Manager, Software Engineering

Job Overview:

Were looking for an engineering leader who stays close to the code holds a high technical bar and can translate product priorities into shipped software without losing momentum. Youll manage a team of software engineers collaborate directly with product management on roadmap execution and operate as a peer to architecture and platform peers across Exostars R&D organization.

You will use AI coding tools Claude Code GitHub Copilot yourself daily. You will model that behavior for your team. AI-native development is not optional at Exostar; its how we build.

This role reports to the Director R&D Engineering and operates in Exostars FedRAMP Moderate / CMMC Level 2 environment serving defense primes including Boeing and BAE Systems.

What Youll Own

Engineering Delivery

• Lead a team of software engineers building production features across Exostars identity credentialing and supply chain security platform.
• Own the technical quality of your teams output architecture decisions PR reviews code quality and production reliability.
• Drive sprint execution: planning backlog refinement dependency management and delivery against committed milestones.
• Identify and resolve blockers before they become delays escalate when needed but own the outcome.
• Establish and maintain engineering metrics: deployment frequency change failure rate cycle time defect escape rate.

AI-Native Engineering Leadership

• Use Claude Code and GitHub Copilot daily in your own workflow not as optional productivity tools as standard practice.
• Model AI-native development for your team: code generation agentic workflows AI-assisted PR review and automated testing.
• Drive adoption across your team: coach skeptics celebrate early adopters measure impact and share learnings org-wide.
• Stay current on the AI tooling landscape surface new tools and workflows to the Director when theyre worth evaluating.

Product & Roadmap Collaboration

• Partner with product managers to translate roadmap priorities into engineering scope push back on ambiguity not on accountability.
• Participate in quarterly planning: capacity estimation sequencing and dependency identification across teams.
• Maintain clear line of sight from customer commitments to sprint execution for your team.
• Surface engineering constraints to product early dont absorb scope silently negotiate it explicitly.

People Leadership

• Build and sustain a strong engineering team by hiring well developing talent addressing performance gaps and making tough decisions when required.
• Lead consistent 1:1 conversation that prioritize coaching development and long-term impact.
• Build a team culture of end-to-end ownership: engineers who ship monitor and stand behind their systems in production.
• Partner with the Director on career development frameworks and internal promotion pipelines.

Your day if you join us: Essential Job Functions

Required:

• 7 years of software engineering experience with 3 years in an engineering leadership capacity managing a team.
• Hands-on daily user of AI coding tools Claude Code GitHub Copilot or equivalent. You use these yourself not just advocate for them.
• Comfortable in code: you conduct meaningful PR reviews write production code when it unblocks the team and can challenge architecture decisions with technical depth.
• Cloud-native engineering experience on Azure or AWS microservices containerization CI/CD IaC.
• Strong written and verbal communication you can write a crisp engineering spec and hold your own in a cross-functional planning session.
• U.S. Person. We are not able to consider candidates requiring sponsorship.

Location: Hybrid- Herndon VA Cincinnati OH (3x/week)

Preferred Qualifications:

You are exactly who we are looking for if you:

• Experience in a FedRAMP CMMC HIPAA or equivalent regulated environment understanding of how compliance requirements land in the SDLC.
• Azure depth: Entra ID managed identities Azure DevOps Azure Gov familiarity.
• Exostars primary stack: C#/.NET Angular Python TypeScript Kubernetes Terraform.
• IAM PKI credentialing or federated identity domain experience.
• Experience building or operating agentic AI workflows: MCP multi-tool pipelines AI-assisted code review or testing.
• Track record of driving AI tooling adoption at team scale teach-the-trainer models adoption measurement coaching skeptics.

Why Exostar

• AI-native engineering org: Claude Code and Copilot are standard not experiments. Leadership actively backs it and uses it.
• Real compliance stakes: FedRAMP Moderate CMMC 110/110 Azure Gov multi-tenant. Engineering decisions matter here.
• PE-backed (Arlington Capital Partners) with the resources to invest and the urgency to execute.
• Direct line to a Director who is hands-on technically credible and invested in your development.
• Mission-driven: securing collaboration infrastructure for the Defense Industrial Base.

About Exostar

Exostars cloud-based platforms create exclusive communities within the Aerospace and Defense Life Sciences and other highly regulated industries where members securely collaborate share information and operate compliantly. Within these communities we build trust. By analyzing community data we provide insights and intelligence enabling organizations to make better timelier decisions mitigate risk and operate more efficiently.

• We believe in employee development: we promote internally and provide training and educational assistance.
• We provide a fun engaged workplace with social and community-building events.
• We offer comprehensive benefits and flexible time off plans.

Exostar is an Equal Opportunity Employment Employer. The company provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants without regard to race color religion sex national origin age marital status disability status or genetic information. Exostar is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all persons in all facets of employment including recruiting hiring compensation promotion training benefits transfers and working conditions.

Required Experience:

Manager