Application Development Manager

Fehr & Peers • Sacramento, CA

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

Fehr & Peers is seeking an Application Development Manager to lead a three-person team within their IT group. This is a player-coach role requiring hands-on coding, mentoring, problem-solving, and establishing software development structure. The team builds internal applications, enterprise system integrations, custom data tools, dashboards, and analysis platforms. The manager will also act as a technology advisor, guiding colleagues on tool choices, AI-assisted development, and technical tradeoffs. This hybrid role is based in either Roseville or Sacramento offices, with typical in-office days twice a week and occasional travel.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in software development, DevOps, or a closely related field.
• 2+ years of experience in leadership, management, or senior technical mentorship.
• Hands-on development experience, including writing code and building applications.
• Strong proficiency in Python and JavaScript or TypeScript.
• Experience with modern development practices, including type hints, virtual environments, and dependency management.
• Experience with Flask or a comparable web application framework.
• Familiarity with deployment patterns such as WSGI, Gunicorn, and Nginx reverse proxies.
• Comfort working in a Linux server environment, including Ubuntu and systemd service management.
• Experience with Git-based version control and repository governance, ideally GitLab.
• Experience with relational databases and infrastructure that supports business-critical applications.
• Practical experience using AI coding assistants or agentic AI tools, such as Claude Code or GitHub Copilot, in a professional development workflow.
• Demonstrated success mentoring junior or mid-level developers.
• Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical colleagues.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting enterprise business applications such as ERP systems, GIS platforms, or content and collaboration platforms.
• Experience with platforms such as Deltek Vantagepoint, Esri ArcGIS, PostGIS, Leaflet, OpenStreetMap, SharePoint, Box, Microsoft 365, or Entra ID.
• Experience designing code review, quality assurance, or governance processes for software built with AI assistance.
• Experience building or supporting client-facing tools or data deliverables in a consulting or professional services environment.
• Experience building internal developer platforms, shared component libraries, or design systems.
• Familiarity with AI governance concepts, cybersecurity best practices, or professional services environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a three-person team focused on application development, database engineering, enterprise applications, and internal tooling.
• Set priorities and balance enterprise application support, custom tools, client-related project needs, and time-sensitive requests.
• Coach developers through hands-on technical guidance.
• Model a leadership style rooted in fairness, openness, humility, problem-solving, and respect for people’s lives inside and outside of work.
• Design, develop, and maintain internal applications, shared tooling, and system integrations.
• Support custom data tools, dashboards, data processing pipelines, and analysis platforms used in project work.
• Support enterprise systems such as SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Esri ArcGIS, Deltek Vantagepoint, and Box.
• Keep database infrastructure reliable, secure, fast, and well documented.
• Establish practical support standards for applications used by internal staff and project teams.
• Advise colleagues on when to build, buy, integrate, automate, or use AI-assisted development.
• Partner with leaders and project teams to understand needs, priorities, risks, and tradeoffs.
• Explain development priorities, timelines, and technical decisions in plain language.
• Provide training and guidance that helps staff use technology more effectively.
• Use tools such as Claude Code, ChatGPT Codex, or GitHub Copilot as part of your own development workflow.
• Model responsible AI-assisted development practices for the team.
• Coach team members on how to use AI coding tools while continuing to build strong engineering fundamentals.
• Guide development of custom AI tools, such as Model Context Protocol servers and Retrieval Augmented Generation scripts.
• Help staff outside the Application Development team use AI coding tools thoughtfully and safely.
• Develop and refine software development life cycle processes so multiple developers can work effectively on the same codebase.
• Design and implement code review processes for tools built with or without AI assistance.
• Continue rolling out our GitLab tiered governance model, including sandbox, internal, and production tiers.
• Maintain coding, security, and deployment standards across our development ecosystem.
• Work with IT Operations and cybersecurity colleagues to keep development, staging, and production environments appropriately segmented and secured.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life and Disability Insurance.
• 401(k) Plan with matching and profit sharing.
• Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Commuter Benefits.
• Paid Vacation, holidays and sick leave.
• 8 weeks of Paid Parental Leave.
• Mentoring and Career Development programs.
• Research and Development group participation.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed