Mgr. Software Engineering

UKG•Alpharetta, GA

5d•$129,500 - $187,500

About The Position

The Manager of Software Engineering for Payroll leads a team of engineers responsible for building, scaling, and operating UKG’s payroll module within our SaaS platform. This role combines people leadership, delivery ownership, and technical stewardship to ensure payroll systems are reliable, compliant, and continuously evolving to meet customer and regulatory needs. You will manage engineers working across backend services, data stores, and user-facing applications that support end-to-end payroll processing. The role partners closely with Product Management, Architecture, AI/Data teams, and Compliance to deliver high-quality payroll capabilities while maintaining operational excellence in a highly regulated domain.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
6+ years of experience in software development, with 2+ years in a technical leadership role and 2+ years in a people management role.
Proven track record of leading and delivering large-scale, complex software projects.
Experience leading teams building SaaS, enterprise, or highly available production systems.
Deep expertise in one or more programming languages such as C#, .NET, Python, Java, or JavaScript.
Extensive experience with software architecture and design patterns.
Strong understanding of cloud technologies and DevOps principles.
Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
Excellent communication and leadership skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence and drive change.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
Familiarity with PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, and modern web frameworks such as Angular.
Experience supporting AI-enabled or analytics-driven product features.
Experience with cloud platforms like Azure, AWS, or GCP.
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automation tools.
Knowledge of agile development methodologies.
Experience in a complex, matrixed organization.
Familiarity with developing accessible technologies.

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership and direction for major projects, ensuring alignment with business goals and industry best practices.
Lead, coach, and develop a team of software engineers working on the Payroll module.
Be hands-on with code, maintaining high technical standards and actively participating in design and architecture decisions, code reviews, and helping engineers optimize their code.
Ensure that high standards of performance, scalability, and reliability are maintained when architecting, designing, and developing complex software systems and applications.
Ensure accountability for the team’s technical decisions and enforce engineering best practices (e.g., documentation, automation, code management, security principles, leverage CoPilot).
Ensure the health and quality of services and incidents, proactively identifying and addressing issues. Utilize service health indicators and telemetry for action. Implement best practices for operational excellence.
Play a pivotal role in the R.I.D.E. (Recommend, Inform, Decide, Execute) framework.
Understand CI/CD pipelines from build, test, to deploy phases.
Lead and manage a team of software engineers, fostering a collaborative and high-performance environment. Conduct regular performance reviews, provide feedback, and support professional development.
Foster a culture of service ownership and enhance team engagement.
Drive succession planning and engineering efficiency, focusing on quality and developer experience through data-driven approaches.
Promote a growth mindset, understanding and driving organizational change.
Actively seek opportunities for team growth and cross-functional collaboration.
Works and guides the team on how to operate in a DevOps Model. Taking ownership from working with product management on requirements to design, develop, test, deploy and maintain the software in production.
Hire and onboard engineers; build balanced teams with strong technical and domain skills.
Grow and develop the team technically and with a quality mindset, providing strong and actionable feedback.
Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers at all levels, fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement, encouraging the team to experiment, learn, and iterate on processes and technologies.
Stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends, advocating for their adoption where appropriate to drive innovation and productivity within the team.
Oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of high-impact software projects, ensuring they are completed on time and within budget. Manage team workload and capacity, setting priorities and managing risks and tradeoffs.
Own delivery outcomes for payroll features, enhancements, and operational improvements.
Align team efforts with the strategic direction of the company, understanding the big picture and business needs.
Demonstrate engineering excellence and service ownership, including cost and quality management of services, and effective production management.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product management, design, and operations, to ensure alignment and successful delivery of projects. Communicate effectively with stakeholders at all levels.
Make deployment decisions with appropriate risk mitigation.
Payroll Platform Ownership.
Ensure AI-enabled features are introduced safely, transparently, and compliantly.