VP, Senior Engineering Manager

Job Description:

Role Summary/Purpose:

The Vice President, Senior Software Development Engineering Manager thrives when leading a large team of engineers to architect, design, build, and test mission-critical applications across all layers of the tech stack. To be successful in this role, deep expertise in software engineering, microservice architecture, mission-critical application design, and the ability to influence and manage a large team of software engineers are essential.

This leader will be responsible for the Engineering delivery of the Credit underwriting systems at Synchrony.

You are the right candidate if you…

• Demonstrates genuine passion for software development: Beyond technical proficiency, you are deeply committed to driving innovation and excellence in engineering.
• Exercises sound judgment and strategic thinking: You prioritize thoughtful design and robust architectural solutions to ensure scalable, maintainable, and efficient software.
• Proven leadership and team-building expertise: As a senior leader, you excel at fostering a high-performance engineering culture, mentoring talent, and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.
• Adaptive and continuous learner: You thrive in fast-evolving technical environments, rapidly assimilating new technologies, programming languages, and tools to maintain competitive advantage.
• Customer-centric mindset: You consistently incorporate user experience and customer needs into technical decision-making, aligning product development with end-user satisfaction and business goals.
• Strong technical background: Extensive hands-on software engineering experience forms the foundation of your leadership and decision-making capabilities.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage a large, multi-layered team of software engineering managers, driving high performance and collaboration across teams.
• Influence and guide multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs) through all phases of the Agile development lifecycle, leveraging the Large Solution SAFe framework.
• Expertise in DevOps practices and tooling, including continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, automated testing, configuration management, and monitoring, to enable rapid, reliable, and secure software delivery across cloud environments.
• Drive continuous process improvement by identifying bottlenecks, streamlining workflows, and implementing best practices to enhance team productivity, software quality, and delivery efficiency.
• Drive the adoption and implementation of new technologies, supporting developers in technology migrations and continuous modernization efforts.
• Define and enforce application architecture standards and best practices to ensure scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Apply expertise in technologies such as cloud-native platforms (e.g., Kubernetes, Cloud Foundry), microservices architecture, Java Spring Boot, RESTful APIs and GraphQL.
• Collaborate closely with software developers, product managers, application architects, and customer application experts to deliver innovative, customer-centric solutions.
• Mentor and influence engineers at all levels, fostering a culture of continuous learning, accountability, and technical excellence.
• Ensure compliance with architecture, security, and technology standards established by Synchrony Financial.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of the future-state technology architecture strategy, including application modernization and migration roadmaps.
• Oversee application code quality through all stages of development, testing, and quality assurance processes.
• Lead root cause analysis and incident management efforts, providing strategic direction to quickly resolve production issues.
• Analyze production defects, troubleshoot systems, identify root causes, and drive timely resolution.
• Stay current with emerging technologies, open-source projects, and programming languages; cultivate a culture of innovation.
• Provide periodic 24x7 on-call support to ensure system reliability and operational continuity.
• Identify opportunities to optimize efficiency and enhance system performance.
• Manage relationships and collaboration with third-party vendors for software development and integration into company products.

Basic Qualifications/Requirements:

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field and a minimum of 10 years of experience with software engineering or in lieu of degree High School Diploma/GED and 15+ years of IT experience
• A minimum of 6 years of people management experience

Desired Characteristics:

• Leadership program alumni and/or strong engagement with leadership program
• Strong people management skills: directing teams, monitoring performance, motivating staff, and fostering a positive work environment
• Develop team skills to meet changing organizational needs and address skills gaps through hiring and training
• Effective cross-functional collaborator, able to work across matrix organizations and with global teams

Grade/Level: 14

The salary range for this position is 170,000.00 - 290,000.00 USD Annual and is eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.

Actual compensation offered within the posted salary range will be based upon work experience, skill level or knowledge.

Salaries are adjusted according to market in CA, NY Metro and Seattle.

Eligibility Requirements:

• You must be 18 years or older
• You must have a high school diploma or equivalent
• You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process
• You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
• New hires (Level 4-7) must have 9 months of continuous service with the company before they are eligible to post on other roles.  Once this new hire time in position requirement is met, the associate will have a minimum 6 months’ time in position before they can post for future non-exempt roles.  Employees, level 8 or greater, must have at least 18 months’ time in position before they can post.  All internal employees must consistently meet performance expectations and have approval from your manager to post (or the approval of your manager and HR if you don’t meet the time in position or performance expectations).

Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required.  We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. 

Our Commitment:

When you join us, you’ll be part of an inclusive culture where your individual skills, experience, and voice are not only heard – but valued. Together, we’re building a future where we can all belong, connect, and turn ideals into action. More than 50% of our workforce is engaged in our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), where community and passion intersect to offer a safe space to learn and grow.

This starts when you choose to apply for a role at Synchrony. We ensure all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. We’re proud to have an award-winning culture for all. 

Reasonable Accommodation Notice:

• Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.
• If you need special accommodations, please call our Career Support Line so that we can discuss your specific situation. We can be reached at 1-866-301-5627.   Representatives are available from 8am – 5pm Monday to Friday, Central Standard Time

Job Family Group:

Information Technology