Senior Development Manager - AI-Centric Backend Engineering Leader

Our Dallas based travel industry client is looking for a leader who understands that AI does not replace engineering judgment - it amplifies it. The right candidate will know when to trust AI, when to challenge it, and how to guide it to produce systems that are reliable, scalable, and built to last.

Our client is rebuilding and modernizing a large-scale technology platform that enables businesses to book, manage, and optimize travel at scale. As part of this transformation, they are seeking a Senior Development Manager who is deeply AI-centric, strong in backend engineering, and comfortable leading while remaining hands-on.

This role is for a technical leader who writes production code, leads small, high-impact backend teams, and actively leverages AI to design, build, test, and manage modern cloud-native systems.

You will play a key role in:

• Driving our AI-first engineering approach
• Leading backend teams through an active replatforming initiative
• Balancing legacy system stability with future-state architecture
• Mentoring engineers on both modern and legacy platforms
• Helping define how AI is used responsibly and effectively across the SDLC

What Makes This Role Different

• AI is central to how we build software - architecture, coding, testing, reviews, and delivery.
• You are expected to challenge AI outputs, recognize when they are wrong, and redirect them to higher-quality outcomes.
• You will lead by example, demonstrating how AI can accelerate delivery without sacrificing correctness, performance, or maintainability.
• Teams are structured around ownership and leadership, not heavy management layers.
• You will work closely with distributed QA teams and engineering partners across multiple sites.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
AI-First Technical Leadership

• Champion an AI-centric development mindset across backend teams.

Guide engineers in using AI tools for:

• System design and architecture exploration
• Code generation, refactoring, and optimization
• Test generation and validation
• Technical documentation and design artifacts
• Critically evaluate AI-generated outputs, ensuring correctness, scalability, and security.
• Establish standards for responsible, high-quality AI usage in engineering workflows.

Backend Architecture & Engineering

• Provide architectural leadership for scalable, resilient, high-performance backend systems.
• Lead the design and implementation of cloud-native, serverless services and APIs.
• Participate deeply in system design reviews, architectural planning, and technical decision-making.
• Review code and designs to maintain high standards of quality, performance, and maintainability.

Hands-On Development

• Write and review production-quality backend code.
• Support development of services, APIs, and integrations across internal and third-party systems.
• Help define and reinforce engineering standards, patterns, and best practices.
• Serve as a technical escalation point for complex backend and platform challenges.

Team & People Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and coach engineers across one or more backend teams.
• Manage leaders and senior engineers who act as owners, not just implementers.
• Partner closely with Product Owners, QA, DevOps, and Operations.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and technical excellence.
• Guide teams through change during active platform modernization.

Platform Modernization & Operational Excellence

• Help drive a large-scale replatforming effort, rebuilding core platform components.

Balance:

• "Keep the lights on" responsibilities for existing systems
• Parallel development of the future-state platform
• Ensure systems are observable, reliable, and supportable in production.
• Guide best practices around logging, monitoring, alerting, and incident response.
• Mentor engineers working on both legacy and modern architectures.

JOB REQUIREMENTS
Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field - or equivalent professional experience.

AI & Engineering Leadership

• Demonstrated experience using AI as a core part of software development, not just experimentation.
• Strong ability to question, validate, and redirect AI-generated designs and code.
• Experience shaping AI outputs into high-quality, production-ready solutions.
• Proven technical leadership in backend-focused teams.

Backend Development & Architecture

• Extensive experience building backend systems using Node.js and TypeScript.
• Strong background in RESTful APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Deep understanding of backend architecture, system design, and scalability.
• Experience with serverless and cloud-native architectures.

Cloud & Platform (AWS)
Hands-on experience with AWS, including:

• Lambda
• API Gateway
• DynamoDB
• SQS
• S3
• CloudWatch
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (CloudFormation and/or CDK).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience operating and supporting production systems at scale.

Data & Persistence

• Experience with both:
• Relational databases (PostgreSQL, SQL Server, etc.)
• NoSQL databases (DynamoDB)
• Strong data modeling and performance optimization skills.

General Qualifications

• Strong foundation in software engineering best practices and design patterns.
• Experience with Git, automated testing, and code review processes.
• Excellent communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Self-directed, pragmatic, and comfortable owning complex, ambiguous initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience as a Senior Engineering Manager, Development Manager, or Director.
• Experience modernizing or replatforming large or legacy systems.
• Experience in high-transaction or platform-based domains (travel, booking, payments, etc.).
• Experience working with globally distributed teams.