Manager, Application Development (Hands-On Technical Lead)

It Starts Here:

Santander is a global leader and innovator in the financial services industry and is evolving from a high-impact brand into a technology-driven organization. Our people are at the heart of this journey and together, we are driving a customer-centric transformation that values bold thinking, innovation, and the courage to challenge what’s possible.  This is more than a strategic shift.  It’s a chance for driven professionals to grow, learn, and make a real difference.

If you are interested in exploring the possibilities We Want to Talk to You!

The Difference You Make:

The Manager, Application Development is a hands-on technical leader responsible for both software engineering delivery and team leadership. This role combines application development management with active participation in architecture, design, coding, code reviews, and technical decision-making. The incumbent will lead a team of developers while driving the development and continuous improvement of modern application and data solutions that support business objectives.

• Serves as a hands-on technical leader, actively contributing to application architecture, software design, code reviews, and complex development initiatives while providing day-to-day leadership, coaching, and direction to the development team.
• Monitors and evaluates the performance of staff and business processes to assist in streamlining tasks and initiating new or revised systems.
• Defines the application architecture and manages the lifecycle of improvements, upgrades and continuous maintenance.
• Researches technologies and best practices to support continuous improvements in systems and applications quality, efficiency, ROI, etc.
• Leads team members on data analysis and integration of applications.
• Provides technical documentation updates to the latest enhancement or release.
• Ensures that the team follows standards for development tools/platforms/methodology/controls to ensure efficiency, quality and consistency in application development.
• Ensures that projects follow specific project plans and time lines; delivers status reports, issues log and generate appropriate documentation.
• Ensures that project work meets all contractual service levels associated with quality estimation and incident resolution.
• Manages external vendor relationships with contract administrators to review/negotiate/revise relevant contracts.
• Designs and implements applications to meet business SLAs.

What You Bring:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree: in related field or equivalent demonstrated through a combination of work experience, training, military service, or education - Required
• Master's Degree: in related field or equivalent demonstrated through a combination of work experience, training, military service, or education - Preferred

Qualifications:

• 5+ Years Experience managing systems architecture and software design and development. - Required.
• 5+ Years Experience managing an application development team. - Required.
• Expert-level experience developing production applications using modern Python (Python 3.13+ preferred).
• Strong experience with modern Python development tooling including:
• Astral uv, Pydantic, pytest for automated testing, mypy, ty, and ruff
• Strong experience designing and developing solutions utilizing Microsoft SQL Server 2019+.
• Experience developing and optimizing data solutions within Snowflake.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor engineering teams while remaining actively engaged in technical design and development activities.
• Proven experience balancing people leadership responsibilities with hands-on software engineering contributions.
• Ability to establish technical direction, conduct architecture reviews, and guide engineering teams through complex technical decisions.

• Able to assimilate research data from a variety of sources, analyze, and recommend appropriate courses of action to take.
• Able to constructively work under stress and pressure when faced with high workloads and deadlines. Able to design applications using new or existing methodologies. Able to adjust readily to change and adapt as needed.
• Able to express ideas clearly and convey necessary information.
• Able to identify areas of risk/concern in area of responsibility.
• Able to identify needs and opportunities and develop action plans to address.
• Able to interact effectively with all levels of management.
• Able to think strategically and tactically. Able to work independently with minimum supervision.
• Able to prepare/analyze appropriate reports and other business correspondence.
• Possesses strong organizational and time management skills, driving tasks to completion.

Certifications:

• No Certifications listed for this job.

It Would Be Nice For You To Have:

• Established work history or equivalent demonstrated through a combination of work experience, training, military service, or education.

Work Authorization & Sponsorship:

• Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without requiring employer sponsorship to commence employment.
  

What Else You Need To Know:

The base pay range for this position is posted below and represents the annualized salary range. For hourly positions (non-exempt), the annual range is based on a 40-hour work week. The exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, training, licensure and certifications and location.

Base Pay Range:

Minimum:

Maximum:

Risk Culture:

We embrace a strong risk culture and all of our professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management.

EEO Statement:

At Santander, we value and respect differences in our workforce. We actively encourage everyone to apply. Santander is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Working Conditions:

Frequent minimal physical effort such as sitting, standing and walking is required for this role. Depending on location, occasional moving and lifting light equipment and/or furniture may be required.

Employer Rights:

This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate your employment at any time for any reason.

What To Do Next:

Review the internal eligibility guidelines here. If this sounds like a role you are interested in, then please apply.

We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible application process for all candidates. If you require any assistance or accommodation due to a disability or any other reason, please contact us at TAOps@santander.us to discuss your needs.