Development Manager (Apartments.com)

Apartments.com (a division of Classified Ventures) offers consumers and advertisers the ability to post their own apartments for rent across the entire network of more than 200 affiliated newspaper and television Web sites.  By developing comprehensive presentations of apartment communities and distributing them where renters congregate online, Apartments.com delivers highly qualified, ready-to-rent prospects to its more than 11,000 trade customers which increases closure rates and decreases the average cost of leasing an apartment.  We are currently seeking a Development Manager to join the Apartments.com development team in our Chicago Loop office.  This person will be responsible to leading a team in the development of Apartments.com website and business systems utilizing Microsoft ASP.NET and other leading Web2.0 technologies such as AJAX, SOA and Google Maps.

Major responsibilities/Project:  Manages a team delivering multiple concurrent large scale development projects. Manages and assigns tasks for several resources on his/her team across the full-lifecycle of the project.  Responsible for forecasting, re-forecasting and re-balancing resources throughout the project.  Responsible for identifying risks to meeting established project dates and adjusting resource assignments to mitigate the risks.  Ensures that the team delivers projects that are completed on time, meeting business requirements and delivered with quality resulting in minimal issues found during testing, deployment and production. Provide level of effort estimates for enhancements or new product features.  Provide both higher level and lower level estimates that are practical – taking the time to understand the requirements and ask the right questions.  Provide significant input into fiscal year planning in resource allocation, priorities, etc. Be a “hands-on” manager capable of developing applications written in ASP.Net and C# and other technologies. Provides technical options and solutions in considering how the solution impacts the overall Apartments technical architecture. Represents the Development and Support team to executive levels on projects.  Provides communication about project status and technical design approach at the appropriate level of detail.  Responsible for mentoring and developing the technical and soft skills of team members. Provide feedback on team member performance and provide mitigation and support where necessary.  Seen as a mentor to go to for questions by team members. Suggest and be responsible for implementing process improvements within the team.  Ensures process improvements are rolled out successfully.  Listen to and solicit improvements from the team members.

Experience/Education/System Requirements:Experienced in managing a development team across the full solution lifecycle development Experienced developing applications using ASP.NET, C# and VB Experienced with SQL development skills: Transact-SQL, stored procedures, functions, triggers Experienced in developing a high profile website written using Microsoft .Net technologies desirable. Experience developing applications using different technologies such as AJAX, SOA desirable. Experienced deploying, integrating, and customizing packaged Microsoft software packages such as Sharepoint, Reporting Services, CRM a plus. Experience with business intelligence development and tools a plus Experienced client-side web development skills HTML, Javascript, DHTML, and XML a plus Knowledge of object-oriented analysis and design concepts a plus. Experienced in mentoring and developing team members. Bachelor degree in Computer Science or related field. Five or more years of professional software development experience

Necessary Skills, Abilities and other Qualities:Delegating work efficiently on small and large-scale projects. Able to identify issues on the team and adjust/mitigate appropriately early in the project. Able to effectively train and develop team member skills in work professionalism, application and technical skills. Able to learn new technologies, applications and skills quickly - specifically on Microsoft platforms. Able to debug and resolve issues quickly. Able to provide estimates that are accurate and achievable considering all aspects of the application development lifecycle.  Able to use judgment and experience in planning projects with several resources to help with fiscal year planning. Understand planning forecasting concepts considering allocation percentage, vacations and holidays. Able to work on multiple simultaneous projects. Strong written and oral communication skills.  Communicates status to the appropriate level of detail and in a timely fashion. Able to present to upper levels of management and executives. Strong team collaboration skills; ability to work well with internal and external teams, including customers and vendors. Forward thinking, able to work with minimal direction and exercise judgment when solving problems. Ability to provide strong customer service skills and demonstrated attention to detail.  Able to create strong relationship with internal clients and provide a positive view of the Development organization. Able to design solutions following architecture design principals.