Development Manager

ACTIVATE GROUP LIMITED; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A fast-growing tech company in the UK is seeking a Development Manager to lead a remote team, drive technical delivery, and implement best practices. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in development management within a SaaS environment and a strong background in Agile methodologies. The role includes owning delivery responsibilities and working closely with product management. This position offers competitive salary, benefits, and a supportive work environment.

Benefits

33 days holiday including bank holidays

Personal health cash plan

Enhanced parental pay

Life assurance: three times basic salary

Free breakfasts and fruit

Birthday surprise

Qualifications

• 5+ years in development management or technical leadership roles in a SaaS environment.
• Experience managing a home-based or distributed remote team.
• Proven track record managing teams across multiple disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery responsibility for development initiatives.
• Partner closely with Product Management to refine requirements.
• Establish and enforce development best practices.

Skills

Team Management

Agile Methodologies

Stakeholder Management

Communication Skills

Technical Decision Making

Tools

Azure DevOps

C#/.NET

Kubernetes

Docker

SQL Databases

Job description

Job title: Development Manager

Department: Onyx BMS

Location: Home based, within the U.K.

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Salary: Competitive, plus bonus

We’re looking for a Development Manager to be part of our success story.

Key benefits include:

• Opportunity to grow with a fast-growing company
• Great career development opportunities

Key responsibilities:

• 5+ years in development management or technical leadership roles, predominantly gained within a SaaS environment ideally delivering multiple 3rd party integrations
• 3+ yrs of managing a home base or otherwise distributed remote team with line management and overall responsibility for team performance
• Proven track record managing development teams of 8-12 developers across multiple disciplines (frontend, backend, mobile, DevOps)
• Extensive experience with Agile methodologies, particularly Scrum, including sprint planning, backlog management, and delivery coordination
• Strong background in technology, technical debt management, and architectural decision-making
• Demonstrated ability to drive urgency and maintain focus on delivery priorities and timelines while balancing quality and technical excellence
• Experience working closely with Product Management to translate business requirements into technical delivery plans
• Skilled in mentoring developers, fostering technical growth, and establishing development best practices
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, able to provide clear technical updates to both technical and business audiences
• Familiarity with Azure DevOps for project tracking, workflow management, and development lifecycle coordination
• Understanding of secure development practices and risk management

Skills and experience:

Team Management & Operational Excellence

• Lead, inspire and grow a UK-based team currently comprising six dev and three QA
• Collaborate with offshore team and support knowledge transfer to onshore
• Establish and maintain development standards, code review processes, and quality assurance practices
• Drive continuous improvement in development velocity, code quality, and team efficiency
• Manage priorities, resource allocation, and delivery commitments across multiple workstreams and sprints
• Champion technical excellence while maintaining practical focus on business objectives and customer impact
• Foster a collaborative culture that encourages knowledge sharing, innovation, and professional development
• Implement effective performance management, goal setting, and career development frameworks for team members

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Experience managing complex technical roadmaps with legacy/debt challenges
• Background in automotive, insurance, or claims management software domains
• Familiarity with enterprise integration patterns and third-party system connectivity
• Knowledge of compliance and regulatory requirements in business-critical SaaS platforms
• Experience with remote team management and distributed development practices
• Understanding of cost management and resource optimisation in cloud environments
• Previous experience scaling development teams during periods of rapid business growth
• Exposure to AI/ML within enterprise software platforms

You, Your Role, Your Impact

• Own end-to-end delivery responsibility for Onyx BMS development initiatives, ensuring alignment with business objectives and customer requirements
• Partner closely with Product Management to refine requirements, estimate effort, and commit to realistic delivery timelines
• Drive technical decision-making and architectural choices that balance immediate delivery needs with long-term platform scalability
• Establish and enforce development best practices including code quality standards, testing frameworks, and security protocols
• Support product in sprint planning, retrospectives, and continuous improvement initiatives to optimise team performance and delivery predictability
• Mentor and develop team members across all disciplines, providing technical guidance and career development support
• Manage technical debt and infrastructure cost reduction initiatives
• Serve as the primary technical liaison between development teams and senior leadership, providing transparent progress updates and risk assessments
• Champion innovation and technical excellence while maintaining pragmatic focus on business impact and customer value
• Build strong collaborative relationships with DevOps, QA, and other technical functions to ensure seamless delivery coordination

Technologies used

• Full-stack multitenancy SaaS platform built on C#/.NET backend with Blazor/React/TypeScript frontend
• Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Azure DevOps
• MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis with lots of XML and JSON
• Kubernetes and Docker
• Real-time communication including SignalR
• Multiple third party REST and SOAP integrations
• Mobile apps and web apps
• Grafana, ELK Stack, and Prometheus
• RabbitMQ, HangFire and microservices

Benefits

• 33 days holiday (including bank holidays)
• Personal health cash plan – claim back the cost of things like dentist and optical check ups
• Enhanced maternity / paternity / adoption / shared parental pay
• Life assurance: three times basic salary
• Free breakfasts and fruit
• Birthday surprise for everybody!

What you can expect from us

At Activate Group, looking after team members is a major priority. Whether you're at our smart Halifax or Peterborough offices, one of our AAR sites or working from home, we'll make sure you have all the support you need to succeed.

A bit about us

Named by the Sunday Times as one of the UK’s 100 fastest-growing private companies, we employ more than 700 team members nationwide.

Our purpose and values

Purpose: Make someone's bad day better

• Values:
• Make it happen – Be accountable. Take the initiative, work fast, and do a great job.
• Strive for better – Be bold. Challenge the norm – make small improvements often.
• Win together – Be a team-player. Win together, learn together, respect each other.