Software Engineering Senior Manager - Azure Cloud-Native Architecture

Seeking a hands-on engineering leader with deep Azure expertise to lead a team of 5 7 engineers while driving cloud-native architecture, platform engineering, and modern software development within the Data & AI organization., Quarterly travel to Chicago (expenses reimbursed)

-Opportunity to build new platforms, not maintain legacy systems -High visibility within the firm’s Data & AI organization -Significant influence on architecture and technical direction -Modern Azure-first technology stack -Opportunity to shape AI-enabled products and platforms -Startup-style innovation backed by a globally recognized Am Law 100 firm -Direct collaboration with senior leadership and fast decision-making environment

The Software Engineering Senior Manager is a senior technical leader responsible for architecting, building, and operating the firm’s cloud-native automation platform. This role requires deep expertise in Azure cloud architecture, distributed systems, and software engineering.

The ideal candidate comes from a cloud engineering, platform engineering, or full-stack development background with DevOps expertise., * Design and evolve the distributed system architecture for the cloud-native automation platform, including Azure Container Apps, Service Bus, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Blob Storage

• Design event-driven architectures using Azure Service Bus for high-volume asynchronous processing
• Optimize platform performance, cost, and operational complexity through architectural improvements
• Lead .NET backend development including ASP.NET Core APIs, CQRS pattern with MediatR, Entity Framework Core, and FluentValidation
• Conduct code reviews ensuring adherence to SOLID principles, async programming best practices, and distributed systems patterns

Senior Engineering Manager who has experience as a Principal Engineer, Cloud Architect, or Platform Engineering Leader with strong Azure and .NET/React stack expertise who is still hands-on technically.

Must-Have Experience -6+ years building cloud-native applications on Azure -3+ years with AKS, Azure Container Apps, Kubernetes, or similar container platforms -2+ years leading software engineering teams as a formal people leader -Strong .NET/C# development background Experience with: -Microservices & distributed systems -CI/CD & DevOps ownership -Infrastructure as Code -Azure architecture & platform engineering, * Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical field; or equivalent professional experience with demonstrable cloud architecture expertise

• Minimum 6 years of hands-on software engineering experience building cloud-native applications on Azure
• Minimum 3 years of experience with Azure Container Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), or equivalent container orchestration platforms
• Minimum 2 years of people management experience leading software engineering teams
• Proven track record delivering distributed systems in production using microservices architecture and event-driven patterns
• Hands-on experience with Azure Service Bus, Azure database services including Azure SQL Database with Elastic Pools, Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server, managed identity authentication, connection pooling, and private endpoint configuration
• Deep understanding of microservices communication patterns including synchronous HTTP, asynchronous messaging, event-driven architecture, and service discovery
• Proficiency in C# and .NET (minimum .NET 6, preferably .NET 8+) including NET Core Web API with Controllers, Async/await patterns and Task-based asynchronous programming, LINQ and lambda expressions, Dependency injection and Options pattern and Entity Framework Core
• Proficiency in TypeScript/JavaScript including js development, Async patterns (Promises, async/await), npm/pnpm package management, Module systems (CommonJS, ES modules) and scripting proficiency in Bash or PowerShell for deployment automation and troubleshooting
• Container image build and deployment workflows including Dockerfile optimization, multi-stage builds, and Azure Container Registry integration
• Proven ability to mentor software engineers on cloud-native development patterns, distributed systems concepts, and Azure architecture
• Strong code review skills with ability to provide constructive feedback on backend APIs, infrastructure code, and integration logic
• Systematic troubleshooting approach for complex distributed systems issues
• Strong analytical skills for capacity planning, performance optimization, and cost analysis