Software Development Manager

Job Description

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER - IT - INSURANCEOur client, a Times Top 30 major UK insurer, is looking for a Software Development Manager to join their dynamic, energetic and agile IT department. As their Software Development Manager youll lead and manage one of their software engineering teams, delivering new capabilities and improvements to help met both customer and commercial need. They need someone whos a natural at problem-solving and has a proven track record of leadingsoftware development teams, whether in a managerial, team lead or project management role. Youll be responsible for evolving the team, working on their capabilities, business processes and tools used, all while transforming the estate with cloud technologyand the latest best practice engineering techniques.If youre ready for a new challenge and looking to join a truly agile and dynamic IT team, apply today!About our clientTheyre a leading and expanding motor insurance group who are renowned for their staff reward and recognition and are ranked highly in The Times Top 30 Big Companies to work for. Theyre a modern and progressive group and pride themselves on their innovativeIT software and dynamic and agile way of working.Location: Must be commutable twice a week to one of the following sites: Tunbridge Wells, Chesterfield, PortsmouthCompetitive Salary and benefits package, based on experienceKey tasks will include but not limited to:

• Ensure all aspects of the development lifecycle and practices are followed.
• Interact with senior business stakeholders, change representatives and architects to present key design considerations.
• Liaise with Developers, Stakeholders, Business Analysts and Project Managers to agree functional and non-functional requirements, estimates and relative priority.
• Manage the engineering teams workload, communicating progress and produce regular reports to stakeholders.
• Monitor the work of all team members to remove barriers, assist, mentor and coach where applicable to progress and reach their potential as individuals and as a team.
• Manage technical debt, considering solution lifespan, budget and overall business strategy.
• Be responsible for day-to-day line management and performance including 1-2-1s, managing holiday requests, setting objectives, performance appraisals and identifying training and development needs for the team.

The ideal candidate:

• Demonstrable experience in a lead role in a software engineering team and ideally have experience of software development and test engineering.
• Technical or process background with a good understanding of modern software development principles, methodologies and agile software development lifecycles.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills at all levels, with both technical and non-technical team members and stakeholders.
• Skilled in use of appropriate software tools to manage and support the team, including project tracking software and documentation tools.
• Experience of working in an enterprise level environment, primarily using the Microsoft-based technology stack and cloud services.
• Awareness and understanding of cloud concepts such as serverless architecture, service-bus / APIs, cloud hosting, containers and micro-services is advantageous. Experience of working within a team using agile methodologies, continuous deployment processes,test-driven development and awareness of security considerations (DevSecOps) advantageous.
• High attention to detail and good problem-solving skills.
• Previous experience of the insurance industry is not required but would be advantageous.