Technical Software Manager

ao.com; Bolton; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Technical Software Manager to lead engineering teams in delivering exceptional software solutions. This hands-on role involves mentoring Team Leads, championing Agile and DevOps practices, and driving engineering excellence. You will guide technical direction, support teams in overcoming challenges, and ensure the development of secure, scalable systems. With a focus on continuous improvement and community engagement, this position offers a unique opportunity to empower teams while keeping your technical skills sharp. Join a company that values its employees and provides a supportive environment for professional growth.

Benefits

Long term bonus plan

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

5% pension contribution

Discounted gym membership

Onsite spa access

Family leave benefits

Paid charity days

Free onsite parking

Complimentary breakfast

Exclusive product discounts

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience in software engineering with strong leadership skills.
• Proficient in Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD practices.

Responsibilities

• Mentor Team Leads and drive engineering excellence across teams.
• Support technical challenges and ensure best practices are followed.

Skills

Problem-solving skills

Technical leadership

Data-driven mindset

Communication skills

Agile methodologies

DevOps practices

Cloud expertise

Tools

.NET Framework/Core

AWS

CloudFormation

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

TeamCity

Octopus

GitHub Actions

Job description

We’re looking for a Technical Software Manager to help our engineering teams build and deliver exceptional software that powers our retail business. This is a hands-on technical leadership role, working closely with Team Leads and engineers to drive engineering excellence, improve our technical domain, and ensure we’re building reliable, secure, and scalable systems.

You’ll mentor Team Leads, champion Agile and DevOps best practices, and step in to support technical challenges when needed. This role is perfect if you love empowering teams while keeping your technical skills sharp.

Here's What You Can Expect To Be Doing

• Coach and mentor Team Leads, supporting their growth and leadership development.
• Drive engineering excellence, ensuring best practices and consistency across teams.
• Guide technical direction, reviewing designs and steering key technical decisions.
• Hands-on support for estate evaluations, incidents, and escalations.
• Champion Agile & DevOps, embedding CI/CD, value slicing, and continuous improvement.
• Address tech debt, helping prioritise and resolve longstanding issues.
• Enhance security, working with teams to reduce vulnerabilities.
• Track key engineering metrics to drive continuous improvements.

A Few Things About You

• Hands-on technical experience - a background in software engineering with strong problem-solving skills.
• Strong technical and people leadership - coaching teams toward better decision-making.
• Data-driven mindset - using metrics to drive engineering improvements.
• Solid engineering principles - deep understanding of OOP, SOLID, and best practices.
• Experience with Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD practices.
• Cloud expertise - comfortable working with cloud platforms and secure, scalable infrastructure.
• Great communication skills - able to translate complex topics for different audiences.
• Consistency and structure - ensuring key mechanisms for CI/CD and DevOps cycles.
• Community engagement - improving technical standards across engineering teams.

Desirable Technical Skills & Experience

We welcome great managers from all backgrounds, and experience in the following areas would be a plus:

• .NET & Cloud Development: .NET Framework/Core (C#, ASP.NET, Web API), AWS (EC2, Lambda, DynamoDB, S3).
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): CloudFormation, Terraform, or Serverless.
• DevOps & CI/CD: TeamCity, Octopus, BitBucket Pipelines, GitHub Actions, Docker, Kubernetes.
• Software Architecture & Testing: Microservices, TDD, unit testing (xUnit, NUnit, Moq).
• Security Practices: OWASP, Wiz, Snyk for improving security posture.

A Bit About Us

When it comes to appliances and electricals, we’ve got the lot. Washing machines? Yep. TVs? Check. Laptops? Absolutely. Everything except doorbells (just kidding, we’ve got those too).

We’re known for helping our customers brilliantly - and it’s no different for AOers. We care about more than what’s on your CV, because together we can do extraordinary things.

Our benefits are designed to cover the moments that matter to AOers. From health and wellness to giving back - you’ll be rewarded inside and outside of work.

• Our Value Creation Plan; We've created a unique long term bonus plan for every AOer to share in our success, giving you the opportunity of an exceptional reward in return for exceptional business performance.
• Holidays; 25 days, plus bank holidays (increasing to 27 days after 2 years with us!)
• Pension; Contribute 5% of your annual salary and we'll do the same, giving you a little extra support for the future.
• Be a VIP at the AO Arena; we have loads of opportunities to win free tickets and pre-sale access!
• Health & wellbeing; discounted gym membership, an onsite spa and our Help @ Hand scheme giving you access to virtual GP’s, Mental Health support and much more.
• Discounts; exclusive discounts across our product range.
• Family leave; Enhanced Maternity, Paternity and Adoption leave.
• Making a difference; 2 fully paid days a year to donate your time to any charity of your choice.
• On site perks; start your day with free on site parking, grabbing a complimentary breakfast and a coffee at our subsidised Starbucks!

To see all our benefits and perks, visit our AO Benefits page.