Software Engineering Manager

KION•Wauwatosa, WI

14h

About The Position

The Software Engineering Manager leads a team of software engineers responsible for delivering Warehouse Control System (WCS) solutions for customer projects. The role combines people leadership, engineering management, and project portfolio oversight to support successful project execution, employee development, and customer satisfaction. As a customer-facing leader, this position partners with internal and external stakeholders to deliver projects, resolve issues proactively, and provide a positive customer experience throughout the project lifecycle. The manager leads, coaches, and develops engineers and technical leaders; oversees engineering staffing and resource allocation across concurrent customer projects; and monitors project utilization, budgets, execution metrics, and capacity needs. The role partners with project management, account management, solution development, sales, engineering, controls engineering, commissioning, and customers on project planning, estimates, solution reviews, risk management, and issue resolution. It also supports complex warehouse software implementations, manages escalations, promotes engineering standards and quality, and drives process improvements. Travel to customer engagements, project reviews, workshops, and critical milestones is required as needed, typically up to 15%.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
8+ years of software engineering experience in industrial automation, warehouse execution/control systems, material handling, or related industries.
3+ years of people management or technical leadership experience.
Experience leading technical teams responsible for software project delivery.
Experience managing multiple concurrent projects and balancing competing priorities.
Strong customer-facing communication and stakeholder management skills.
Demonstrated experience managing engineering resources, project staffing, and project forecasting through formal people leadership or project lead responsibilities.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills.
Demonstrated customer-facing leadership, including managing customer expectations, resolving escalations, and building collaborative relationships with project stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience managing or leading teams responsible for WCS, WES, WMS, EMS, or industrial automation software solutions.
Experience supporting project estimation, solution development, and technical proposal activities.
Knowledge of software development lifecycle, Agile methodologies, and software delivery best practices.
Knowledge of material handling systems and warehouse automation technologies.
Experience leading customer escalations and resolving complex project delivery issues.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop software engineers and technical leaders through performance management, career planning, mentorship, succession planning, development goals, and ongoing feedback.
Foster accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Partner with Talent Acquisition and engineering leadership to recruit, interview, and hire software engineering talent.
Support workforce planning and organizational development, and cultivate future technical and leadership talent.
Manage engineering staffing and resource allocation across a portfolio of concurrent customer projects.
Balance project priorities, engineering capacity, customer commitments, and organizational objectives; forecast engineering demand and recommend staffing and capacity plans.
Monitor project labor utilization, budget performance, engineering execution metrics, and project health; identify improvement opportunities and proactively mitigate risks.
Partner with Project Managers, Account Management, Solution Development, sales, and Engineering leadership to support successful project delivery and customer opportunities.
Support project estimation, scope reviews, technical risk assessments, solution planning, engineering estimates, budget forecasts, and organizational capacity planning.
Ensure engineering resources are assigned effectively to meet schedules and customer commitments.
Serve as a senior escalation point for customer concerns, technical risks, resource conflicts, and project execution challenges; coordinate issue resolution.
Guide project teams on complex warehouse software implementations, solution architecture reviews, execution planning, troubleshooting, risk mitigation, and issue resolution.
Collaborate with customers and stakeholders to resolve issues, manage expectations, and maintain strong working relationships through proactive communication.
Promote engineering standards, best practices, and quality expectations across project teams.
Manage a team responsible for project design, development, testing, deployment, commissioning, and go-live support for warehouse automation software.
Facilitate communication between engineering, project management, controls engineering, commissioning, account management, and customer stakeholders.
Drive standardization and process improvements to improve engineering effectiveness, delivery quality, and customer satisfaction.
Travel as required for customer engagements, project reviews, engineering workshops, and critical project milestones, typically up to 15%.