Applications Development Manager

Job Description

Job Title: Application Development Manager

Business Unit: CaseAware

Location: Remote

Travel Required: 10%

Position Reports To: VP Software Engineering

Salary Range:

Position Type: Salaried

Supervises:

Purpose of this Role:

We are seeking an experienced Application Development Manager to lead the CaseAware product development team. This is a hands-on leadership role (approximately 40-60% coding, 40-60% management) responsible for the full lifecycle of CaseAware, from backlog prioritization and sprint planning through code development, review, and release. The ideal candidate thrives in fast-paced environments, brings structure to reactive workflows, and can drive the team toward a more proactive, process-driven culture while maintaining delivery commitments.

What You'll Do:

Team Leadership & Management

• Manage a cross-functional team of ~6 (2 developers, 3 support/QA staff, 1 technical SME/lead focused on database, infrastructure, and production support)
• Mentor and develop team members, fostering technical growth and accountability
• Conduct code reviews, provide constructive feedback, and maintain code quality standards
• Run sprint planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives
• Shield the team from disruption while ensuring urgent production issues are triaged and resolved efficiently

Development & Technical Delivery

• Contribute directly to CaseAware development — writing, reviewing, and shipping production code in PHP/MySQL
• Own the Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines, repositories, boards, and release processes
• Design and implement API/web service integrations (REST, SOAP, XML, JSON) with external legal and vendor systems
• Prioritize and manage the product backlog in collaboration with stakeholders
• Make architectural decisions balancing stability, maintainability, and pragmatic delivery

Process & Culture Improvement

• Assess current workflows and implement process improvements to shift the team from reactive to proactive
• Establish or refine development standards, branching strategies, testing practices, and deployment procedures
• Improve incident response processes — triage, root cause analysis, and prevention
• Introduce metrics and visibility into team throughput, quality, and delivery predictability
• Communicate status, risks, and trade-offs clearly to leadership and stakeholders

Product Stewardship

• Develop deep domain knowledge of CaseAware's architecture, integration engine, and customer customization model
• Drive product improvements, refactoring, and incremental enhancements to the platform
• Contribute to longer-term modernization planning (modern PHP frameworks, improved architecture) while keeping the current system stable and performant

What You Bring:

Required

• 8+ years of software development experience, with 3+ years in a management or team lead role
• Strong hands-on proficiency in PHP and MySQL (you will write code regularly)
• Experience with API and web service integrations (REST, SOAP, XML/JSON)
• Working knowledge of Azure DevOps or equivalent (CI/CD pipelines, work item tracking, Git repos)
• Proven ability to manage and mentor a small development team
• Experience with Agile/Scrum practices — sprint planning, backlog management, retrospectives
• Strong triage and prioritization skills — comfortable making quick, sound decisions under pressure
• Excellent communication skills for managing stakeholder expectations across technical and non-technical audiences

Preferred

• Experience with legacy system maintenance and modernization — you understand the realities of evolving a mature codebase without breaking production
• Familiarity with modern PHP frameworks and a vision for incremental modernization
• Background in legal technology, case management, or similar regulated/process-heavy domains
• Experience with process transformation — moving teams from reactive firefighting to proactive, predictable delivery
• Knowledge of database administration, infrastructure management, or production support workflows
• Experience managing remote or distributed teams

Key Qualities We Value:

• Process-minded pragmatist — You see where process improvements will have the highest impact and implement them without over-engineering or disrupting delivery.
• Hands-on leader — You stay close to the code and the team. You don't manage from a distance.
• Ownership mentality — You treat the product, the team's growth, and delivery commitments as your own responsibility.
• Clear communicator — You keep stakeholders informed, set realistic expectations, and advocate for your team's capacity and needs.

Conditions of Work:

• Ability to sit or stand for long periods of time.
• Ability to remain focused for extended periods of time.
• Ability to work extra hours on short notice to accomplish goals.
• Ability to work on computers for a significant portion of the day.
• Ability to travel domestically, if necessary.