Wanted: Head of Software Development in Plymouth

We are seeking a strategic and experienced Head of Software Development to lead and shape the software development practice at HM Land Registry. This is a senior leadership role accountable for ensuring the delivery of high-quality, secure and maintainable software that supports critical services underpinning the property market in England and Wales. You will lead a large, complex engineering community, driving excellence in delivery, strengthening capability, and ensuring the right tools, standards and approaches are in place to enable teams to succeed. This role also plays a vital part in supporting systems that form part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.

As Head of Software Development, you will provide clear, inclusive and visible leadership across the engineering community, setting the direction for how software is designed, built and delivered at HM Land Registry. You will be responsible for the effectiveness of the software development practice, including managing risk, dependencies and capacity, while ensuring alignment with organisational priorities and government standards. Working collaboratively across disciplines, you will help create an environment where teams can thrive, innovate and continuously improve. You will champion modern engineering practices, support career development and internal mobility, and represent HM Land Registry within the wider Government Digital and Data profession.

Main Duties

• Lead the Software Development practice, setting standards, principles and ways of working that support the delivery of high-quality, secure and maintainable software.
• Define and maintain guidance on team structures, tools, technologies and engineering practices, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy and policy.
• Act as a visible and credible leader, building a cohesive, inclusive and high-performing engineering culture across the organisation.
• Work collaboratively with other disciplines to enable effective cross-functional delivery and maintain alignment across professional practices.
• Build and maintain relationships with the Government Digital and Data profession, promoting HM Land Registry and sharing best practice.
• Improve the effectiveness of the software development practice through the use of performance metrics, continuous improvement and the management of reusable engineering assets such as components, libraries and services.
• Take ownership of high-level risks, dependencies and capability gaps, using your technical expertise to guide complex delivery and support modern engineering practices.
• Lead workforce planning, recruitment and capability development, ensuring the organisation has the skills and capacity required now and in the future.
• Shape career pathways, support professional development and enable internal mobility across the engineering community.
• Ensure effective use of permanent and contingent resource, including contractors where appropriate.
• Identify, test and champion emerging technologies to support innovation and continuous improvement across the organisation.

Key Role Benefits

HM Land Registry offers a supportive and inclusive working environment, with a strong focus on wellbeing, development and flexible working. You will benefit from:

• A competitive Civil Service salary and pension scheme
• Generous annual leave allowance and public holidays
• Flexible and hybrid working options to support work-life balance
• Access to learning and development opportunities, including professional accreditation and leadership development
• The opportunity to work on systems and services that support the UK’s critical national infrastructure
• A collaborative and values-driven culture where your contribution makes a meaningful impact

Additional Requirements

Occasional travel to other HM Land Registry offices, wider government locations or external partners, including overnight stays where necessary. Occasional planned out-of-hours working to support IT changes and maintenance activities. This role does not currently involve a permanent on-call rota; however, there may be short periods of on-call working linked to specific operational requirements.

Person specification

To be successful in this role, you will be required to demonstrate the following criteria throughout the recruitment process.

Essential Experience

• Significant experience leading software development at scale, including full lifecycle delivery across complex systems and services.
• Strong technical expertise in modern software engineering practice, including programming, systems design, development standards and continuous integration.
• Experience of senior development or engineering management and leadership at departmental or organisational level.
• Demonstrable ability to manage risk, dependencies, capacity and capability within a complex delivery environment.
• Proven ability to build high-performing teams, shape career development and foster a collaborative engineering culture.
• Ability to influence at senior level, work effectively across organisational boundaries and align software delivery with strategic goals and policy.
• Good understanding of information security, service support, systems integration and development process optimisation.

Behaviours

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Leadership, Communicating and Influencing, Developing Self and Others.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience. The sift will take place shortly after the closing date. If successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend a blended interview, which we anticipate will be held on week commencing 7 September 2026. You will be asked to deliver a short presentation as part of the interview. Full details will be provided to those successful at sift to support your preparation. The interview will assess the experience and behaviours listed in the attached job description.

Candidates may refer to notes within their interview, but they should be used as a prompt only. HMLR is accredited to the Disability Confidence Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview. The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to share these values.

Please note that we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role is in a certain business critical category. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a skilled worker visa. You must ensure you have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying. HMLR expect everyone to spend at least 60% of their working time in the office.

You can find more information on how we use your personal data on our website. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact: Name: Alistair Hayter Email: hrresourcingteam2@landregistry.gov.uk Recruitment team Email: hrresourcingteam2@landregistry.gov.uk