Application Development Manager (Program Manager II)

Job Summary

We’re hiring an Application Development Manager to lead a team responsible for enhancing, supporting, and gradually modernizing business-critical applications. This role is best suited for a strong people leader who can foster credibility and rapport, create stability, and help the team deliver reliably in a diverse IT ecosystem.

Primary Focus: Leadership

• Guide and assist a team of approximately five developers and one customer representative by fostering transparency, coaching, prioritizing tasks, providing feedback, and supporting career growth and objectives.
• Build confidence and trust through consistent leadership, clear expectations, and a steady operating rhythm.
• Set priorities and manage tradeoffs between planned work (features/modernization) and unplanned work (production issues, urgent requests).
• Improve execution and transparency with clear status reporting, early risk escalation, and dependency management.
• Persistently partner with stakeholders in the department, across IT and the business to align scope, timelines, and outcomes.

Technical Experience

• Guide work across legacy applications and modern engineering practices, focusing on steady improvement over “big bang” change.
• Encourage a quality-focused SDLC (clear requirements, testing discipline, release readiness, and production support practices).
• Promote a DevOps mindset—automation, repeatability, and continuous improvement—within our IT ecosystem.

Experience Requirements

• Level II: 4 years experience in an IT environment, including 1 year in a supervisory role or 1 year as a Program Manager I.
• Proven experience leading software development teams, including coaching, accountability, and building a healthy culture.
• Solid background in application development and delivering enhancements in a structured SDLC environment.
• Experience working with production systems (support, reliability, incident response, and prioritizing critical work).
• Strong communication skills—able to provide accurate, timely status, raise risks early, and drive alignment.

Preferred Experience

• Experience modernizing or refactoring legacy applications to reduce operational risk and technical debt.
• Exposure to DevOps practices (CI/CD concepts, automated testing, quality checks, security scanning, etc.).
• Familiarity working in a Microsoft enterprise environment (tools/platforms commonly used across Microsoft-based development organizations).
• Multi-cloud platforms; post composition and workflow automation software; scripting (Python, PowerShell, JavaScript, Bash, VB); print languages (PLC 5/6, LCDS/Metacode, PDL, AFP, PostScript, PDF, etc.); familiarity with Content Manager or FileNet; ServiceNow.

Education Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred or equivalent, relevant experience.

Benefits

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience, qualifications and location.
• Bonus Opportunity (based on Company and Individual Performance)
• 401(k)
• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts
• Life Insurance
• Paid Time Off
• Paid Parental Leave
• Tuition Assistance

Job Location(s)

• US - MI - Caledonia
• US - MI - Grand Rapids

Anticipated application deadline

At Farmers, the recruitment process is designed to ensure that we find the best talent to join our team. As part of this process, we typically close open positions within 8 to 21 days after posting. If you are interested in any of our open positions, we encourage you to submit your application promptly.