven experience leading software development teams, including coaching, accountability, and building a healthy culture.
Solid background in application development and delivering enhancements in a structured SDLC environment.
Experience working with production systems (support, reliability, incident response, and prioritizing critical work).
Strong communication skills—able to provide accurate, timely status, raise risks early, and drive alignment.
High school diploma or equivalent required.

Nice To Haves

Experience modernizing or refactoring legacy applications to reduce operational risk and technical debt.
Exposure to DevOps practices (CI/CD concepts, automated testing, quality checks, security scanning, etc.).
Familiarity working in a Microsoft enterprise environment (tools/platforms commonly used across Microsoft-based development organizations).
Multi-cloud platforms; post composition and workflow automation software; scripting (Python, PowerShell, JavaScript, Bash, VB); print languages (PLC 5/6, LCDS/Metacode, PDL, AFP, PostScript, PDF, etc.); familiarity with Content Manager or FileNet; ServiceNow.
Bachelor’s degree preferred or equivalent, relevant experience.

Responsibilities

Guide and assist a team of approximately five developers and one customer representative by fostering transparency, coaching, prioritizing tasks, providing feedback, and supporting career growth and objectives.
Build confidence and trust through consistent leadership, clear expectations, and a steady operating rhythm.
Set priorities and manage tradeoffs between planned work (features/modernization) and unplanned work (production issues, urgent requests).
Improve execution and transparency with clear status reporting, early risk escalation, and dependency management.
Partner with stakeholders in the department, across IT and the business to align scope, timelines, and outcomes.
Guide work across legacy applications and modern engineering practices, focusing on steady improvement over “big bang” change.
Encourage a quality-focused SDLC (clear requirements, testing discipline, release readiness, and production support practices).
Promote a DevOps mindset—automation, repeatability, and continuous improvement—within our IT ecosystem.