Tech Lead Manager – Development

Role

Northwood's software runs everywhere from the cloud to ground stations in the field, and every one of those deployments starts with a build. We're looking for a Tech Lead Manager to own the patterns Northwood's engineers use to build, test, and release software. This role creates the paved paths to build, test, and ship software across FPGA, embedded, DSP, cloud, and ground teams by providing build tooling, CI pipelines, release mechanics, and developer environments. You also own internal software development: the applications Northwood builds for itself, from engineering dashboards, HR, and operations to shared components Platform Delivery team. This is a player-coach role. You'll lead a small team of internal tooling and developer experience engineers while staying hands-on in the code, running sprint planning, and people management within the frameworks provided by the Head of Platform.

Responsibilities

• Own the build, test, and release frameworks used across Northwood's repos, including the build system, GitLab CI templates, artifact management, and versioning conventions.

• Provide paved paths like reusable pipelines and build components, with fast checks that fail early before expensive builds and tests.

• Define the guardrails repo owners work within (minimum pipeline stages, signing, promotion gates) and make the compliant path the easiest path.

• Partner with domain leads to understand build and release friction, prioritize it on the tooling roadmap, and measure adoption.

• Own internal software development: intake, prioritization, delivery, and lifecycle of applications Northwood builds for its own use across engineering and business functions.

• Collaborate across teams, contributing shared frameworks, components, and engineering capacity to support product development and operator workflows.

• Lead the Development team as a player-coach with sprint planning, design and code reviews, and hands-on contributions.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• 8+ years of software or platform engineering experience, including 2+ years leading a team or workstream as a tech lead.

• Demonstrated ownership of a CI/CD or build framework adopted by multiple teams with different toolchains, including how you drove adoption and what tradeoffs you made.

• Experience building developer platforms or paved paths for engineering disciplines you weren't part of (e.g., software tooling consumed by firmware, hardware, or data teams).

• Strong proficiency in at least one systems language (Rust, Go, or C++) and Python.

• Hands-on experience with GitLab CI or equivalent, container builds, and artifact management.

• Ability to write clear technical standards and get engineers outside your team to adopt them.

• Experience delivering internal applications or tools to non-engineering users, including scoping requirements with stakeholders who don't write software.

Preferred Qualifications

• Production experience with Nix for reproducible builds.

• Experience with monorepo tooling, build caching, and hermetic builds at scale.

• Experience integrating FPGA, embedded, or cross-compilation toolchains into a CI system; familiarity with long-running or license-gated build jobs.

• Experience releasing software to disconnected or bandwidth-constrained edge environments.

• Familiarity with software supply chain security: artifact signing, SBOMs, CVE automation, provenance.

• Experience operating in a compliance-driven environment (CMMC, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, or similar).

• Prior experience as a player-coach or TLM who kept coding while leading.

• Full stack experience sufficient to review and unblock internal application work.

• Experience deciding build-vs-buy for internal tooling and integrating with SaaS systems.