Development Capability Leader (Technical)

RSM•Chicago, IL

About The Position

We are the leading provider of professional services to the middle market globally, our purpose is to instill confidence in a world of change, empowering our clients and people to realize their full potential. Our exceptional people are the key to our unrivaled, culture and talent experience and our ability to be compelling to our clients. You’ll find an environment that inspires and empowers you to thrive both personally and professionally. There’s no one like you and that’s why there’s nowhere like RSM. Development Capability Leader The Development Capability Director is a strategic and operational leader responsible for architecting and driving the development capability within the Digital Solutions group. The Development Capability Director will lead and evolve the software development discipline within the firm’s Digital Solutions organization, ensuring a team strategy that proactively aligns with business objectives and 18-month rolling roadmaps. This leader will ensure the development function delivers high-quality, innovative, and standards-driven solutions that support business objectives in an Agile SAFe environment. This leader will create an environment where developers thrive – combining technical excellence with a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and innovation. The ideal candidate will have deep experience building high-performing development teams, managing both complex enterprise engineering and low-code/no-code solutions, and fostering a culture of technical excellence, agility and innovation. The role requires balancing hands-on technical credibility with strong leadership and people's development skills. The role demands visionary leadership, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement, while building robust processes and accountability mechanisms that enable predictable, efficient, and high-quality delivery across all digital initiatives. The Development Capability Director is accountable for achieving success metrics, setting discipline expectations, and holding the team to the highest standards of quality and delivery.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in information technology, Computer Science, or related field
Deep expertise in cloud platforms such as Azure, API management frameworks and data architecture.
Understanding of Agile and SAFe concepts, including solution intent, enablers, system architect roles and architectural runway
Strong technical foundation in enterprise architecture, integration, and modern development stacks
Strong experience with enterprise platforms, integrations, data, complex custom build and buy and extend solutions
Experience with low-code platforms
Strong grasp of cybersecurity, compliance, and governance requirements for enterprise systems
Strategic thinker able to align delivery capability with measurable business outcomes
Collaborative mindset with a commitment to continuous learning, lean thinking and incremental improvement
Proven success in reducing bottlenecks
Demonstrated maturity of an organization’s development capabilities through measurable SAFe adoption metrics, governance, and outcomes
Minimum of 10 years of software development experience
Minimum of 5 years of leading multi-level, cross-functional development teams.
Proven success implementing or operating within a Scaled Agile or lean portfolio management environment
Strong people leader with a track record of energizing and developing talent and creating scalable, high-performing teams
Excellent communication, coaching, and change-management skills

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred

Responsibilities

Create and execute a comprehensive talent strategy for each discipline, ensuring optimal skill mix, clear roles, and progressive career paths to support enterprise delivery needs and proactively align with 18-month rolling roadmaps.
Support planning processes to understand business goals and align future development goals and strategies
Recruit, build, and inspire a diverse and high-performing team of developers with the right capability mix for the firm’s evolving portfolio. This includes fostering career growth through mentoring and continuous learning
Build and maintain a balanced mix of skills across full-stack, integration, cloud, and low-code platforms
Build and maintain development competency frameworks and targeted training programs that drive excellence in Agile delivery and provide accelerated growth for early-career and mid-level developers
Cultivate a collaborative, learning-oriented culture that values efficiency, innovation, and quality. Mentor and empower high-performing teams
Define and execute the development strategy aligned with the firm’s Digital Solutions vision and SAFe framework
Document and continuous improvement of delivery processes, templates, and best practices across the development discipline
Ensure standardized Agile and SAFe practices across all development, ensuring consistency in ceremonies, tools and performance measures
Implement governance and quality control mechanisms to uphold high delivery standards across products, projects, and programs. Lead process audits and champion compliance with regulatory and security requirements.
Partner with Solution Architecture, QA, Data, and Operations capability leaders to ensure end-to-end delivery efficiency and consistency.
Lead and hold the team accountable for identifying and implementing opportunities to streamline delivery workflows through AI, automation, and modern delivery tools.
Oversee development activities across multiple Agile teams, ensuring predictable delivery and adherence to SAFe principles
Champion modern engineering practices including DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, and reusable architecture patterns
Evaluate and deploy emerging technologies that enhance productivity, accuracy, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Implement metrics and maturity models to assess and continually improve the capabilities' effectiveness
Verify leaders’ partner with Scrum masters, Release Train Engineers, and Agile Coaches to ensure teams adhere to SAFe principles and maximize velocity
Champion continuous improvement across Agile ceremonies, backlog refinement, and quality gates
Proactively remove systemic impediments that hinder efficiency or slow delivery cycles
Establish and evolve coding standards, design principles, and best practices that ensure maintainable, scalable, and secure solutions
Monitor technical debt, system performance, and productivity trends, and lead initiatives to address them proactively
Establish and track KPIs and metrics to measure discipline performance, including throughput, quality, and automation adoption
Lead process audits to identify and implement improvement opportunities
Foster a culture of built-in quality and technical excellence, ensuring solutions meet current and future business needs.
Serve as a key liaison between capability leaders and portfolio teams to ensure alignment of delivery objectives with organizational strategy
Communicate progress, risks, and opportunities with clarity and transparency, enabling informed decision-making at all levels