The Role
At Agate Software, we are building a better world by revolutionizing how government agencies and nonprofits manage their grant processes. Our solutions empower our customers to maximize their resources, drive compliance, and focus on their core missions of distributing millions of dollars in funding for critical social services.
Our success is built on three pillars: Innovation, Integrity, and Impact. For over 20 years, Agate Software has been at the forefront of transformative innovation in the grant management industry. Our journey is marked by groundbreaking achievements and a commitment to pushing boundaries. By simplifying complex workflows, enhancing transparency, and turbo-charging efficiency, we enable our customers to maximize the impact of their funding.
Always challenging the status quo, we strive to set new industry standards and we are seeking the brightest minds to join us in this mission. If you're ready to apply your expertise in a dynamic, growth-oriented, mission-driven environment, read on to see how this position aligns with your skills and interests!
What We’re Looking For
Agate Software is seeking a strategic, execution-driven Vice President of Software Development to lead our Product & Technology organization. This is a critical executive leadership role responsible forfor unifying and leading the Software Development, Configuration, and QA teams into a high-performance technical delivery function. This leader will architect our platform strategy, drive engineering standards, and ensure scalable, margin-friendly execution across all products. You will lead all aspects of software development—including product strategy, platform engineering, configuration, quality assurance, and DevOps—with a strong emphasis on product modularity, delivery efficiency, and roadmap alignment.
This role is ideal for a leader who thrives in ambiguity, builds high-performing technical teams, and understands how to translate customer needs into scalable product offerings.
What You'll Do
Strategy & Execution
- Define and execute a scalable technology and product roadmap aligned with business growth, margin targets, and innovation goals.
- Drive a platform-first architecture that supports configurable, off-the-shelf products while reducing development time, delivery cost, and support complexity.
- Define and implement a unified architecture strategy across products to support rapid configuration, margin lift, and technical scalability for future offerings like IG Essentials and IG5.
- Lead the adoption of modern practices across CI/CD, cloud services, security, and platform operations.
Product & Engineering Oversight
- Own the full product lifecycle—from discovery to launch—ensuring customer input informs roadmap prioritization.
- Lead all technical teams: Software Development, Configuration, and QA to ensure timely, high-quality, and cost-effective delivery.
- Partner with Customer Success, Support, and Training to ensure successful product adoption and end-user outcomes.
Financial & Operational Accountability
- Manage technical resourcing, delivery velocity, and backlog capacity to support 60%+ gross margin and on-time delivery targets.
- Build scalable processes and systems to eliminate delivery bottlenecks, reduce rework, and increase first-time-right deployments.
- Lead the company-wide adoption and configuration of Azure DevOps as the single source of truth for all technical tasks, time tracking, and delivery workflows.
- Redesign the current skills matrix to ensure accurate representation of technical capabilities and use it to drive resourcing, coaching, and hiring decisions.
- Develop and implement KPIs for all technical roles—Software Developers, Config Specialists, and QA Analysts—focused on velocity, backlog throughput, documentation completeness, and quality metrics.
Innovation & Ecosystem Growth
- Identify and evaluate emerging technologies, AI, R&D priorities, and 3rd-party integrations to extend product capabilities.
- Champion a modular architecture strategy that accelerates feature reuse across customers and product lines.
Cross Functional Leadership
- Collaborate with Product and Project Management to realign ownership of technical direction—ensuring that feasibility, timeline estimates, and architecture decisions are driven by Engineering rather than externally imposed.
- Serve as a senior leader on the management team, contributing to company-wide strategy, hiring, and operational planning.
Team Development
- Attract, develop, and retain top engineering and product talent.
- Mentor a team of engineering managers, architects, and technical leads to build sustainable leadership bench strength.
- Restructure the software development and configuration teams to eliminate reliance on undocumented, single-SME knowledge by implementing documentation standards, onboarding-ready processes, and shared technical ownership.
- Lead the evaluation and restructuring of existing team members to ensure alignment with Agate's cultural values and technical standards for performance, adaptability, and collaboration.
What You'll Bring
- 10+ years of experience in software development leadership, including managing cross-functional technical teams in an enterprise SaaS environment.
- Proven success leading product development in configurable or heavily customized platforms.
- Deep understanding of DevOps, CI/CD, QA automation, and secure development practices.
- Demonstrated ability to manage both long-term product strategy and short-term technical execution.
- Experience designing reusable platforms or product modularization frameworks.
- Strong financial acumen—comfortable with budgeting, forecasting, and managing to margin.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders alike.
- A passion for public-sector impact and solving complex problems at scale.
What Success Looks Like
- All technical teams (Dev, Config, QA) operate under shared architecture standards, common tooling, and clear KPIs
- The team is resourced and documented in a way that reduces dependency on individual contributors and enables full project interchangeability
- Azure DevOps is fully deployed and adopted with reliable data on task completion, effort, and quality
- Internal metrics are used to track efficiency, quality, and alignment with project SOWs and pricing targets
- The VP is recognized as a key driver of delivery margin, product velocity, and operational clarity
- The President is no longer required to intervene in day-to-day Engineering or Configuration execution
Bonus If You Have
- Experience with grant management, case management, or other government-facing enterprise SaaS
- Familiarity with Azure DevOps, Power BI, and configurable form engines
- Prior leadership during periods of rapid scale, reorganization, or post-merger product integration
At Agate Software you'll be part of a team that is dedicated to making a difference through cutting-edge technology and unwavering dedication to our impactful work. If you're ready to make a significant contribution to communities in need and grow your career in an inspiring and challenging environment, apply today!
Diversity Commitment:
We believe our strength lies in the diversity of our team. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where an expansive range of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives are the foundation for innovation. We strive to attract, develop, and retain the brightest minds from all walks of life. All individuals who embrace innovation and intellectual curiosity are invited to bring their unique personal and professional experiences to the table to enrich our creativity, thought leadership, and discovery.
To all recruitment agencies: We do not accept unsolicited agency resumes and are not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.
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The Company
What We Do
Agate Software, the US affiliate of IGX Solutions, was founded in 1991 in Okemos, Michigan. Agate Software developed the groundbreaking IntelliGrants management software in 2001. Intelligrants is the first true web-based solution for grant management and is currently used by more than 120 clients across 34 states. Agate currently provides implementation, development, and training services for customers using IntelliGrants IGX, the market’s premier grants management software. Agate also continues to support customers utilizing earlier versions of intelliGrants while providing software development and lifecycle grant management support, maintenance, and services to IGX Solutions and other clients.
