Sr Software Development Manager

Aspirion•Durham, NC

About The Position

We are seeking an experienced Sr Software Development Manager to serve as a key partner to the VP of Engineering and help lead the day-to-day execution of our AI engineering organization as it scales. This role is both strategic and hands-on, balancing people leadership and operational evolution with ongoing delivery across the software development lifecycle. The ideal candidate is a trusted leader who can scale teams, drive accountability, and ensure consistent, secure, and reliable delivery of customer-facing SaaS products in a fast-growing environment.

Requirements

Proven experience (5+ years) leading software engineering teams in fast-paced, production-focused environments.
Experience building and supporting fast-scaling, external-facing, cloud-hosted SaaS products and the teams that build them.
Deep understanding of modern SDLC practices, production operations, and incident management.
Strong focus on security, reliability, and operational excellence as platforms scale.
Demonstrated ability to introduce structure, documentation, and best practices without sacrificing speed or team autonomy.
Experience partnering with security and compliance teams to support frameworks such as SOC 2, HITRUST, or similar.
Ability to operate at both strategic and tactical levels, with excellent judgment and communication skills.
Willingness to remain hands-on when needed, including reviewing code and occasionally contributing directly.

Nice To Haves

Experience with some or many of the following technologies is strongly preferred:
Languages: Python, JavaScript
Data & Messaging: PostgreSQL, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Redis, or similar technologies
Backend Frameworks: Django, Flask, FastAPI
Frontend: Vue.js, Tailwind CSS, Highcharts
Automated Testing: Playwright, PyTest
Infrastructure & DevOps: Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab, GitOps, Datadog
Cloud Platforms: AWS and/or Azure
We value leaders who may not have experience with every technology listed but bring strong fundamentals, sound judgment, and the ability to quickly learn and guide teams effectively

Responsibilities

Work closely with the VP of Engineering to craft strategy and translate into execution across multiple teams.
Act as Lead, mentor, and develop engineers through goal setting, coaching, feedback, and career growth.
Act as a trusted partner and escalation point, helping drive alignment, prioritization, and accountability across the organization.
Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, psychological safety, and continuous improvement across teams.
Work across Application, Infrastructure, and AI/ML teams to ensure alignment on technical direction, standards, and delivery.
Partner closely with Security, Compliance, and other business stakeholders to ensure systems meet reliability, security, and regulatory expectations.
Serve as a connector across teams and functions, reducing silos and ensuring consistent best practices and shared understanding.
Support and continuously improve the SDLC, integrating industry best practice (e.g. DORA framework) with team feedback and operational pain points or bottlenecks.
Balance startup agility with growing process maturity, introducing structure where it adds value without slowing teams down.
Partner with teams to improve delivery predictability, quality, security, and developer experience.
Drive adoption of best practices related to planning, estimation, code quality, testing, and release readiness.
Share ownership of production releases, ensuring readiness, coordination, and clear communication across teams.
Co-own incident management, including escalation, resolution, post-incident reviews, and follow-through on corrective actions.
Help establish and refine on-call, incident response, reliability, and operational excellence practices appropriate for a scaling SaaS platform.