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Start-Up Vibes with The Stability of a Fortune 100 Company.
The Role
Lead technical direction, delivery, and people for Real Estate engineering teams across front-end, backend, and data platforms. Drive architecture, API and data integrations, CI/CD, observability, and production stability while coaching engineers, coordinating cross-team delivery, and enforcing engineering standards for scalable, secure, and reliable systems.
Summary Generated by Built In
About the Role
The Assistant Director, Software Engineering, owns end-to-end technical quality and delivery execution across UI, services, and data platforms. This role is accountable for technical direction, delivery excellence, and people leadership for the Real Estate engineering teams.
In this role, you will lead engineers directly while partnering closely with Product Managers, Architects, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and supportable solutions aligned with team's objectives. You are both a technical authority and a people leader-setting direction, raising standards, and developing engineering talent.
What You'll Do in the Role:
People Leadership & Team Development
Cross-Functional Collaboration
What You'll Bring to the Role:
Skills You Have:
#LI-Hybrid
Compensation Range:
Pay Range - Start:
$160,000.00
Pay Range - End:
$240,000.00
Geographic Specific Pay Structure:
Structure 110:
$176,000.00 USD - $264,000.00 USD
Structure 115:
$184,000.00 USD - $276,000.00 USD
We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.
Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!
Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.
Skills
Resource Management (NM) - Advanced, Analytical Thinking (NM) - Advanced, Strategic Thinking (NM) - Advanced, Data Interpretation (NM) - Advanced, Data Integrity (NM) - Advanced, Root Cause Analysis & Decision Quality (NM) - Advanced, Industry Knowledge (NM) - Advanced, DevOps (NM) - Advanced, Cross Functional Partnering & Planning (NM) - Expert, Strategic Vision & Planning (NM) - Advanced, Talent Development & Planning (NM) - Advanced, Coaching & Mentoring (NM) - Expert, Engineering Expertise & Practices (NM) - Advanced, Accountability (NM) - Advanced, Business Application (NM) - Advanced, Consulting (NM) - Advanced, Business Acumen (NM) - Advanced, Databases & Data Platforms (NM) - Advanced, Data Security (NM) - Advanced, Negotiation & Managing Objection (NM) - Advanced, Business Influence (NM) - Advanced, Product Roadmap (NM) - Advanced, Data Literacy (NM) - Advanced, Adaptive Communication (NM) - Expert, Data ETL (NM) - Advanced, Programming Languages (NM) - Advanced, Data Analytics (NM) - Advanced
FIND YOUR FUTURE
We're excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and our commitment to a culture of belonging.
The Assistant Director, Software Engineering, owns end-to-end technical quality and delivery execution across UI, services, and data platforms. This role is accountable for technical direction, delivery excellence, and people leadership for the Real Estate engineering teams.
In this role, you will lead engineers directly while partnering closely with Product Managers, Architects, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and supportable solutions aligned with team's objectives. You are both a technical authority and a people leader-setting direction, raising standards, and developing engineering talent.
What You'll Do in the Role:
- Define and communicate technical direction for Real Estate team, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, security, and delivery standards.
- Translate product and business outcomes into pragmatic technical designs and implementation plans.
- Lead solution design across front-end (React), backend services (Node.js, REST APIs), and data platforms (dbt, Snowflake) with clear interface contracts and data lineage.
- Drive technical decomposition and sequencing for initiatives spanning applications, APIs, pipelines, and warehouse models.
- Establish and enforce engineering standards for code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and operational readiness.
- Own technical risk management, including early identification of architecture, integration, performance, and security risks.
- Ensure API and data integrations are resilient, well-documented, and reusable across teams.
- Improve data reliability and trust by guiding data warehouse model quality, transformation design, and warehouse performance optimization.
- Support production stability by guiding incident response, root-cause analysis, and preventive engineering improvements.
People Leadership & Team Development
- Serve as direct people leader for engineers, responsible for coaching, growth, performance management, and career development.
- Build a strong engineering culture centered on ownership, quality, learning, and constructive feedback.
- Lead regular technical and delivery reviews, fostering a healthy review and mentorship culture.
- Develop team capability through coaching, pairing, and intentional skills development.
- Partner with Engineering Management on hiring, onboarding, and succession planning.
- Set clear expectations and accountability for technical excellence, delivery outcomes, and operational readiness.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner closely with Product Managers to balance delivery speed, quality, and long-term maintainability.
- Coordinate cross-team dependencies and release readiness for shared components, platforms, and data pipelines.
- Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and other investment delivery teams' Technical Leads to align standards, patterns, and roadmaps.
- Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, providing clarity under ambiguity.
What You'll Bring to the Role:
- 8+ years of software and data engineering experience, with strong full-stack and data platform expertise.
- Prior experience leading engineers directly (or demonstrated readiness to step into people leadership).
- Proven technical leadership across multiple teams or complex cross-functional initiatives.
- Strong experience building modern web applications with React.
- Strong experience building backend services and designing REST APIs.
- Strong experience with data warehousing best practices.
- Experience with database performance tuning, cost-aware design, and data governance controls.
- Experience designing secure, scalable, and observable systems in enterprise environments.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and elevate engineering maturity.
- Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Experience in investment services domains.
- Experience modernizing legacy applications and data pipelines.
- Experience with platform migration programs and phased cutover strategies.
- Experience defining shared engineering standards across multiple teams.
Skills You Have:
- Databases & Data Platforms: Advanced
- Data Interpretation: Advanced
- Adaptive Communication: Advanced
- Engineering Expertise & Practices: Advanced
- Talent Development & Planning: Advanced
- Coaching & Mentoring: Expert
- Product Roadmap: Advanced
#LI-Hybrid
Compensation Range:
Pay Range - Start:
$160,000.00
Pay Range - End:
$240,000.00
Geographic Specific Pay Structure:
Structure 110:
$176,000.00 USD - $264,000.00 USD
Structure 115:
$184,000.00 USD - $276,000.00 USD
We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.
Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!
Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.
Skills
Resource Management (NM) - Advanced, Analytical Thinking (NM) - Advanced, Strategic Thinking (NM) - Advanced, Data Interpretation (NM) - Advanced, Data Integrity (NM) - Advanced, Root Cause Analysis & Decision Quality (NM) - Advanced, Industry Knowledge (NM) - Advanced, DevOps (NM) - Advanced, Cross Functional Partnering & Planning (NM) - Expert, Strategic Vision & Planning (NM) - Advanced, Talent Development & Planning (NM) - Advanced, Coaching & Mentoring (NM) - Expert, Engineering Expertise & Practices (NM) - Advanced, Accountability (NM) - Advanced, Business Application (NM) - Advanced, Consulting (NM) - Advanced, Business Acumen (NM) - Advanced, Databases & Data Platforms (NM) - Advanced, Data Security (NM) - Advanced, Negotiation & Managing Objection (NM) - Advanced, Business Influence (NM) - Advanced, Product Roadmap (NM) - Advanced, Data Literacy (NM) - Advanced, Adaptive Communication (NM) - Expert, Data ETL (NM) - Advanced, Programming Languages (NM) - Advanced, Data Analytics (NM) - Advanced
FIND YOUR FUTURE
We're excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and our commitment to a culture of belonging.
- Flexible work schedules
- Concierge service
- Comprehensive benefits
- Employee resource groups
Skills Required
- 8+ years of software and data engineering experience.
- Prior experience leading engineers directly (or readiness to step into people leadership).
- Proven technical leadership across multiple teams or complex cross-functional initiatives.
- Strong experience building modern web applications with React.
- Strong experience building backend services and designing REST APIs.
- Strong experience with data warehousing best practices (dbt, Snowflake).
- Experience with database performance tuning, cost-aware design, and data governance controls.
- Experience designing secure, scalable, and observable systems in enterprise environments.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and elevate engineering maturity.
- Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Experience in investment services domains.
- Experience modernizing legacy applications and data pipelines.
- Experience with platform migration programs and phased cutover strategies.
- Experience defining shared engineering standards across multiple teams.
What the Team is Saying
Chris
Regional Financial Consultant
Chester
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer
Northwestern Mutual Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Retirement Support — The package includes both a 401(k) and a company‑funded cash balance pension with automatic company contributions and disclosed vesting. This dual‑plan structure and cash‑balance credits strengthen long‑term savings support.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave, caregiving leave, and adoption/surrogacy assistance are explicitly provided for eligible employees. Fertility and family‑building resources are also highlighted as part of the offering.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision coverage are paired with mental‑health resources and access to on‑site health centers in key locations. Fitness centers and reimbursements extend health and wellness support beyond core insurance.
Northwestern Mutual Insights
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The Company
What We Do
You’ll Like It Here At Northwestern Mutual, we believe that our lives and our work matter. And that doing what’s right is good for everyone. We follow through by designing tech that improves the community and cultivating creative ways to make finance accessible anywhere. These guiding principles have allowed our company to grow for more than 160 years. Here, you’ll be with a team who emphasizes integrity and prioritizes security to design experiences that better everyone. You’ll work in cross functional teams to create optimal solutions that are rooted in innovative strategy and thoughtful execution. And you’re provided development tools and opportunities to become a leader all with the support of a collaborative team. You’ll be surrounded in a culture that values innovation and works to always evolve to stay ahead of trends and client needs. We are intentional in seeking out team members who will challenge us. Our employees choose us for the career opportunities, commitment to philanthropy and desire to have a meaningful impact in the lives of our clients. You have career passions and goals. We have ambition and opportunity for you to grow your future in tech. Discover today: https://careers.northwesternmutual.com/
Why Work With Us
We invest in our people. We know careers are about choices, so we provide intentional opportunity. Here you can build creative ways to make finance accessible anywhere and revolutionize traditional processes. As a mutual company, our focus is our people — whether professional development or investments in the community.
Gallery
Northwestern Mutual Teams
Northwestern Mutual Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We offer a flexible, hybrid approach for our employees . Teams are in the office a few days a week and work from home the others.
Typical time on-site:
Flexible
