Cogent Innovations (P) Ltd
Website:
cogentsite.com
Company:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cogent-connect-p-ltd
Industries: Software Development
Job details:
Job Description – .NET Technical Manager
Role Overview
We are looking for a .NET Technical Manager with strong hands-on coding ability and proven experience in enterprise product development. This is not a purely managerial role — the candidate must be an active coder who can lead by example, diagnose root causes, guide junior developers through complex problems, and own the technical quality of the product.
The role spans .NET backend development, SQL Server, third-party integrations (SMS, email, access control, SAP, HRMS, AWS), and enterprise authentication (Azure AD, PingFederate, SAML). The candidate must understand integration failures at the infrastructure level — not just the code level — and guide the team to the root cause without always escalating to a vendor.
Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership & Coding
- Write, review, and own production-quality .NET / C# code across Web Forms, MVC, and Web API
- Lead architectural decisions for new modules — database design, API contracts, service layer structure
- Personally debug and resolve complex production issues — not just delegate
- Set and enforce coding standards, naming conventions, and review practices across the team
- Ensure no sensitive data or credentials are committed to source code
SQL Server & Data Layer
- Write and optimise complex stored procedures, views, and queries directly — no ORM dependency
- Read and act on SQL execution plans; diagnose and fix slow queries using indexing and query rewrites
- Define and maintain backup strategy (full, differential, transaction log) and data archival approach
- Manage schema changes across environments with structured migration scripts
Third-Party Integration & Root Cause Diagnosis
- Own integration with SMS gateways, email servers (SMTP relay), physical access control systems, ANPR cameras, SAP, and HRMS platforms
- Diagnose integration failures at the infrastructure level — firewall ports, gateway config, SMTP relay settings, SDK issues — not just the application code
- Integrate with AWS services including SNS (push notifications), Rekognition (face recognition), S3, EC2; manage IAM roles and secrets securely
- Guide the team to gather diagnostic evidence (gateway logs, network traces, API traces) before escalating to vendors
Authentication & Security
- Implement and troubleshoot SSO integrations — Azure AD, PingFederate — using SAML and OIDC protocols
- Configure and debug Windows Authentication with on-premises Active Directory (Kerberos, SPN, delegation)
- Act on VAPT findings with code-level fixes — cookie flags, CSP headers, file upload validation, parameterized queries
- Ensure secure credential management — no hardcoded secrets, use of AWS Secrets Manager or equivalent
Product Development & Governance
- Drive requirement analysis before development begins — edge cases, impact on existing modules, failure scenarios
- Design database tables with full audit trail, soft delete, normalization, and archival in mind
- Manage API and schema versioning to ensure backward compatibility for existing integrations
- Produce and maintain technical documentation — architecture notes, integration runbooks, post-mortems
Team Management
- Lead a team of 8–12 members including developers, QA, and UI designers
- Assign tasks, track progress, and run daily or weekly technical check-ins
- Mentor junior and mid-level developers through structured code reviews and pair debugging
- Coordinate with product, implementation, and support teams to manage delivery across parallel workstreams
Candidate Requirements
Education & Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering / Computer Science / IT or related field
Experience
- 8–12 years of total professional experience
- Minimum:
- 5+ years, hands-on coding in production
- 5+ years, personal authorship — not DBA-delegated
- 3+ years, with real root-cause diagnosis experience
- Must have:
- Must have at least one live integration (Azure AD / SAML / OIDC)
- 3+ years leading a developer team
- Must be within last 3 months — currently active preferred
Technical Skills – Must Have
- ASP.NET (Web Forms, MVC, Web API) — all three, not just one
- C# — actively writing production code, not just reviewing
- SQL Server — execution plan analysis, indexing, stored procedures, backup & archival strategy
- REST API design and versioning
- Azure AD / PingFederate SSO — SAML or OIDC, hands-on setup and debugging
- VAPT remediation — at least one real code-level fix in the last 2 years
- AWS — at least SNS or S3 integration; IAM and secrets management awareness
- Third-party integrations — SMS gateway, email SMTP relay, access control, or SAP/HRMS (minimum 3)
Technical Skills — Good to Have
- React.js awareness — CORS, SPA + API architecture (does not need to be a developer)
- Flutter / Dart — mobile app development experience
- Windows Authentication — Kerberos, SPN configuration
- AWS Rekognition or similar AI/ML integration
Soft Skills
- Ownership Mindset: Takes complete ownership of problems, drives them to closure personally, and remains accountable for outcomes instead of relaying issues and waiting for others.
- Diagnostic Instinct: Demonstrates strong troubleshooting skills by investigating logs, configurations, integrations, infrastructure, and application behavior before escalating issues.
- Communication Clarity: Explains complex technical concepts in business-friendly language and effectively coordinates between technical teams and business stakeholders.
- Team Enablement: Builds team capability through structured code reviews, knowledge-sharing sessions, documentation, and runbooks, helping team members become more self-sufficient.
- Product Thinking: Considers edge cases, audit requirements, security, backward compatibility, scalability, maintainability, and user impact before implementing solutions.
- Pressure Handling: Remains calm and methodical during production incidents and tight deadlines, making informed trade-off decisions and prioritizing actions effectively under pressure.
Role Details
- Location: Chennai (Work from office – mandatory)
- Experience: 8–12 years total | 5+ years in .NET product development
- Reporting to: Delivery Manager / Product Head
- Team Size: 8–12 members
What This Role Is Not
- A manager who stopped coding 3+ years ago
- A developer who never integrated with third-party systems
- Someone who escalates all integration issues to vendors
- A DBA-dependent developer with no SQL authorship
- A purely technical person with no product instinct
Interested candidate please share your updated resume to hrd@cogentmail.com
Click on Apply to know more.