As a Manager of Engineering, you will provide technical leadership for Thrivent's Engineering Productivity ecosystem, including our Internal Developer Platform (IDP), self-service engineering capabilities, and developer experience initiatives. You will own the vision, strategy, and evolution of platform capabilities that enable engineers to build, deploy, and operate software more effectively.
In this role, you will balance platform innovation with operational excellence, ensuring engineering productivity capabilities remain reliable, secure, scalable, and easy to maintain while continuously reducing developer friction. You will partner closely with engineers, architects, product leaders, and platform teams to identify developer pain points, translate them into platform capabilities, and drive adoption through intuitive self-service experiences.
As a hands-on technical leader, you will champion modern engineering practices, evaluate emerging technologies, including Generative AI, and create pathways for teams to experiment, learn, and scale new capabilities across the enterprise with the goal to improve developer productivity, platform adoption, software delivery effectiveness, and engineering satisfaction.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Platform Ownership & Reliability
Own the health, reliability, security, scalability, and long-term sustainability of Thrivent's Engineering Productivity platforms and Internal Developer Platform (IDP).
Balance delivery of new capabilities with platform maintenance, technical debt reduction, modernization efforts, and lifecycle management of legacy solutions.
Drive platform stability through proactive monitoring, operational excellence, reliability engineering practices, and continuous improvement.
Establish and maintain engineering standards, architectural guardrails, and platform governance practices that support enterprise-scale adoption.
Developer Experience & Self-Service Engineering
Lead the strategy and evolution of self-service engineering capabilities that improve the software development lifecycle and reduce developer friction.
Translate developer pain points into platform capabilities, golden paths, paved-road experiences, and reusable engineering solutions.
Create intuitive, scalable solutions that enable engineers to provision infrastructure, deploy applications, manage services, and access development resources independently.
Measure success through platform adoption, developer satisfaction, productivity gains, and reduced operational burden rather than feature output alone.
Internal Developer Platform Leadership
Define and drive the roadmap for the Internal Developer Platform, ensuring it delivers measurable value across engineering teams.
Build and evolve platform capabilities that simplify software delivery, improve consistency, and accelerate engineering velocity.
Partner with engineering teams to understand workflow challenges and continuously refine platform experiences based on feedback and usage patterns.
Drive adoption initiatives through enablement, education, documentation, and hands-on engagement with engineering teams.
Engineering Productivity & Modernization
Continuously evaluate emerging technologies, tools, and engineering practices—including Generative AI and AI-assisted development capabilities—to improve software quality and developer productivity.
Foster a culture of experimentation, continuous learning, and responsible innovation.
Lead proof-of-concepts, pilot programs, and experiential learning initiatives that validate new platform capabilities before scaling.
Identify opportunities to automate repetitive work, streamline delivery processes, and improve the overall developer experience.
Technical Leadership
Provide architectural guidance and technical leadership across engineering teams.
Mentor and coach engineers on platform engineering, developer experience, cloud-native development, automation, and operational excellence.
Promote knowledge sharing and create mechanisms for teams to learn from successes and failures.
Influence engineering strategy and platform investments through data-driven recommendations and industry best practices.
QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:
Required:
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or other technical field or equivalent work experience
8+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, platform engineering, infrastructure, or related technology disciplines, with a track record of improving engineering effectiveness and operational outcomes.
3+ years of leadership experience driving technical strategy, execution, and continuous improvement across engineering teams.
3+ years of people leadership experience leading technical teams responsible for shared engineering capabilities, with demonstrated success developing talent and fostering technical excellence.
Experience building, operating, and evolving an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) at enterprise scale.
Demonstrated success implementing golden paths, paved roads, self-service engineering capabilities, and developer productivity tooling.
Experience defining platform success metrics, including adoption, developer satisfaction, deployment efficiency, lead time reduction, and friction reduction.
Experience improving developer experience through platform engineering and adoption-focused product thinking.
Demonstrated leadership and experience managing multidiscipline, high-performance work teams.
Strong competency in project management and execution of multiple or large projects.
Strong understanding of platform engineering, DevOps, cloud-native architectures, CI/CD, developer portals, infrastructure automation, and software delivery platforms.
Experience working with customers to develop solutions to complex business problems.
Proven ability to communicate effectively with internal/external stakeholders to support business initiatives.
Proven ability to function in an environment which requires flexibility with the ability to make decisions based on limited information.
Ability to formulate, implement and evaluate plans, programs and procedures applicable to customer relationship and demand management.
Preferred:
MBA
Experience evaluating and implementing AI-assisted software development capabilities and developer productivity solutions.
Financial Services industry experience
Experience in IT planning and business relationship management
Experience working in a matrix management organization
Experience with product development and management
Pay Transparency
Thrivent provides Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, marital status, citizenship status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable local, state, or federal law. This policy applies to all employees and job applicants.
Thrivent is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please let us know by sending an email to [email protected] or call 800-847-4836 and request Human Resources.
#RemoteSkills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or technical field or equivalent experience
- 8+ years progressive experience in software engineering, platform engineering, or infrastructure
- 3+ years driving technical strategy, execution, and continuous improvement across engineering teams
- 3+ years people leadership experience leading technical teams responsible for shared engineering capabilities
- Experience building, operating, and evolving an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) at enterprise scale
- Demonstrated success implementing golden paths, paved roads, self-service engineering capabilities, and developer productivity tooling
- Experience defining platform success metrics (adoption, developer satisfaction, deployment efficiency, lead time reduction)
- Experience improving developer experience through platform engineering and adoption-focused product thinking
- Demonstrated leadership managing multidiscipline, high-performance teams
- Strong competency in project management and execution of multiple or large projects
- Strong understanding of platform engineering, DevOps, cloud-native architectures, CI/CD, developer portals, infrastructure automation, and software delivery platforms
- Experience working with customers to develop solutions to complex business problems
- Proven ability to communicate effectively with internal/external stakeholders
- Ability to function with flexibility and make decisions with limited information
- Ability to formulate, implement, and evaluate plans, programs, and procedures for customer relationship and demand management
- MBA
- Experience evaluating and implementing AI-assisted software development capabilities and developer productivity solutions
- Financial Services industry experience
- Experience in IT planning and business relationship management
- Experience working in a matrix management organization
- Experience with product development and management
Thrivent Financial Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Thrivent Financial and has not been reviewed or approved by Thrivent Financial.
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Retirement Support — Retirement programs featuring both a 401(k) and a pension are highlighted as a standout element that strengthens total rewards. These offerings are perceived to enhance long-term security across many roles.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off provisions including PTO, company holidays, volunteer time, and paid parental leave are frequently called out as robust. These elements support work–life balance and overall satisfaction.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, vision, and wellbeing resources are consistently described as comprehensive. Plan options, including high-deductible and traditional choices, offer flexibility to fit different needs.
Thrivent Financial Insights
What We Do
At Thrivent, we do work that matters—and we're reimagining financial services in ways that help individuals and communities thrive. With the belief that money is a tool, not a goal, we help over 2 million clients make the most of all they’ve been given through financial advice, insurance, investments, banking and generosity programs. As a Fortune 500 company with a 100-year legacy, Thrivent is committed to helping people build their financial futures and live more generous lives in their communities and beyond. For more information, visit thrivent.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. See our social media privacy policy and page guidelines at thrivent.com/privacyandsocial.
