Mgr Software Engineering

ACI powers the payments ecosystem – globally, and you power ACI. You’ll innovate, collaborate, and grow – in an energetic technology culture with decades of proven success. ACIers – in all roles and levels – are truly your colleagues and many are your friends. Our size and reach allow you to see the global impact of your work. You are visible, your talents are valued, and you are empowered to shape the future of payments.

As a Software Engineering Manager in Omaha, NE or Norcross, GA, you will join a diverse, passionate team, dedicated to powering the world’s payments ecosystem!

JOB PURPOSE

The Software Engineering Manager is a first-level people leader responsible for leading a team of software engineers to deliver high-quality software solutions while developing team members' technical and professional capabilities. Reporting to a Director of Software Engineering, this role balances hands-on technical contribution with people management, ensuring the team executes effectively on product roadmaps while maintaining engineering excellence, fostering collaboration, and driving continuous improvement.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 10 -15 software engineers across various experience levels
• Conduct regular 1-on-1s focused on career development, feedback, and goal progress
• Set clear performance expectations and deliver constructive feedback through ongoing coaching
• Manage performance improvement plans and make difficult personnel decisions when necessary
• Create individual development plans aligned with career aspirations and business needs
• Facilitate team dynamics, resolve conflicts, and build cohesive, high-performing teams
• Drive recruitment efforts including sourcing, interviewing, and hiring top engineering talent
• Onboard new team members with structured ramp-up plans and mentorship assignments
• Foster inclusive team culture where all members feel valued and empowered to contribute
• Recognize and celebrate team achievements and individual contributions

Software Delivery & Execution

• Ensure on-time delivery of high-quality software features aligned with product roadmaps
• Break down complex initiatives into manageable work items with clear acceptance criteria
• Facilitate sprint planning, daily standups, retrospectives, and other agile ceremonies
• Remove blockers and dependencies that impede team progress
• Monitor work-in-progress and team velocity to maintain sustainable delivery pace
• Balance feature development with technical debt reduction and platform improvements
• Coordinate with other engineering teams to manage dependencies and integration points
• Drive root cause analysis for production incidents and implement preventive measures
• Participate in on-call rotation and ensure team maintains operational excellence
• Track and communicate progress, risks, and blockers to leadership and stakeholders

Technical Excellence & Standards

• Establish and enforce code quality standards through reviews and best practices
• Guide technical design decisions and architectural approaches for team's domain
• Promote test-driven development and comprehensive automated testing strategies
• Champion DevOps practices including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and observability
• Ensure security best practices are embedded in development lifecycle
• Drive adoption of AI-powered development tools to enhance team productivity
• Evaluate and integrate AI capabilities into products where appropriate
• Establish guidelines for responsible AI usage and model evaluation
• Drive technical debt visibility and advocate for dedicated time to address it
• Stay current with technology trends including AI/ML advancements and evaluate new tools and frameworks
• Contribute code to critical features and technical spikes (20-30% time)
• Mentor engineers on technical skills, design patterns, AI integration, and problem-solving approaches
• Foster engineering craftsmanship through code reviews, pair programming, and knowledge sharing

Collaboration & Communication

• Partner with Product Management on feature definition, scope, and acceptance criteria
• Work with Technical Program Managers on capacity planning and portfolio execution
• Collaborate with Architecture team on technical standards and design reviews
• Engage with QA/Test teams to ensure comprehensive testing strategies
• Communicate team progress, risks, and achievements to Director and stakeholders
• Translate business requirements into technical solutions and explain technical constraints to non-technical audiences
• Facilitate cross-team collaboration and knowledge transfer
• Represent team in engineering leadership forums and initiatives
• Build strong working relationships across engineering, product, and business teams

Process Improvement & Metrics

• Drive continuous improvement through retrospectives and actionable experiments
• Monitor and improve team metrics including velocity, cycle time, and quality indicators
• Implement and track DORA metrics (deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR, change failure rate)
• Identify process bottlenecks and implement improvements to engineering workflows
• Leverage tools and automation to improve team productivity and efficiency
• Participate in post-mortems and drive implementation of corrective actions
• Contribute to engineering-wide initiatives for tooling, processes, and standards
• Use data to inform decisions and demonstrate team impact

QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field required
• Equivalent experience (8+ years software engineering) may substitute for degree

Experience

• 5-8+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated technical proficiency
• 2+ years of people management experience leading engineering teams
• Proven track record delivering complex software features from concept to production
• Experience working in agile environments (Scrum, Kanban)
• Experience with full software development lifecycle including design, development, testing, and deployment
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Experience in payments, financial services, or regulated industries preferred
• Experience managing distributed or remote team members a plus

Software Development:

• Strong proficiency in one or more programming languages (Java, C#, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go)
• Experience with web application frameworks (Spring Boot, .NET Core, React, Angular,
• Working knowledge of microservices architecture and RESTful API design
• Understanding of databases (SQL: PostgreSQL, MySQL; NoSQL: MongoDB, DynamoDB)
• Familiarity with message queuing systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS)
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Knowledge of cloud services (AWS EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS; Azure equivalents)

AI & Intelligent Systems:

• Experience integrating LLMs and AI models into applications (OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock)
• Understanding of prompt engineering, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), and vector databases
• Familiarity with AI agent frameworks and orchestration (LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen, CrewAI)
• Knowledge of embedding models and semantic search techniques
• Experience with AI-powered development tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude)
• Understanding of AI governance, responsible AI practices, and model evaluation
• Awareness of AI security concerns including prompt injection and data leakage

Engineering Practices:

• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps)
• Experience with version control systems (Git) and branching strategies
• Knowledge of automated testing (unit, integration, E2E testing frameworks)
• Understanding of monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Splunk)
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation)
• Experience with agile methodologies and tools (Jira, Azure DevOps)

Security & Compliance:

• Understanding of secure coding practices and OWASP Top 10
• Knowledge of authentication/authorization patterns (OAuth, JWT, SAML)
• Awareness of compliance requirements for financial services (PCI DSS, SOC 2)
• Experience with vulnerability scanning and remediation

Metrics:

• DORA metrics and engineering productivity measurement
• Agile metrics (velocity, burn-down, cycle time, lead time)
• Quality metrics (defect density, test coverage, code complexity)
• System reliability metrics (uptime, error rates, latency)

Leadership & Professional Skills

• Strong people management skills with ability to motivate and develop engineers
• Excellent communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to give and receive constructive feedback
• Strong problem-solving and critical thinking abilities
• Conflict resolution and interpersonal skills
• Time management and prioritization in fast-paced environment
• Empathy and emotional intelligence
• Growth mindset and commitment to continuous learning
• Ability to make decisions with incomplete information
• Accountability and ownership of team outcomes

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree in Computer Science or related field
• 3+ years of engineering management experience
• Experience managing engineers at different career levels (junior through senior)
• Experience scaling engineering teams and processes
• Agile certifications (Certified Scrum Master, SAFe Scrum Master)
• Technical certifications (AWS Certified Developer, Azure Developer Associate)
• Experience in payment processing, transaction systems, or financial platforms
• Background in both frontend and backend development
• Experience with event-driven architectures and real-time processing
• Experience building or integrating AI agents or autonomous systems
• Hands-on experience with machine learning model deployment and MLOps
• Familiarity with vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, ChromaDB) and semantic search
• Experience with AI model fine-tuning or training
• Knowledge of AI ethics, bias detection, and fairness in AI systems
• Familiarity with machine learning or data engineering concepts
• Open source contributions or technical community involvement
• Experience implementing engineering metrics programs

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Hybrid work model (3 days in-office per week)
• Candidates based in Omaha, NE or Norcross, GA strongly preferred
• Standard office environment with ergonomic workstation
• 50% people management (1-on-1s, coaching, hiring), 30% technical work (coding, design reviews), 20% meetings and collaboration
• Occasional travel (5-15% annually) for team offsites, training, or conferences
• Participation in on-call rotation for production support (typically 1 week every 6-8 weeks)
• Flexibility required for production incidents or critical releases outside business hours
• Collaboration with global teams may require occasional early morning or evening meetings

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. This position does not offer sponsorship for employment visa status or work permit now or in the future.

In return for your expertise, we offer opportunities for growth, career development, and a competitive compensation and benefits package—all within an innovative and collaborative work environment.

Job ID (Requisition #18509)

ACI Worldwide is an AA/EEO employer in the United States, which includes providing equal opportunity for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities, and an EEO employer globally.

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