Head of Software Engineering

SUMMARY:
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POSITION INFO:
Location: Hybrid – Bedfordview Employment Type: Permanent Industry: Insurance | Software Engineering | Technology Leadership WatersEdge Solutions is partnering with a client to recruit a hands-on Head of Software Engineering to lead and mature the full software development lifecycle across internal business systems and customer-facing applications. This is a senior technical leadership role for someone who can balance people leadership with active engineering involvement in a .NET \/ C# environment. About the Role As Head of Software Engineering, you will own the SDLC from planning through development, QA, release, and application support. You’ll lead a team of approximately 12, including developers, test engineers, a scrum master, and an implementation specialist, while remaining hands-on with code reviews, standards, automation, DevOps practices, and technical direction. Key Responsibilities Own the full SDLC across planning, development, QA, release, and support Establish repeatable, well-documented engineering processes Provide clear reporting on delivery, quality, and support metrics Drive Agile\/Scrum delivery with effective, outcome-focused ceremonies Design and improve CI\/CD pipelines for build, integration, and deployment Mature release management with rollback capability and change control Introduce infrastructure-as-code, environment standardisation, and configuration management Champion DevOps culture, automation, and shared ownership Define and implement test strategy across unit, integration, regression, and automated testing Own production reliability, incident response, root-cause analysis, monitoring, and alerting Manage, mentor, and grow the engineering team while protecting a healthy team culture Align delivery priorities with business stakeholders across internal and customer-facing systems What You’ll Bring 9+ years in software development with progression into technical leadership Deep current expertise in the .NET \/ C# ecosystem Proven experience building mature SDLC processes from an immature baseline Strong DevOps background, including CI\/CD, release automation, and configuration management Experience defining and implementing test strategy, unit testing, and test automation Experience owning production application support, incident management, and reliability practices Strong people leadership experience, including building, managing, developing, and retaining engineering teams Comfortable remaining hands-on through code reviews, automation prototyping, and technical leadership Nice to Have Cloud experience, especially leading or planning cloud migrations Experience modernising legacy systems Containerisation experience Exposure to internal line-of-business systems and external customer-facing products Azure, Azure DevOps, or Kubernetes certifications Familiarity with observability tooling and SRE-style reliability practices What’s On Offer Senior leadership opportunity with full SDLC ownership Hybrid working model based in Bedfordview Opportunity to shape engineering standards, automation, and DevOps culture Scope to lead both legacy modernisation and modern product delivery Chance to mentor and grow a strong technical team Company Culture This is a business that values strong team culture, accountability, and technical excellence. The environment is practical and delivery-focused, with a clear need for a leader who can bring structure without compromising the positive team culture already in place. You’ll be expected to lead by example, support people’s growth, and create a consistent, high-performing engineering environment.   Please Note: If you have not been contacted within 10 working days, consider your application unsuccessful.