Application Development Manager

Position Overview

Position Overview

The Illinois Tollway is dedicated to providing and promoting a safe and efficient system of highways while ensuring the highest possible level of service to our customers. Whether it's I-PASS, the Move Illinois Program, open road tolling, or keeping you safe with our H.E.L.P. trucks, we are committed to delivering significant benefits and services to customers.

The Tollway is a user-fee system – no state or federal tax dollars are used to support maintenance and operations. Operations are funded by toll and concession revenues.

Under the leadership of the Board of Directors and Executive Staff, the Tollway is committed to achieving the following goals: increase collaboration with regional transportation and planning agencies, promote the regional economy, maintain financial integrity, foster environmental responsibility, and sustainability, maintain the safety and efficiency of the Tollway system, further transparency, and accountability, enhance customer service, and maintain public trust.

In support of this vision, the Application Development Manager is responsible for leading a team of developers in the design, development, and support of enterprise business applications that align with the Tollway’s strategic objectives. This role oversees the implementation of low-code/no-code platforms, custom integrations, and pro-code development efforts. The manager ensures adherence to modern development practices, version control, and release management standards. The position collaborates with stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and high-quality solutions while fostering innovation, continuous improvement, and cross-functional collaboration.

Essential Job Functions

Position Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and motivate a team of developers, analysts, and technical staff to deliver high-quality applications and foster professional growth.
• Promote a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Assign and oversee workloads, set performance goals, and conduct regular performance evaluations.
• Provide hands-on technical expertise and guidance across all stages of application development.
• Collaborate with technical teams to define system architecture, platform configuration, and development standards for modern, scalable solutions.
• Ensure development efforts adhere to best practices, enterprise standards, and application governance requirements.
• Oversee the development and support of enterprise business applications using low-code/no-code platforms, scripting tools, and traditional (pro-code) development methods where appropriate.
• Provide guidance on application structure, logic, and modularity to support maintainability, scalability, and reusability across both low-code and custom-coded solutions.
• Provide oversight for the effective use and governance of platform environments such as SharePoint, including workflows and user access.
• Guide the team in using version control systems and maintaining consistent, auditable development practices.
• Support the planning, coordination, and execution of application releases through defined release management methodologies.
• Ensure compliance with change management and deployment standards.
• Ensure systems are integrated effectively using REST APIs or other secure data exchange methods.
• Support the development of intuitive dashboards and reports to visualize KPIs, trends, and business metrics.
• Oversee testing, debugging, and peer reviews to ensure application reliability and performance.
• Ensure applications meet regulatory, compliance, and information security standards throughout the lifecycle.
• Communicate technical issues, project status, risks, and recommendations clearly to stakeholders and IT leadership.
• Collaborate with business analysts, product owners, infrastructure teams, and external partners to align on priorities and deliverables.
• Identify and implement innovative approaches to enhance development processes, reduce technical debt, and improve user experience.
• Promote reuse, modular design, and standardization across the application portfolio.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Qualifications

Education (Required)

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Management Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field.

Education (Desired)

• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
• ITIL Foundation or higher certification

Skills and Experience (Required)

• Minimum 10 years of experience in application development, including work with low-code/no-code platforms, scripting, and pro-code development frameworks.
• Minimum 3 years in a supervisory or team leadership role within a development team, providing significant technical and non-technical mentorship.
• Knowledge of SharePoint development and administration.
• Strong understanding of version control principles and tools (e.g., Git, TFS) and experience coordinating releases through structured release management methodologies.
• Experience with systems integration, REST APIs, and data visualization.
• Proven experience with Agile methodologies and the full software development lifecycle.
• Proven ability to conduct code reviews, enforce quality standards, and ensure secure development practices.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder engagement, and team leadership skills.

Skills and Experience (Desired)

• Proficiency in C# and the .NET Framework
• Strong understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) principles and design patterns
• Familiarity with Entity Framework (EF) or other ORM tools for data access and modeling
• Knowledge of SQL Server, including writing stored procedures, views, and performance tuning
• Familiarity with ServiceNow Studio, Application Scope, and Scoped Application Development
• Ability to oversee and enforce ServiceNow development best practices, including naming conventions, reusability, and performance optimization

The Illinois Tollway is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, marital status, national origin or ancestry, disability, unfavorable discharge from military services, age, order of protection status, military status, sex or sexual orientation.