Development Manager

About the Role

This role offers a fantastic chance for an experienced technology leader passionate about cultivating high-performing teams and ensuring the security, resilience, and suitability of critical software and data services. Operating within a multifaceted operational framework, you'll lead developers and data engineers while providing crucial technical and operational assurance for live services. While most of your time will focus on maintaining stable, supported, and continuously improving business-as-usual services, you will also engage in planned development and data engineering tailored to support phased business transitions.

This is a full-time, hybrid / office-based position within Technology & Data Services on a fixed-term contract until the end of March 2027.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of developers (3) and data engineers (5), setting clear goals, delivering coaching, overseeing performance, and fostering career growth.
• Promote a culture that values collaboration, accountability, inclusiveness, practical improvement, and ongoing learning.
• Manage daily operations of live software applications and data services, ensuring prompt prioritization and resolution of incidents, defects, maintenance, and minor enhancements.
• Provide technical leadership by ensuring effective monitoring, alerting, logging, documentation, and operational procedures for live services.
• Serve as an escalation point for service incidents and recurring issues, coordinating root cause analyses, corrective measures, and communication with stakeholders.
• Implement and uphold robust incident, problem, change, release, patching, testing, and documentation processes within the team.
• Drive service reliability through proactive maintenance, automation efforts, and targeted reduction of technical debt.
• Deliver controlled, timely changes facilitating business transitions, including data extracts, configuration changes, and updates to workflows.
• Support the safe deprecation or retirement of functionalities, managing risks, dependencies, and impacts on services.

Stakeholder and Operational Leadership

• Collaborate with architecture, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to ensure comprehensive end-to-end service support aligned with service models.
• Maintain and prioritize an operational backlog balancing incidents, technical debt, risks, and minor change requests.
• Contribute to planning for service lifecycle, resilience, and operational roadmaps.
• Provide transparent reporting on performance, incidents, risks, dependencies, and capacity.
• Help to enhance support models and operational processes to improve stability and supportability.

Governance, Risk, and Quality

• Operate services in accordance with organizational policies, regulatory mandates, and information governance standards.
• Embed secure-by-design and privacy-by-design principles into support and change workflows.
• Manage vulnerabilities proactively through patching, remediation plans, and controlled releases.
• Oversee operational risks involving availability, resilience, suppliers, and disaster recovery.
• Implement service improvements informed by incident patterns, operational metrics, problem management, and lessons learned.

About You

• Degree in a relevant field or equivalent practical experience.
• Extensive background in software engineering and live service support and maintenance.
• Experience working with data extracts or pipelines in live production environments.
• Proven leadership and management experience with developers and data engineers, including performance management, coaching, and capability development.
• Strong understanding of software and data services operation, support, and monitoring.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms, integration technologies, and data platforms.
• Solid Agile and DevOps knowledge with enough data engineering expertise to support existing pipelines and transition extracts.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise technologies such as C#/.NET, Java, JavaScript, Python, cloud tech, and microservices architectures.
• Ability to translate business needs into clear technical goals and delivery plans.
• Excellent communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong problem-solving abilities, effective prioritization, and sound decision-making skills.

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience with ITIL-aligned incident, problem, and change management methodologies.
• Participation in operational roadmap development, service lifecycle planning, or transitional programs.

Personal Attributes

• A calm, pragmatic style suited to operational leadership.
• Strong technical judgment and meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to support team members through coaching and constructive feedback.
• A collaborative approach and confidence in working across multiple teams and dependencies.
• A strong focus on service quality, resilience, security, and continuous enhancement.

Why Join Us?

Become part of a forward-thinking organization committed to operational excellence and sustainable service delivery. Supported by significant planned investments, we are bolstering our technology and data capabilities to ensure the stability, resilience, and scalability essential for critical services now and in the future. As a leader of a talented team, you will influence service improvements and contribute meaningfully to the evolution and dependability of the company’s technology and data infrastructure.