Senior Software Engineering Manager in Glasgow

Company Overview

At Motorola Solutions, we believe that everything starts with our people. We’re a global close-knit community, united by the relentless pursuit to help keep people safer everywhere. We build and connect technologies to help protect people, property and places. Our solutions foster the collaboration that’s critical for safer communities, safer schools, safer hospitals, safer businesses, and ultimately, safer nations. Connect with a career that matters, and help us build a safer future.

Department Overview

The Motorola Solutions 'International Mobile Applications' organisation is responsible for creating the mission critical software solutions which serve emergency first responders across public safety agencies worldwide. The solutions created by this organisation are used by hundreds of thousands of police officers, firefighters and paramedics every day and aim to improve the effectiveness of our emergency services response. The various applications that we build for first responders are deployed across a wide range of different device types and are sophisticated solutions comprising client applications, server applications, web applications and databases. Within the organisation, we are organised into different product groups focusing on different sectors and territories across the world. This specific role is focused on our solution which serves UK Police agencies. Our ‘Pronto’ team is the largest supplier of mobile police apps in the UK, providing software to half of the UK’s 45 police forces - used by around 70,000 police officers on a daily basis. Based in the West End of Glasgow, we currently have around 80 employees. Our team started as Kelvin Connect in 2002, a spin‑out company from the University of Glasgow. Now, as part of Motorola Solutions, we continue to expand with future opportunities in the UK and beyond.

Job Description

This role will be responsible for leading a team of approximately 8 software engineers, who range from senior to junior level. We are looking for someone who is a very strong software engineer, who may have some previous experience of leading small, agile software engineering teams. As a Software Engineering Manager, you won’t just be staring at code; you’ll be building the team that writes it. You are responsible for the growth, productivity, and happiness of your engineers. Your goal is to bridge the gap between business objectives and technical execution, ensuring we ship high‑quality products while maintaining a healthy, sustainable engineering culture.

Key Responsibilities

• People Leadership: Mentor and coach engineers at all levels. You’ll handle performance reviews, career mapping, and one‑on‑ones to ensure everyone has a clear path to promotion.
• Delivery & Execution: Own the “how” and “when.” You’ll work with Product Managers to define roadmaps, manage sprints, and remove any blockers slowing the team down.
• Technical Strategy: While you might not be pushing code daily, you’ll participate in design reviews and ensure the team is making scalable architectural decisions.
• Recruiting: Actively participate in hiring to scale the team with diverse, high‑caliber talent.
• Culture Building: Foster an environment of psychological safety, continuous learning, and “blame‑free” post‑mortems.

What We’re Looking For

• Emotional Intelligence: You can navigate difficult conversations with empathy and clarity.
• Technical Depth: You can still “talk shop” and understand the implications of O(n) complexity or microservices architecture without needing a refresher.
• Operational Excellence: Experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies and a data‑driven approach to measuring team velocity and health.

Basic Requirements

• Must be able to attain Non‑Police‑Personnel‑Vetting Level 3 (NPPV3) – which includes the need for a minimum of 3 years UK residency.
• A relevant university qualification such as a BSc Computing Science or BSc Software Engineering.
• 7+ years of experience in commercial software engineering.
• Full stack experience across a variety of technologies including front‑end and back‑end.
• A strong understanding of software design patterns used for architecting and developing high‑performing, scalable software solutions.
• Previous experience architecting and developing server/gateway applications and client/server model communications.
• Previous experience of architecting and developing mobile smartphone applications.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.

Desirable

• Experience of leading and managing software development teams.
• Previous working experience in an Agile environment (Scrum).
• Java and/or Kotlin.
• Struts and Spring Boot.
• REST APIs.
• SQL (preferably MSSQL).
• Vue, Angular, React, HTML/CSS.
• AndroidX, Compose, Room.
• Gradle.
• CI/CD using GitHub Actions.
• XML processing, XSLT, Saxon, JAXB.

Nice to have

• Distributed event streaming platforms (Azure Event Hubs, Apache Kafka).
• OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, JWT.
• Google Web Toolkit (GWT), Kotlin multiplatform.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and bonus schemes.
• Two weeks additional pay per year (holiday bonus).
• 25 days holiday entitlement + bank holidays.
• Attractive defined contribution pension scheme.
• Private medical insurance.
• Employee stock purchase plan.
• Flexible working options.
• Life assurance.
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay.
• Career development support and wide ranging learning opportunities.
• Employee health and wellbeing support EAP, wellbeing guidance etc.
• Carbon neutral initiatives/goals.
• Corporate social responsibility initiatives including support for volunteering days.
• Well known companies discount scheme.

Travel Requirements

Under 10%

Relocation Provided

None

Position Type

Experienced

Referral Payment Plan

Yes

Company

Motorola Solutions UK Limited

EEO Statement

Motorola Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally-protected characteristic. We are proud of our people‑first and community‑focused culture, empowering every Motorolan to be their most authentic self and to do their best work to deliver on the promise of a safer world. If you’d like to join our team but feel that you don’t quite meet all of the preferred skills, we’d still love to hear why you think you’d be a great addition to our team.