Fractional Software Development Leader

Step into a high-impact fractional leadership role where you’ll shape the direction of a critical software portfolio, mentor a talented development team, and drive meaningful business outcomes. This is an opportunity to make an immediate impact, influence long-term technology strategy, and leave a lasting mark on a growing organization., We are seeking a part-time software development leader to oversee a small team of developers during a period of organizational and technology transformation. This individual will be responsible for translating business priorities into a practical development roadmap, providing day-to-day leadership, and driving projects to successful completion with predictable timelines and quality outcomes. This is a leadership-focused role requiring a balance of technical credibility and delivery management. The ideal candidate can evaluate estimates, guide technical decision-making, assess tradeoffs, and provide oversight of engineering work without serving as the team’s primary hands-on developer or owning day-to-day feature implementation., * Lead and mentor a team of software developers, providing direction, coaching, performance feedback, and support to remove obstacles and improve team effectiveness.

• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to prioritize initiatives, define project scope, establish acceptance criteria, and develop realistic delivery plans.
• Oversee project execution by tracking progress, managing dependencies, mitigating risks, and ensuring work is delivered on time and with high quality.
• Provide technical leadership by reviewing estimates, evaluating architectural and implementation approaches, supporting code review practices, and guiding technical decision-making.
• Identify opportunities to improve development processes, team efficiency, delivery predictability, and overall engineering effectiveness.
• Communicate project status, priorities, risks, and delivery forecasts to leadership and key stakeholders.
• Assess existing projects, backlog priorities, team capacity, workflows, and delivery bottlenecks to establish near-term execution plans.
• Recommend improvements to team structure, planning processes, engineering practices, governance, and long-term technology delivery strategy.
• Collaborate with technical and business teams to facilitate alignment, resolve conflicts, and ensure successful project outcomes.

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including leadership of software development teams.
• Proven experience managing and coaching engineers while delivering business-critical technology initiatives.
• Experience translating business priorities into actionable roadmaps, timelines, and delivery plans.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, development practices, release management, and technical tradeoffs.
• Ability to assess estimates, review technical approaches, and provide guidance without serving as a primary individual contributor.
• Experience partnering with business stakeholders, managing competing priorities, and communicating progress, risks, and recommendations to leadership.
• Working knowledge of modern web application technologies, including PHP/Laravel and JavaScript frameworks such as Vue.js or React.
• Strong communication, organizational, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Experience

• Experience leading small software teams (3-10 developers).
• Experience with customer-facing applications, SaaS products, payments, authentication, and integrations.
• Familiarity with React Native mobile applications.
• Experience improving software delivery processes, team effectiveness, and engineering operations.

Benefits: Versique offers comprehensive benefits, including medical, dental, vision, accident/critical illness insurance, MN ESST, MN PFML, and a 401(k) with a company match.

About Versique Versique: /ver-seek/ adj. being both versatile and unique; n. a high-performance recruiting firm specializing in executive leadership search, direct hire, and interim hiring solutions. Versique Executive, Professional, & Interim Recruiting is a locally owned and operated hiring and placement firm based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. With specialized practice areas across our three divisions, Versique delivers tailored expertise to a wide range of industries. What sets us apart is our team of recruiters-seasoned professionals who have worked in the very fields they now hire for, providing unmatched industry insight and connections. We believe people are more than resumes-they are transformative, unlocking the potential for organizational growth and success. Versique is proud to be an award-winning company, earning recognition on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal’s Fast 50 list for 2023. We are also consistently recognized as a Star Tribune Top Workplace and were named a Best Place to Work in 2022 by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Let’s find your people, together.