The role also carries a significant element of product ownership. You'll work closely with Product Management and the Head of Digital Delivery, but we're looking for someone self-driven who takes real ownership of the product. With the support of a designer, you'll get close to customers and field engineers, understand their problems and turn that into clear direction for the team, rather than working through tickets defined elsewhere.
You'll lead three direct reports. The team is deliberately small, with a focused set of three products and extensive use of AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code.
The team sits within our wider Digital team, alongside several similarly shaped teams working on other priority areas. These teams share knowledge, help each other out and form tiger teams when a problem needs it, so you won't be working in isolation.
This is a hands-on leadership role. We expect up to 40% of your time to be spent coding, varying with the phase of work, so you'll keep your technical skills sharp while leading the team.
Key Objectives for the first 12 months
Deliver measurable improvements in fleet operations, such as faster provisioning and deployment, and fewer support requests per thousand devices
Agree a roadmap and target architecture for consolidating onto the three core products
Evaluate the mobile platform options (.NET MAUI and Flutter), make a recommendation and begin delivering the combined installation and deployment app on the chosen platform
Build on the team's existing use of AI-assisted development to make it a core strength, and use it to accelerate the modernisation of our legacy code
Responsibilities
Lead the Hardware Lifecycle software team, providing technical guidance, mentorship and coaching, and improving team processes
Own the technical direction and architecture of the team's software, and clearly articulate engineering trade-offs to technical and non-technical colleagues
Act as product owner, working with Product Management, customers and colleagues across the business to shape and prioritise the backlog, and take responsibility for the outcomes delivered
Manage legacy applications through to end of support, limiting changes to essential maintenance
Design, develop and maintain high-quality software across our tech stack (C# .NET, React, Xamarin/.NET MAUI, Ruby on Rails, Azure, Git)
Support our move from a Windows-centric environment to a more platform-agnostic approach, including Linux
Identify and mitigate technical risks, and develop strategies to address technical debt
Provide responsive support for urgent user issues
Role Requirements
Leadership Skills
Proven experience of leading a software team, including
Experience of leading a team through a legacy modernisation or re-platforming
A strong sense of product ownership, with experience of shaping requirements and priorities rather than only implementing them
Excellent communication skills, with stakeholders and team members alike
A cool head with excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting skills
Technical Skills
Significant experience in software development, with strong C# .NET skills
Experience of mobile app development (Xamarin, .NET MAUI or Flutter) and web development, ideally React
Open-minded and willing to work across multiple technology stacks, including those new to you
Regular, hands-on use of AI-assisted development tools
Experience with Linux as well as Windows environments
Familiarity with cloud-based services, especially Azure, and security fundamentals
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git and automated testing
Significant experience with RDBMS and SQL
Desirable
Experience with Flutter/Dart or Ruby on Rails
Experience of IoT, device management or fleet/asset management systems
Experience in the utilities or critical infrastructure sector
Personal or open-source projects outside of work (links welcome with your application)
What we Offer
37.5 hours per week with core working hours and flexible options. Benefits include 26 days of annual leave plus bank holidays, the option to buy or sell holidays, a pension plan with employer contribution up to 10.5%, a salary sacrifice car scheme, health coverage, parental leave, and an employee assistance programme. #HWM
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