IT Development Manager

Equity Residential (EQR) is an S&P 500 real estate company and an industry leading multi-family REIT, headquartered in downtown Chicago. Our portfolio of high-quality properties in growth markets – New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, to name a few –  provides homes where people most want to live, work and play. We've got the best people in the business, and our experience shows in our dedication to our residents and in how much we value each other as colleagues. That’s why our employees say they are proud to work at Equity, a company that gives our residents a place where they can Live Remarkably, and offers a culture where our employees have the opportunity to make their mark.

As an IT Development Manager on the Information Technology team, you will be responsible for providing the strategic direction for application development, enhancement, and maintenance of current and future Equity Residential applications in cooperation with product management, other IT teams, and business leaders. The IT Development Manager will provide technical leadership to a team of IT Developers through skill development, code reviews, project scheduling, and cross training.  The IT Development Manager will also contribute to architecture decisions for Equity Residential products and will assist with identifying new technologies and tools to support and improve products and processes. 

Each day will be unique, requiring an ability to think strategically, take initiative, and employ a diverse set of skills. Above all, you’ll have a direct hand in delivering tools that enable your business partners to be most successful in driving the organization forward and meeting their day-to-day goals.

• Effective leader and trusted team player. You are known for serving as a resource and trusted partner for internal groups and participating in cross-functional projects is the type of work you love. You’ve mastered the art of prioritizing work and multi-tasking.  You hold yourself accountable and take responsibility for your assignments and expect others to do the same. You also have a tendency to make developing your employees a core part of the job.
• Knowledgeable. Your background includes experience with both custom application software development and packaged software implementations.  You are skilled at building scalable web applications and implementing delivered and customized API’s.  You’re comfortable with technology, including programming, vendor related integrations, and  implementation of off the shelf software solutions—in addition to problem solving with a customer focus in mind.  You also have a broad-based familiarity with building data models, evaluating trends, and identifying areas for improvement.
• Technologically Savvy. You’ve got a drive to stay on top of the most current technology.  You maintain knowledge of best practices in information technology, development processes, and software architecture. You’re an expert at working with relational database concepts and have a knack for quickly mastering new software. In other words, technology is one of your closest friends!
• Strong Communicator. Your writing and speaking skills are clear, articulate, and effective, demonstrating your ability to interact with all levels and various teams within the organization and be understood.  By delivering clear communication, you help to ensure that projects stay on time, deliverables meet budget, and key stakeholders are aware of project statuses.
• Organized, Efficient, and Accountable. You multitask well, re-prioritize accordingly, and effectively juggle the needs of changing priorities of the business. In other words, you handle pressure well and do so with confidence!

• Coach, mentor, motivate and supervise a team of IT Developers and influence, engage, and motivate them to complete assigned work in a timely manner, while continuing to build team bench strength. 
• Develop, implement and maintain a team organization that ensures skills and capacity for project and enhancement work while providing superior support for production applications.
• Lead the effort to determine technical approaches and solutions that meet business needs and solve business problems.
• Implement and manage standard development procedures for system changes, which may include creating, reviewing, executing, and tracking development initiatives and results; you will also be responsible for validating application programming to ensure they meet both business and technical requirements.
• Maintain communication as central point of contact for application software vendors.
• Collaborate with cross functional teams to implement integrated solutions.
• Manage the software upgrade process with the Business System Manager.  Coordinate project plans and communication to key stakeholders and partner with Equity’s training group to coordinate training needs.
• Support special projects, as needed.

• Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, or related field.
• 5+ years of IT development experience required, along with 1+ years of management/supervisory experience required. Experienced at leading the work of others and effectively prioritizing project tasks.
• Experience with both custom application software development and packaged software implementations.  Skilled at building scalable web applications and implementing delivered and customized API’s.
• Highly experienced with the following: Windows Operating Systems, HTML5, JavaScript, SQL, CSS, XML, MS SQL Server, MongoDB, Angular, Git, JQuery, Bootstrap, Xamarin, Xamarin forms. 
• Extensive experience using Microsoft Development Tools including C#, Visual Studio, .Net Framework Core and MVC.
• Preferred experience with Service Now, MRI Software Toolkit, React, NPM, Gulp, Entity Framework, RabbitMQ.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines and thrive in a multi-project environment, while ensuring production systems are up and performing well. Demonstrated ability to solve problems, determine appropriate actions, and complete projects with little direction.
• Must be proficient in creating/executing SQL queries and possess thorough understanding of relational database concepts, design, and programming .
• Strong understanding of software usability practices and development lifecycle. Experience in waterfall and agile development processes.
• Ability to quickly become well-versed in business policy and knowledgeable with the company’s product offerings and internal systems. Proven strong work ethic, ability to make decisions, and adaptable to changing priorities in a fast-paced innovative environment, without sacrificing quality of work product. Detail oriented and well-organized, with an exceptional ability to multitask.
• Team player that demonstrates flexibility and the ability to integrate and work well with others.
• Strong communication and presentation skills – able to speak and write in a clear and articulate manner; focused, friendly and communicates well under time pressure and deadlines. Must be able to communicate effectively to end users and management on a non-technical level while dealing with other IT professionals on a technical level.
• Motivated to succeed with capacity to assume increasing responsibility.