IT Development Team Lead

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

The Software Development function at AG is split into several sub-teams or squads of roughly 5 members, assigned generally by responsibility area and technology specialism.

Reporting into the IT Development Manager, the Team Lead will be responsible for leading one of the squads within the IT Development Team. They will work closely with the IT Development Manager and other Team Leads to ensure coordination and collaboration between the different squads.

As a team leader of one of the squads, the IT Development Team Lead will be responsible for the technical and delivery work of their assigned squad, ensuring that they follow AG's best practice development standards, policies, and processes.

The Development Team Lead provides the necessary full stack software development skills and experience, stakeholder management, and technical coordination and mentoring to more junior members of the software development team.

They are a key player, working alongside the IT Management Team and Product Managers to understand the needs and priorities of AG and our clients, and help develop and communicate innovative, high quality IT bespoke software solutions, automations, and integrations in line with industry best practice. They will form part of the senior development team in helping improve the practice of software development in AG.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical leadership on projects. Team leader and line management responsibilities for the assigned squad. Contribute to the overall strategy for the team. Contribute to the overall agreed software architecture. Project leadership Organise and host planning sessions to produce technical specifications, sizing, and task breakdown. Plan and organise work in line with the project schedule. Attend meetings with PM and stakeholders and provide technical guidance and coordination. Coordinate and take the lead on product demos and manage changes in requirements. Delegate tasks to and support more junior members of the assigned project team. Work with stakeholders to provide new solutions through an understanding of the opportunity or problem, providing options on how these could best be met within the relevant constraints of time, budget, and resource. Design, architect and develop innovative, high quality IT bespoke software solutions, automations, and integrations to meet these needs and in line with industry best practice. Integrate internally developed, externally developed and commercial off the shelf applications. Actively seek out and become familiar with new candidate technologies, demonstrating their value, application, and limitations by building prototypes. Being an active member of the IT Design Authority Board on technologies allocated / chosen by yourself as the subject matter expert for the IT Service in that area. Communicate solution options and designs to technical and non-technical audiences. Design and develop appropriate API's and libraries to promote reuse. Capture, estimate requirements and manage the backlog. Plan, prioritise and schedule workloads in conjunction with the IT Software Development Manager. Provide appropriate technical documentation and adhere to IT department's processes and practices. Ensure code is documented, peer reviewed and adheres to AG's quality and security standards. Technically mentor, support and supervise members of the IT Software Development Team for the allocated squad. Maintain frequent and timely communication with members of the IT Software Development Team, IT Development Manager and other members of IT as needed. Help define, review, and continuously improve AG's software development policies, standards, and processes in conjunction with best practices for delivery of scalable and high-quality software. Actively contribute to the IT Development Team in planning and enhancing the capability of the IT Service and stand in for the IT Development Manager where required. Analyse the business requirements and needs of the internal teams and propose solutions using appropriate tools and platforms. Design and develop user-friendly and functional applications using tools such as Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents. Integrate the applications with various data sources and services using connectors, APIs, and custom code. Test and debug the applications and ensure they meet the quality standards and performance expectations. Deploy and maintain the applications and provide technical support and training to the end-users. Stay updated with the latest platform features and best practices and share knowledge and feedback with the team. Enhance or fix defects to legacy internally developed systems following the agreed BAU, hotfix, and change management release processes. Demonstrate solutions to technical and non-technical audiences of all levels. Production of high-quality design, technical and support handover documentation.

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

The ideal applicant will have the confidence to work in a fast-paced and intellectually demanding environment, and with internal clients who are dedicated, hard-working professionals.

The candidate should be able to demonstrate a passion and understanding for development methods, technologies and practices, and an ability to communicate with both technical and non-technical members of staff at all levels.

The successful applicant will need the following:

A bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field - or equivalent experience in industry Knowledge of AI technology including Generative AI and Machine Learning. Proficient in cloud computing technologies such as Microsoft Azure. Full Stack Software Development Advanced knowledge of C# and dotnet. JavaScript and related client-side frameworks (e.g. VueJS) Advanced knowledge of web development technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JSON. Skilled in the capture, definition, and interpretation of use cases as the basis for solution designs incl. working knowledge of UX based design. Building and consuming API's (e.g. RESTful / SOAP) and integrating complex and disparate applications/technologies. Microsoft SQL Server T-SQL programming and Relational Database design A passion for the researching and using emerging technologies e.g. RPA, Machine Learning, AI. DevOps Release and Deployment – including source control, continuous integration, and automated build technologies. Software Development Lifecycle toolsets (e.g. Azure DevOps/JIRA) and Methodologies (e.g. Agile/SCRUM) and associated techniques / practices. Excellent communication, problem-solving, and collaboration skills.