Sr. Software Engineering Manager

The Senior Software Engineering Manager leads the development, certification, and sustainment of flight-critical embedded software for aircraft power systems and components. This role is accountable for managing DAL A-certified software in compliance with RTCA/DO-178 (DAL A/B/C) standards and ensuring delivery of safe, robust, and compliant products for aerospace customers.

This leader will manage a direct team of software engineers in Harleysville, PA, with dotted-line leadership of a global support team in India and collaboration across engineering groups in Wichita, KS; Bothell, WA; and Bangalore, India. Success in this role requires deep technical credibility in safety-critical avionics software, strong people leadership, and disciplined execution in a regulated environment.

- Provide technical and organizational leadership for DO-178 DAL A-certified software, including planning, execution, reviews, and audits.

- Own software lifecycle compliance from concept through certification, release, and in-service support.

- Ensure development artifacts meet certification needs, including:

- Serve as a technical authority during certification activities with FAA, DERs, and customer audit teams.

- Lead, coach, and develop high-performing software engineers, technical leads, and future managers.

- Foster a culture of quality, accountability, and engineering rigor, especially for safety-critical systems.

- Provide functional leadership and work prioritization for a global, dotted-line support team in India.

- Support hiring, onboarding, succession planning, and performance management across locations.

- Partner closely with systems engineering, hardware, quality, manufacturing, and program management to deliver integrated power system solutions.

- Translate system-level and certification requirements into executable software plans and schedules.

- Manage staffing, capacity, and technical risk across multiple concurrent programs.

- Escalate and resolve technical, schedule, or certification risks early and decisively.

- Demonstrated ability and willingness to use AI tools to improve productivity, decision-making, work quality, and to reduce costs. The successful candidate must be able to identify appropriate AI use cases and critically evaluate AI-generated outputs.

- Establish and maintain best practices for embedded and airborne software development, including coding standards, design reviews, and verification strategy.

- Drive continuous improvement in software development efficiency while maintaining certification integrity.

- Champion disciplined use of requirements management, change control, and defect management tools.

- Mentor teams in modern but cert-appropriate development approaches (e.g., Agile within DO-178 constraints).

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field.

- Typically 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience in embedded or real-time systems.

- Significant engineering leadership experience, including people management.

- Demonstrated ownership of DO-178 DAL A or DAL B software programs, from planning through certification including SAE ARP4754A / ARP4761 guidelines.

- Strong understanding of safety-critical software architecture, verification independence, configuration management, and tool qualification considerations.

- Proven ability to lead multi-site and global engineering teams.

- Experience with aircraft electrical power systems, avionics, or flight-critical control software.

- Prior interaction with FAA, DERs, or certification authorities.

- Cybersecurity elements relevant to avionics (e.g., secure boot, encryption, hashing)

- Experience operating within matrixed or dotted-line organizational structures.

- Safety-first mindset with uncompromising attention to product quality.

- Strong technical judgment and ability to balance schedule, cost, and certification risk.

- Clear, concise communicator with engineers, executives, and external stakeholders.

- Comfortable making decisions in complex, regulated environments.

- Trusted leader who sets direction, removes obstacles, and develops talent.

- Work on mission- and flight-critical aerospace systems with real-world impact.

- Lead highly specialized teams in a technically challenging, certification-driven environment.

- Access to global expertise across AMETEK businesses while maintaining product ownership.

- Competitive compensation, benefits, and long-term career growth.