Engineering Squad Lead

Pentana Solutions; Melbourne; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Pentana Solutions is hiring a delivery and people-lead role in Melbourne. You will own a product stream end-to-end, lead a squad of five to eight including a product manager, business analyst, full-stack developers and QA, and be accountable for what your squad ships and when.

This is a delivery and people leadership role, not hands-on coding. You will set the plan, keep the squad on track, uphold standards, and escalate when something needs unblocking.

Qualifications

• Background in software delivery and leadership.
• Experience leading squads of 5–8 people across disciplines.
• Ability to coordinate with architecture and product governance.

Responsibilities

• Set the plan and timelines for the squad and ensure delivery.
• Act as escalation point when blockers occur and unblock work.
• Shape squad priorities and align with architecture and product strategy.

Skills

Delivery leadership

People management

End-to-end ownership

Stakeholder management

Education

Engineering background

Job description

Pentana Solutions has been powering the Australian automotive industry for over 50 years. We're continuing to invest significantly in our product, further enhancing our existing platform with a modern AI-led approach. Around 1 in 3 of our staff use internal AI tools every business day. The work is real, the customers are demanding, and we're hiring.

The opportunity:

You'll own a product stream end to end, building it and running it. You'll lead a squad of five to eight people, a product manager, a business analyst, full stack developers and QA, and you'll be accountable for what your squad ships and when.

This is a delivery and people leadership role, not a hands-on coding one. You'll set the plan, keep the squad on track, hold the standards, and be the escalation point when something needs unblocking. If you can still read code, all the better, but you won't be writing it day to day.

Why this role exists right now:

We're running cross-functional product squads. You'll work closely together and with the wider squad leads to keep everything moving at the same pace.

You'll bring a development background, because you can't lead engineers or arbitrate a technical call if you don't understand the work. But the job itself is delivery, people and pace. You'll shape what your squad builds, feed proposals into the architecture team for sign-off, and make sure your people are hitting both the standards and the timeline.

What you'll bring:

• A development background. You've come up through engineering and understand how software gets built, even if you're no longer hands-on.
• Delivery and people leadership as your core strength, not engineering for its own sake. You keep the plan, the timeline and the bigger picture in view, and you bring people with you.
• Ownership of a stream end to end. You're comfortable being the single point accountable for what your squad delivers.
• A steady hand as an escalation point. When something is stuck, blocked or contested, you're where it lands and where it gets resolved.
• The judgement to hold standards. You make sure work goes through architecture, tickets get raised, and the squad sticks to the agreed way of working.
• Comfort with pace and a fixed timeline. This is build, build, build against real deadlines, not open-ended research.

What to expect:

Two things to know going in. First, this is neither a hands-on engineering role nor a product role, even though you'll work closely with both. If your instinct is to dive into the code, or to obsess over the product at the expense of delivery, this isn't the fit. We need someone who keeps the squad shipping and steps in when it stalls.

Second, the timelines are real. Once scope is set in the first few months, it's full steam ahead. If you want a role with room to experiment for its own sake, this won't be it.

What's in it for you:

• Pace. You'll lead delivery on one of the most significant transformation programmes in Australian automotive software, and it's already shipping.
• Meaningful work. You'll help shape the product that runs Australian dealerships, and what your squad ships will sit in production for years.
• Real ownership. The PMO doesn't sit over these projects. Your stream is yours to lead, and the calls are yours to make.
• The chance to shape what comes next. You're joining at the inflection point, with a hand in how the squads run.

We're all about celebrating diversity and creating an inclusive, respectful team. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including Indigenous Australians, people of colour, LGBTIQA+, and those with disabilities.

Pentana Solutions has been powering the Australian automotive industry for over 50 years. We build the software that keeps dealerships running, from dealer management systems to CRM, backed by a genuine, ongoing investment in AI.