Software Development Manager in Birmingham

As Software Development Manager, working closely with the General Insurance International Digital Product Manager you will be responsible for planning development and directing the team during sprint. You will coordinate the creation, design, development, support and continuous improvement of applications in accordance with established programs and company objectives, providing technical guidance where needed, whilst ensuring the use of sound engineering practices and effective use of resources.

You will be managing Business Systems Analysts, Software Developers and Quality Assurance Engineers, assisting individual team members to set smart objectives and personal development plans whilst also ensuring that they are then able to execute against them. You will have excellent communication and proven team leadership skills, employ active listening techniques and be confident in your knowledge and approach to ensure smooth collaboration with our General Insurance customers, all the way up to exec level.

In this role you will:

• Manage International Agile team(s) to deliver new software as well as maintain and support past and future solutions utilising Agile software development best practices.
• Oversee Agile ceremonies and work with Developers, QA’s and Business Systems Analysts to clarify and refine user stories.
• Collaborate with Digital Product Managers, stakeholders, other IT teams and customers in understanding business needs.
• Ensure that team maintain coding, compliance and security standards.
• Lead on the technical design, development and delivery of new features and in the resolution of critical software related issues.
• Manage team resource scheduling.
• Monitor and assess progress according to schedule and guidelines.
• Work with the Domain Owner to coordinate the efforts of third-party and outsourced software development vendors.
• Review and approve specifications, designs and other technical documentation prepared by the team.
• Ensure adherence to standard governance, operational guidelines and production support SLA’s.
• Work with the Domain Owner to assist in the management and mentoring of staff to accomplish results through effective recruitment, selection, training, development, performance management and recognition.

You should apply if you:

• Take accountability for delivering what your team and customers need to succeed.
• Have expertise in theoretical and practical application of software engineering best practices, methods and techniques.
• Have experience of Policy Administration Systems within the General Insurance SME Commercial Market; Insurer, Broker and/or MGA.
• Have experience of people management.
• Have experience with Agile software development frameworks and processes.
• Have a T-shaped skill set with in-depth knowledge and experience in developing software applications within a specific software platform or technology and broad knowledge of related technologies.
• Are proficient in .Net, C#, HTML5, CSS, XML, Windows, IIS and SQL Server.
• Have JavaScript/TypeScript development exposure and/or experience with frameworks like React, Angular, AJAX etc.
• Have a strong understanding of server-side software, scalability, performance, and reliability.
• Have extensive knowledge of source code change management e.g. GitHub.
• Have demonstrable experience of continuous delivery, integration and deployment tools like GitHub Actions, Harness, SonarQube, Jfrog Artifactory and Jenkins.
• Have an understanding of automated testing using tools like Mabl and X-Ray.
• Have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to discuss, articulate and simplify technology to non-technical people.

Nice to haves:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science / Engineering, or equivalent work experience.