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About Company:

Software Development Manager

WHO WE ARE

VARGO® is the pioneer of waveless and continuous order fulfillment, empowering retailers, distributors, and manufacturers to achieve record-breaking operational performance through software, automation, and innovation. Through COFE® (Continuous Order Fulfillment Engine), advanced fulfillment technologies, AI-enabled solutions, and deep operational expertise, VARGO helps customers transform their supply chain operations.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Software Development Manager is responsible for leading VARGO's software engineering organization in the design, development, enhancement, and delivery of mission-critical software solutions, including COFE®, customer-specific applications, integrations, APIs, web applications, and emerging technology initiatives.

This role combines technical leadership, people management, Agile execution, delivery governance, resource planning, AI-assisted development practices, and software engineering excellence. The Software Development Manager ensures engineering teams consistently deliver secure, scalable, maintainable, and high-quality solutions while supporting customer commitments, product roadmaps, operational excellence, and long-term technology strategy. 

The position serves as a key leader within the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), partnering closely with Product Management, Architects, Agile Delivery, Business Analysts, Quality Engineering, Deployment, Support, Infrastructure, and Executive Leadership. 

POAs a member of VARGO's Cabinet, the Software Development Manager brings a customer-centric mindset to every engagement, prioritizing work across the portfolio, coordinating across teams and functions, and driving continuous improvement in how VARGO delivers and scales its solutions.

POSITION DETAILS

Department: Technology 
Classification: Full-Time, Exempt 
Travel: Up to 15% 
Direct Reports: Software Engineers, Technical Leads, Development Team Leads, and assigned development personnel.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Software Engineering Leadership

• Lead and develop software engineering teams responsible for: 

• COFE® enhancements
• Customer-specific development
• CVW and web applications
• APIs and integrations
• AI-enabled solutions
• Internal software platforms

• Establish development priorities aligned with: 

• Customer commitments
• Product roadmap objectives
• Revenue-generating projects
• Strategic innovation initiatives

• Drive accountability for software quality, predictability, and delivery performance.
• Promote engineering best practices, architectural standards, coding standards, and maintainability.
• Champion modernization efforts, technical debt reduction, platform stability, and automation initiatives.
• Partner with Software Architects to ensure alignment between architecture strategy and implementation execution. 

Delivery Management & Agile Execution

• Ensure successful execution of Agile and Scrum development methodologies.
• Collaborate with Product Owners and Agile Delivery leaders to maintain healthy backlogs and release plans.
• Track sprint commitments, team velocity, delivery predictability, and release readiness.
• Remove impediments that impact development productivity.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across engineering workflows.
• Ensure requirements, design, development, testing, deployment, and support activities are properly coordinated. 

Resource & Capacity Management

• Develop and maintain software development capacity plans.
• Balance: 

• Customer project work
• Production support
• Product investments
• Technical debt reduction
• Internal initiatives

• Forecast staffing requirements and identify future skillset needs.
• Optimize utilization across internal employees, contractors, and AI-assisted development resources.
• Participate in strategic workforce planning and succession planning activities

People Leadership

• Recruit, onboard, mentor, and develop high-performing engineering talent.
• Conduct performance discussions and career development planning.
• Build technical leadership capabilities throughout the organization.
• Foster accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.
• Establish clear expectations and measurable objectives for team members.
• Create development paths that support both technical and leadership growth.

Quality & Engineering Excellence

• Partner with Quality Engineering to improve testing coverage and release quality.
• Ensure development teams perform appropriate unit, integration, and functional testing before QA handoff.
• Reduce production defects and improve software reliability.
• Drive root-cause analysis and corrective action processes.
• Promote DevOps, CI/CD, automation, and AI-assisted engineering practices

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Work closely with:

• Product Management
• Software Architecture
• Agile Delivery / PMO
• Business Analysts
• Solution Design
• Quality Engineering
• Deployment Teams
• Software Support
• Infrastructure & Security
• Executive Leadership

to ensure successful software delivery from concept through production support.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• Equivalent experience may be considered.

Experience

• 7 to 10+ years of software development experience.
• 5+ years leading software development teams.
• Experience managing Agile software delivery organizations.
• Experience building enterprise software solutions using modern software engineering practices.
• Experience with warehouse execution, supply chain, logistics, automation, manufacturing, or industrial software environments preferred.
• Experience with cloud technologies, APIs, and distributed systems preferred.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

• Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
• Agile / Scrum Methodologies
• DevOps & CI/CD
• System Architecture Fundamentals
• API & Integration Design
• Cloud Technologies (Azure preferred)
• AI-Assisted Software Development
• Software Testing Methodologies
• Database Design & Optimization
• Cybersecurity Fundamentals
• Release & Deployment Management
• Engineering Metrics & Reporting
• Capacity Planning
• Technical Risk Management

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

• Strategic Thinking
• Accountability
• Team Building
• Coaching & Mentoring
• Decision Making
• Conflict Resolution
• Change Leadership
• Executive Communication
• Customer Focus
• Continuous Improvement

SUCCESS MEASURES

The Software Development Manager will be evaluated on:

Delivery Performance

• Sprint commitment achievement
• On-time release delivery rate
• Project milestone attainment
• Delivery predictability

Quality

• Production defect escape rate
• Release rollback rate
• Automated test coverage
• Technical debt reduction

Team Performance

• Employee engagement
• Retention and career development
• Skill development progress
• Leadership bench strength

Operational Excellence

• Development throughput
• Capacity utilization
• Deployment success rate
• Mean time to resolution for engineering escalations

Strategic Impact

• Product roadmap execution
• Platform modernization progress
• AI adoption and productivity improvement
• Customer satisfaction with delivered solutions