Senior Programming Manager

Excellence. Pride. Integrity. Compassion. Trust. Are you ready to plant your career in a place where words like these serve as the foundation for doing business every day? At Michigan Sugar, our purpose is Making Life Sweeter, and our mission is Creating Growth and Opportunity.
Michigan Sugar Company has an immediate full-time opportunity for a Senior Programming Manager, located at the Bay City Corporate Office.
Job Summary
The Senior Programming Manager is a working manager responsible for both hands on software development and direct leadership of a small programming team. This role supports and enhances the cooperative's proprietary systems that are critical to agricultural and manufacturing operations, financial integrity, and service to farmer owners.
As a farmer owned cooperative, we place a premium on integrity, long term thinking, practical problem solving, and stewardship of member resources. The ideal candidate is technically strong, business minded, and grounded—someone who takes pride in building reliable systems, mentoring others, and serving the mission of the cooperative and its grower owners.
Primary Responsibilities
Software Development (Working Manager Responsibilities)
Actively design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain the cooperative's proprietary software applications.
Serve as a technical expert and hands‑on contributor on mission‑critical systems.
Review code, enforce development standards, and ensure system reliability, performance, and security.
Partner with business stakeholders to translate operational and financial requirements into practical software solutions.
Participate in troubleshooting, system enhancements, and production support as needed.
Ensure documentation of systems, processes, and technical architecture is accurate and maintained.
Team Leadership & Management
Lead, mentor, and develop a small team of programmers, setting clear expectations and priorities.
Balance workload between personal programming responsibilities and team oversight.
Conduct code reviews, performance feedback, and professional development planning.
Foster a collaborative, accountable, and respectful team culture aligned with cooperative values.
Coordinate project timelines, resource allocation, and delivery commitments.
Serve as a steady, solution‑oriented leader during peak workloads or operational challenges.
Strategic & Cooperative Support
Align technology decisions with long‑term cooperative strategy and stewardship of member capital.
Provide thoughtful recommendations on system improvements, modernization, and scalability.
Work closely with IT leadership, operations, finance, and outside vendors as appropriate.
Maintain a practical mindset—building solutions that are reliable, cost‑effective, and sustainable.
Support internal controls, data integrity, and compliance needs of a regulated agricultural business
Position Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience).
8+ years of progressive professional programming experience.
3+ years of experience leading or mentoring other programmers.
Experience with PHP, Java Script, Closure Compiler, C# .Net, QT C++, Swift, Obj-C, Java, Kotlin, BASH. Demonstrated success as a working manager—comfortable writing production code while managing people.
Strong understanding of software development life cycles and best practices.
Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
Experience developing proprietary, internally used business systems.
Familiarity with ERP, accounting, operations, or agricultural‑related systems.
Experience with database design, integrations, and reporting systems.
Knowledge of system security, access controls, and data governance.
Experience working in lean or resource‑conscious environments.