Software Team Lead

Software Team Lead Bristol – Hybrid (2 days office minimum) Full-time, Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours  £55-65,000 DOE  An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Software Team Lead to join a growing technology and product development function. The role offers the opportunity to combine hands-on software engineering with technical leadership and people management, working on products that have a genuine positive impact on people's lives. You will lead a small, multidisciplinary software team and play an active role throughout the development lifecycle, from understanding user and business requirements through to architecture, development, testing, release and ongoing enhancement. This is a hands-on leadership position, so alongside managing and developing the team, you will remain closely involved in software development and contribute directly to the codebase. You will help establish strong engineering standards, encourage innovation and ensure solutions are both technically robust and aligned with customer needs.Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, support and develop a team of software engineers and QA professionals, creating an environment focused on collaboration, learning and high performance.
• Provide technical guidance and remain hands-on with software development, contributing to the team's codebase and setting a strong example of engineering best practice.
• Make effective use of modern AI-enabled development tools, such as Claude Code and similar technologies, to enhance productivity, code quality and technical learning.
• Help the team adopt AI development tools in a practical, secure and responsible manner.
• Maintain a strong focus on the end user, ensuring software solutions address genuine customer needs and deliver measurable value.
• Use customer feedback, product information and available data to influence technical and design decisions.
• Work alongside product and technology leadership to establish development roadmaps that balance customer priorities, commercial requirements and technical improvements.
• Facilitate effective planning and prioritisation across the team.
• Contribute across the full software stack, including user interfaces, core application functionality, data storage, integrations, bug fixing and the introduction of new technologies.
• Help shape scalable, reliable and high-performing software architectures using appropriate design principles and engineering standards.
• Develop high-quality, maintainable C# / .NET 8 applications and associated automated tests.
• Identify opportunities to improve existing code, increasing its reliability, testability, performance and maintainability.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across software, electronics, UX, product and other technical disciplines.
• Engage with customers and internal stakeholders to understand challenges and translate requirements into effective technical solutions.
• Promote continuous improvement across development methodologies, team processes and engineering practices.
• Support the Head of Software Development with recruitment, team growth and wider departmental initiatives.

Quality, Compliance & Company Responsibilities:

• Contribute to maintaining a robust quality management framework and support ongoing improvements to processes and standards.
• Ensure software development activities are undertaken with appropriate consideration of data protection, security, privacy and regulatory requirements.
• Handle confidential and personal information responsibly and in accordance with relevant legislation and company procedures.
• Support organisational sustainability objectives through responsible and efficient working practices.
• Promote accessibility and user-focused development throughout the product lifecycle.
• Follow all relevant health and safety procedures and contribute to a positive, inclusive and professional working environment.
• Demonstrate high standards of integrity, professionalism and accountability when dealing with colleagues, customers and external stakeholders.
• Encourage an environment where diversity, equality, respect and individual contribution are valued.

The Ideal Candidate: We are looking for a technically capable software professional who is ready to take the next step in their leadership career or who already has experience managing a software development team. You will combine strong C# and .NET development expertise with the ability to coach others, influence technical decisions and work effectively with product and non-technical stakeholders. The successful candidate will be comfortable working in a collaborative, agile environment and will have a genuine interest in understanding the people who use the products they develop. You should be curious about emerging technologies, including AI-assisted development, while maintaining a strong focus on software quality, security and responsible engineering.Key Skills & Experience:

• Strong commercial experience developing software using C# and .NET, ideally including .NET 8.
• Previous experience leading, mentoring or managing software development professionals.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, design principles and development best practice.
• Experience writing automated tests and maintaining high-quality production code.
• Ability to work across different areas of an application, from user interfaces through to core functionality and data.
• Experience working collaboratively with product, UX and other technical disciplines.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical abilities.
• Confident communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience contributing to technical roadmaps, planning and prioritisation.
• A proactive approach to continuous improvement and adoption of new technologies.
• An understanding of user-centred product development and the importance of incorporating customer insight into technical decisions.