Engineering Manager

Ortho2, LLC.•Ames, IA

12d•Hybrid

About The Position

This is a relatively new position where the Engineering Manager will help define the role as they grow into it. As Engineering Manager, you’ll lead a ~10-person team of Software Developers, Senior Engineers, and a UI/UX. The role involves owning the team's growth, performance, and the health of how they work. This is a hands-on role, requiring participation in design discussions and technical credibility with senior engineers. The Engineering Manager will own the team that executes the architecture and technical strategy driven by the VP of Development, forming a crucial partnership. The team works across a cloud platform that has been actively developed for over 20 years. A significant portion of functionality resides in .NET Framework, WPF, and WCF, with ongoing migration to modern .NET microservices, React and SvelteKit web apps, and Kubernetes on Azure. The role involves managing a team that works across this entire spectrum, handling both legacy and greenfield development. The company culture is one where everyone wears multiple hats, roles flex with needs, and priorities shift with customer dynamics. This role is ideal for someone who thrives on ambiguity and sees it as freedom, rather than someone who prefers structure, rigid ceremonies, strict processes, or tightly bounded roles.

Requirements

8+ years building software, with meaningful depth in .NET and React a plus
Recent enough hands-on work to earn the respect of senior engineers in a code review
3+ years managing software engineers, including real hiring and performance-management outcomes
A track record of raising a team’s productivity bar. Coaching people to new skill levels, and when necessary, managing people out with honesty and dignity
Comfort operating without a playbook: adapting process, priorities, and your own role as needs change
Fluency with AI-assisted development and what it changes about how teams work

Nice To Haves

Modernizing a long-lived product while it stayed in production
Multi-tenant B2B SaaS experience
Leading a team’s adoption of AI development tooling
Experience partnering closely with UI/UX designers
WPF or desktop application background

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and grow the development team: 1:1s, growth plans, performance management, and hiring
Stay hands-on: participate in architecture discussions, review code, and occasionally deploy
Own team capability: honestly assess skills against where our platform is heading, invest heavily in developing people, and make the hard calls when investment isn’t working, including hiring the engineers the platform needs
Champion modern engineering practice: strong review culture, a real quality bar, and AI-assisted development as a first-class part of how the team works
Keep delivery healthy with lightweight, adaptive process; fit the process to the team and the moment, not the other way around
Occasionally represent engineering in technical conversations with vendors and enterprise customers