Manager, Software Engineering

Location: Pune, Maharashtra

Overview

We are looking for a hands-on Manager, Software Engineering to lead a software development team building modern, scalable systems at Hershey. This role is ideal for a manager who enjoys balancing people leadership with technical oversight, driving reliable delivery, and partnering closely with product and design.

As an Staff Software Development Engineer, you will be accountable for your team’s execution, quality, and growth. You’ll help engineers deliver high-quality software predictably, support their career development, and ensure strong engineering practices are consistently applied. You will work in a collaborative environment spanning multiple business domains such as supply chain, marketing, and consumer insights.

Key Responsibilities

Drive Team Execution

You are responsible for ensuring predictable, high-quality delivery of features and services by your team. You facilitate agile ceremonies, help prioritize work, manage technical debt trade-offs, and remove impediments that slow progress. You partner with engineers to maintain focus on outcomes while balancing speed, quality, and sustainability.

Develop Engineering Talent

You own the day-to-day people management responsibilities for individual contributors on your team. This includes regular 1:1s, actionable feedback, career development discussions, and performance reviews. You help engineers grow their technical and professional skills while aligning individual goals with team and organizational needs.

Partner with Product and Design

You collaborate closely with Product Managers and Designers to define scope, clarify requirements, and prioritize the backlog. You ensure the team understands the “why” behind the work and help translate product goals into feasible technical plans. This partnership enables the team to deliver customer- and business-focused solutions effectively.

Maintain Technical Standards

You ensure the team adheres to established engineering standards related to coding, testing, documentation, and operations. You oversee code review and design review practices and help define what “good quality” looks like for the team. You advocate observability, reliability, and maintainability, so systems are ready to operate in production.

Recruit and Build the Team

You actively participate in hiring, onboarding, and retaining engineers. This includes evaluating candidates for technical and cultural fit, supporting new hires as they ramp up, and fostering an inclusive, collaborative team environment. You contribute to building a balanced team with the skills needed to meet current and future goals.

Basic Qualifications (Must Haves)

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 2+ years in a technical leadership or people management role

• Experience leading teams to deliver production software, including working through ambiguous requirements

• Solid understanding of modern software development practices, including agile methodologies, CI/CD, and support of production systems

• Strong communication skills and experience collaborating with cross-functional partners such as Product, Design, and Business stakeholders

• Proven ability to mentor engineers and support ongoing professional development

Preferred Qualifications (Nice to Haves)

• Experience working in greenfield or rapidly evolving product environments

• Familiarity with modern full-stack or cloud-based technologies (e.g., JavaScript/TypeScript, Node.js, React, Azure, or similar)

• Experience designing or supporting scalable and reliable systems in the cloud

• Experience guiding engineers in applying AI/ML or LLM-based services, including participation in design reviews, prompt strategy discussions, and ensuring reliable API integrations