Software Engineering Manager

Job description

About Aqua Aqua Finance (Aqua) delivers flexible, consumer-friendly financing programs that help families across the U.S. bring their goals to life. From clean water solutions and home improvements to outdoor adventures, our financing options help make life’s essentials and experiences more affordable. We’re a growing national company with values deeply rooted in our Midwestern culture — one that genuinely cares about you as an individual. We succeed when you succeed and celebrate the unique skills, perspectives, and experiences you bring to our team. At Aqua, we say “Yes!” — to helping you succeed, to your growth, and to creating a place where you can thrive. The Opportunity As a Software Engineering Manager, you will lead a high-performing, fully distributed engineering team accountable for delivery, quality, and growth, while building a culture of ownership, clear communication, and continuous improvement. You bring the technical expertise to challenge estimates and proposed solutions, probe root causes, and coach the team toward better approaches. Your primary focus is enabling your engineers to do their best work. You will partner closely with product, architecture, and other engineering teams to turn business priorities into reliable, well-built software that delivers quality outcomes, and you will offer informed suggestions to help move the business forward. Essential Functions Hire, onboard, coach, and retain engineers, creating individual growth plans and providing timely, candid feedback through regular one-on-ones and fair performance reviews. Own team planning, prioritization, and delivery, working closely with product management to scope work, ensure the systems built deliver quality outcomes, and offer suggestions that help move the business forward. Critically evaluate development estimates and proposed technical solutions, asking probing questions to test assumptions, surface risks, and ensure the simplest effective approach is chosen. Investigate and root out the underlying causes of delivery delays, quality problems, and production incidents, driving durable fixes rather than short-term patches. Review code and technical designs at a level sufficient to uphold standards for quality, security, maintainability, and performance, and to guide the team's technical decisions. Encourage and guide the responsible use of AI tools to improve team productivity and code quality. Promote strong engineering practices, including testing, CI/CD, observability, and documentation, and balance technical debt against feature work. Ensure production systems are reliable through sound on-call, incident response, and postmortem practices. Define, track, and report on team health and delivery metrics, using data and retrospectives to continuously improve how the team works. Communicate progress, risks, and blockers clearly and early to stakeholders, serving as the primary liaison between the team and cross-functional partners. Establish team norms and rituals that keep a remote, multi-time-zone team connected, engaged, and aligned, with strong asynchronous communication habits. Contribute to department-level planning, hiring standards, and engineering culture. Required Education and Experience Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or commensurate work experience required 5 years of experience professional software development experience, with solid depth in C# and the .NET platform. required 3 years of people management experience in a technical field required Proven track record of delivering complex software projects with distributed or remote teams. Experience across the full software development lifecycle, including design, testing, deployment, and operations. Financial industry experience preferred. Demonstrated ability to analyze problems to their root cause and to constructively challenge estimates, designs, and technical approaches. Working knowledge of solution architecture, secure coding practices, software design principles, and system scalability. Working knowledge of cloud-hosted application development using Microsoft Azure, AWS, or GCP. Familiarity with modern engineering practices such as CI/CD and agile methodologies, and with AI-assisted development tools. Demonstrated ability to coach, give constructive feedback, and grow engineers at different levels. Strong product and business mindset, with a focus on the outcomes the technology delivers. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including strong asynchronous communication habits. The Aqua Advantage At Aqua, we’re committed to supporting you both at work and beyond. Our benefits, programs, and perks are designed to support your well-being, growth, and work-life balance. Paid Time Off — Paid time off (PTO), paid holidays, and floating holidays to support time away from work. Health & Insurance — Medical, dental, vision, and additional coverage options. Retirement Savings — Company-matched 401(k) plan to help you invest in your future. Professional Development — Training, career growth, and educational opportunities to support your development. Work-Life Balance — An emphasis on flexibility and support both inside and outside of work. Inclusive Culture & Community Support — Diversity and inclusion initiatives along with paid volunteer opportunities. What to Expect This is primarily an office-based role that requires regular use of a computer and the ability to sit for extended periods. While performing the responsibilities of this position, employees may frequently be required to sit, stand, walk, communicate verbally, hear, use vision, and handle or operate office equipment. The employee may occasionally be required to lift, push, or pull up to 20 pounds.