Job Description

Department: IT: Product and Process Reports To: Head of Business Applications Hybrid position Role Overview: The Development Manager is a pivotal leadership role within the Business Applications team, responsible for guiding software development across projects, enhancements, and support. This role combines deep technical insight, architectural governance, full-stack development experience, and strong people leadership to ensure delivery of robust, scalable solutions. The ideal candidate will bring hands-on experience in .NET development, modern front-end frameworks, API architecture, and DevOps practiceswhile also excelling in capacity planning, delivery estimation, and aligning solutions with enterprise architecture. The Development Manager plays a key role in bridging business goals and engineering capabilities. Key Responsibilities: Team & Resource Management: Lead the day-to-day activities of the development team across support, enhancement, and project streams. Perform detailed resource and capacity planning based on current skills and future pipeline. Maintain an up-to-date team skill matrix and plan upskilling initiatives. Drive mentorship, performance management, and succession planning. Act as an escalation point for complex technical and delivery issues. Foster a culture of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning. Architectural & Technical Oversight: Collaborate closely with the Solutions Architect, Infrastructure Manager and the Enterprise Architect to enforce architectural standards and technical direction. Lead architectural and technical design reviews for new features and systems. Review and validate development stories for alignment with architectural guidelines and standards. Ensure reusability, scalability, security, and maintainability of technical solutions. Provide technical consulting during backlog grooming and planning ceremonies. Planning, Grooming & Estimation: Participate in sprint planning and backlog grooming to validate feasibility, complexity, and alignment. Ensure realistic and data-informed effort estimations by engaging developers and QA early. Continuously refine estimation models using historical velocity and performance metrics. Planning of project deliverables into iterative sprints aligned to Agile methodology to ensure continuous delivery and efficiency to meet deadlines. Process & Delivery Management: Ensure adherence to SDLC processes, CI/CD pipelines, code reviews, and testing protocols. Work with the PMO and Project Managers, QA Lead and Scrum Master to prioritize work aligned with business demand and capacity. Oversee delivery milestones and ensure smooth transitions between development, QA, and deployment. Stakeholder & Strategic Collaboration: Partner with Product Owners, Project Managers, Solutions Architect and business stakeholders to translate strategic objectives into technical deliverables. Drive technical excellence and innovation aligned with enterprise goals. Advocate for automation, standardisation, and reduction of technical debt. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Delivery accuracy (planned vs actual effort and time) Architectural compliance and reduction in rework Capacity utilisation and throughput Developer growth, retention, and engagement Issue resolution time and blocker turnaround Quality indicators (defect rates, testing coverage) Stakeholder satisfaction and business alignment
Required Experience & Qualifications: Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent. 8+ years of software development experience, with 5+ years as a Full Stack Developer. At least 3 years in a management or technical leadership role. Proven experience working in agile development environments with cross-functional teams. Experience with architectural reviews and capacity planning in modern enterprise software delivery. Key Competencies: Leadership and mentorship Technical depth across full-stack development Strategic planning and estimation Architecture-aligned thinking Effective stakeholder collaboration Prioritisation, risk identification, and issue resolution Technical Requirements: Languages & Frameworks: Proficient in ASP.NET Core and C# .NET 8 with clean architecture and SOLID principles Entity Framework Core using Code First approach Front-End Technologies: Strong experience with: JavaScript / TypeScript Modern frameworks: React, Angular, or Vue.js, HTML5, CSS3 Blazor for SPA development using .NET stack Testing: Frontend: Exposure to Playwright or similar UI testing frameworks Backend: NUnit, xUnit, or similar testing tools Unit, integration, and end-to-end testing practices Data & Storage: Proficient in SQL Server for relational database development Exposure to Data Lake and large-scale data storage API Design: Experience in RESTful API design and development Exposure to GraphQL for flexible API interactions Security & Identity: Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) for secure authentication and authorization Exposure to OpenID standards Integration & Messaging: Experience working with Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Comfortable with asynchronous and service-oriented architecture patterns Observability & DevOps: Experience with OpenTelemetry for distributed tracing and observability Git for version control Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines