Development Manager Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:
Sepire is looking for a hands-on, highly accountable Development Manager to lead day-to-day software delivery across our internal development team and offshore development partners. This role involves translating technical priorities into execution plans, improving team accountability, and maturing Sepire's software delivery practices as the company scales.
Responsibilities:
• Own day-to-day software delivery execution across internal and offshore developers.
• Translate CTO and business priorities into clear engineering plans.
• Manage development backlog, sprint planning or work sequencing, and delivery commitments.
• Keep work moving without requiring constant escalation or micromanagement.
• Identify blockers early and drive them to resolution.
• Create visibility into what is being worked on, what is at risk, and what needs leadership attention.
• Understand complex business systems, data workflows, integrations, and internal platforms.
• Help reduce technical debt and improve system maintainability.
• Challenge weak designs, unclear requirements, fragile solutions, and one-off development patterns.
• Improve code review discipline, development standards, documentation, and release readiness.
• Partner with architecture and product leadership to ensure technical work supports long-term platform goals.
• Help reduce key-person dependency across critical systems.
• Lead, coach, and develop developers and technical contributors.
• Set clear expectations around quality, communication, ownership, and delivery.
• Create a reliable system of management for technical work.
• Help the team prioritize effectively when business needs shift.
• Build trust with the team while still holding people accountable.
• Identify skill gaps, performance concerns, training needs, and future staffing needs.
• Work closely with BA/BSA, QA, PM, product, architecture, and operations teams.
• Ensure requirements are clear enough for development to execute.
• Improve handoffs between BA/BSA, development, QA, and production support.
• Help establish better release gates and readiness standards.
• Communicate delivery risks clearly to technology leadership and business stakeholders.
• Build repeatable engineering practices that improve predictability and reduce rework.
• Improve documentation habits and system knowledge sharing.
• Help establish practical SDLC discipline without slowing the business down unnecessarily.
• Support future department planning, including team structure, role clarity, offshore/onshore balance, and leadership needs.
• Create a scalable execution model that can support larger clients, more complex projects, and product/platform growth.
Qualifications:
Required:
• Proven experience managing software development teams.
• Strong technical background with the ability to understand architecture, data workflows, integrations, and system dependencies.
• Experience leading both internal developers and offshore development partners.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work through ambiguity.
• Experience improving engineering delivery, technical debt, documentation, and release discipline.
• Ability to manage shifting priorities without losing control of execution.
• Strong communication skills with both technical and business stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to build accountability without requiring constant executive intervention.
• Comfortable working primarily onsite with leadership and delivery teams.
Preferred:
• Experience in a growing mid-market company where process, structure, and delivery maturity are still evolving.
• Experience with Microsoft technology stacks, including .NET, SQL Server, APIs, Azure, or related platforms.
• Experience with workflow systems, data processing platforms, document generation, print/mail operations, SaaS platforms, or complex operational technology.
• Experience working with BA/BSA, QA, PM, and product teams.
• Experience modernizing legacy systems or improving fragile internal platforms.
• Experience establishing practical engineering management practices in an organization that has grown quickly.
Company:
Sepire is a marketing services and communications distribution company that specializes in complex, compliance-driven solutions. Founded in 2019, the company is headquartered in Willowbrook, USA, with a team of 51-200 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.