Software Development Manager

LULUS FASHION LOUNGE LLC•Chico, CA

1d•$130,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Software Development Manager oversees individual Software Developers and Development teams ensuring Lulus is meeting internal and external stakeholder needs for support and roadmap deliverables. They will ensure development teams are delivering against timelines as well as ensuring developer productivity, efficiency, quality, and documentation of the software development process for developers. The Development Manager will be a well-balanced leader, cultivating a culture of quality and timely software delivery from a technical aspect while placing equal emphasis on the growth and impact of each team member from a coaching perspective. The Development Manager will remove obstacles that impede delivery and create an environment where engineering teams can consistently deliver high-quality software. The Development Manager will work closely with the Director of Development on day-to-day operations to ensure KPIs for individuals and teams are measured and reported transparently, as well as help enforce and roll out process change to meet goals and objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering
8+ years of relevant software development and/or engineering management experience
2+ years of direct people management experience, with a proven ability to lead, coach, develop, and retain high-performing software engineering teams, including setting performance expectations, providing feedback, managing performance, and supporting career development
Excellent communication; written, oral and group facilitation with the ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders
Can work well under pressure; meeting multiple, and sometimes, competing deadlines
Ability to build and maintain positive relationships with teams and individuals
Strong technical foundation in software engineering, with the ability to evaluate technical solutions, participate in architectural decisions, and effectively partner with senior engineers.
Knowledge of modern software development tools, technologies, and application hosting platforms.
Experience establishing and improving engineering practices that support software quality, reliability, security, and maintainability.
Strong Agile software development knowledge and experience
Scrum master experience
Hands-on experience with AI coding assistants (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor) and a track record of driving team adoption, establishing usage guidelines, or measuring productivity impact.

Nice To Haves

Practical experience embedding AI throughout the SDLC — leveraging AI-assisted and spec-driven (SDD) development practices across planning, code review, QA, and release automation to improve engineering velocity and quality
Familiarity with AI/LLM integration patterns (prompt engineering, RAG, agentic workflows, or MCP servers) sufficient to evaluate vendor proposals, guide architecture decisions, and mentor engineers on responsible AI use

Responsibilities

Maximize development team throughput by ensuring requirements, risks, and status are clearly and honestly communicated between developers, product, and QA, enforcing scope and estimation discipline, and proactively addressing performance or engagement issues before they impact delivery
Foster individual and team growth, engagement, and retention
Manage the development team including performance reviews and promotions, hiring and separation of employees and task assignment, workload, and performance metric monitoring of team and individual employees
Develop and execute the technical roadmap in partnership with cross-functional teams
Identify systemic bottlenecks and implement improvements to engineering processes and delivery
Drive continuous improvement initiatives across engineering practices, tooling, automation, and developer experience
Drive team adoption of AI-assisted development tools and practices, establishing usage guidelines and mentoring developers to improve productivity and code quality
Own team deliverables and timelines, forming and defending technical opinions on design and scope rather than simply relaying team status to stakeholders
Monitor and enforce software development practices and processes with teams and individuals
Participate in on-call schedule and response to incidents, ensuring they are resolved quickly with minimal impact
Lead technical design discussions and facilitate architectural decision-making
Monitor and enforce code quality standards