Head of Software Engineering

GARY CHAPLIN LTD; Lancashire; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

GARY CHAPLIN LTD in the United Kingdom seeks an experienced Deputy Head of Service (SaaS) to lead the delivery of a secure, scalable proprietary SaaS platform and related infrastructure.

You will guide architecture decisions, oversee software delivery, and manage a small technical team while engaging with clients to ensure adoption and value delivery.

Qualifications

• Strong software/development foundations and lifecycle management (Agile/DevOps).
• Deep knowledge of system architecture, scalability and maintainability.
• Hands-on capability to interrogate code, troubleshoot and resolve issues.
• Experience leading technical teams and delivering complex digital solutions.
• Excellent client and stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
• Degree or diploma in IT, CS, Engineering or related field.
• Experience embedding SaaS platforms within infrastructure or regulated sectors.
• Information security certifications (e.g., CISSP, CISM) or equivalent in practice.
• Project Management or Agile certification.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the delivery roadmap for the proprietary platform across implementation, development and bug fixes.
• Ensure visibility of workloads, priorities, milestones and delivery timescales.
• Perform code reviews and ensure delivery aligns with standards and objectives.
• Keep hands-on involvement to troubleshoot and contribute to solutions as needed.
• Maintain system documentation and architecture to support scalability and adoption.
• Identify issues early and drive remediation, resourcing and delivery.

Skills

Software delivery

System architecture

Hands-on problem solving

Client engagement

Team leadership

Security/compliance

Cloud/Azure

AI awareness

Education

Degree in IT/CS/Engineering

Tools

Azure

ISO27001

Cyber Essentials

DevOps

Job description

An outstanding and unique opportunity to join an exciting commercial solutions business; a newly created role within a highly entrepreneurial business in response to unexpectedly high growth and transformation. Still agile & small, but experiencing dramatic growth, they serve an enviable list of blue-chip clients offering a range of technology-led blended solutions.

The organic growth of the core consultancy business has been complemented by pioneering software solutions products, offering both SaaS (Software as a Service) and MCS (Managed Commercial Services). This part of the business is experiencing high growth and is set to become a substantial part of the group moving forward.

Their proprietary product is a modular SaaS platform helping utility businesses, Tier 1 companies and contractors manage contracts, streamline operations and make confident decisions. Hosted in secure Microsoft Azure UK data centres and accredited to ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials, it has become a trusted system-of-record for some of the UK's largest infrastructure players.

Financially robust, debt-free and highly profitable, the business is led by experienced shareholder/directors with strong track records of building and growing businesses in this space.

They now seek an experienced and motivated Deputy Head of Service (SaaS), someone equally fluent in systems architecture, software development and client engagement.

As Deputy Head of Service (SaaS), you’ll sit at the heart of this growth business, ensuring the platform and supporting systems remain secure, robust and continually evolving.

While managing infrastructure is a key aspect, this is not simply an Azure management role. You’ll play a leading part in the development and continuous improvement of the proprietary SaaS platform, guiding infrastructure and application teams to deliver enhancements, integrations and performance improvements.

Importantly, nor is this a purely managerial technology role. The successful candidate must retain genuine hands-on technical capability and the curiosity, tenacity and confidence to get personally involved when required: interrogating code, troubleshooting problems, identifying workarounds and driving technical issues through to resolution.

You’ll lead and work closely with software developers, performing code reviews, shaping development standards and steering system architecture decisions. Working with clients and internal teams, you’ll ensure enhancements and deployments align with customer needs, improving reliability and deepening adoption.

This is a leadership role with both strategic and hands-on responsibility. You will ensure resilience across the software and infrastructure estate, maintain consistent delivery of the platform, manage technical teams, guide clients through implementation and onboarding, and safeguard compliance, security and software quality.

Execution is critical. The successful candidate will combine strategic thinking with a strong completer-finisher mentality: establishing priorities, maintaining visibility of the delivery pipeline, communicating progress candidly and consistently converting plans and ideas into finished outcomes.

The role is limitless. There will be substantial operational and commercial interaction with the business as part of the management team; the appointee will be able to make as much of the opportunity as they desire.

Key Responsibilities

Software Delivery & Systems Development

• Maintain the delivery roadmap for the proprietary work and asset management platform, managing resources across implementation, strategic development and bug fixes.
• Maintain clear visibility of workloads, priorities, ownership, milestones and delivery timescales.
• Perform code reviews and help ensure software is delivered in line with company objectives and standards.
• Remain sufficiently hands-on to personally interrogate problems, troubleshoot and contribute directly to solutions where required.
• Maintain clear system documentation and architecture to support scalability, product evolution and customer adoption.
• Identify delivery or technical issues early, communicate them openly and take ownership of the solution, support or resource required.

Team & Performance Management

• Lead and develop a small technical team across infrastructure and software disciplines.
• Promote collaboration, continuous improvement and delivery discipline.
• Create clear accountability where commitments are understood, progress is visible and work is driven through to completion.

Stakeholder & Client Engagement

• Build strong relationships with clients and stakeholders, ensuring seamless system adoption and identifying enhancement opportunities.
• Provide technical insight in client meetings, tenders and commercial opportunities, helping remove barriers to growth.

Risk, Governance & Data Security

• Ensure systems are resilient and can be effectively restored following a security incident.
• Maintain cybersecurity accreditations including ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials, embedding security and compliance into software and systems design.

Planning, Delivery & Organisation

• Plans activities and projects effectively, anticipating changing circumstances.
• Sets clearly defined objectives and monitors performance against deadlines and milestones.
• Maintains clear forward visibility of workload, dependencies and delivery commitments.
• Demonstrates a strong completer-finisher mentality, taking work from concept through to tangible delivery.

Entrepreneurial & Commercial Thinking

• Identifies opportunities and demonstrates commercial and financial awareness.
• Keeps abreast of technology, market trends and emerging opportunities.
• Demonstrates intellectual and technical curiosity, actively exploring new technologies, tools and approaches, including the evolving application of AI.
• Looks beyond the obvious solution, applying lateral thought and initiative to solve problems and create value.

Ownership & Action

• Takes ownership of people, projects and outcomes; acts confidently under own direction and makes prompt, considered decisions.
• Communicates problems, delays and uncertainty candidly and early, asking for support or additional resource when required rather than allowing problems to remain hidden.
• Thrives in an entrepreneurial environment where initiative and judgement matter more than hierarchy or rigidly defined boundaries.

Applying Expertise & Technology

• Applies detailed technical expertise while maintaining practical technical capability.
• Personally investigates and troubleshoots software and systems issues rather than relying solely on others to provide solutions.
• Keeps technically current and demonstrates an ongoing curiosity for technology beyond the immediate requirements of the role.

Candidate Profile

Candidate profile and chemistry fit are equally critical for this pivotal role. Working within a fast-paced, innovative, entrepreneurial environment, attitude is as important as aptitude. The person is everything.

Suitable candidates will be high-achieving software/infrastructure professionals with experience leading or influencing technical teams, combining objective delivery, workflow planning and project management with strong customer engagement.

They need not necessarily already hold the finished job title. Of equal interest will be ambitious, technically strong individuals on an upward career trajectory who possess the hunger, curiosity and breadth to grow rapidly into the wider leadership opportunity.

Whatever their current level, they must remain close enough to the technology to get their hands dirty. This is a role for someone instinctively inclined to investigate a problem, understand it and help solve it — not simply delegate it.

They will ideally have come from either the utility-related sector or another regulated sector, but more importantly will possess the ability to excel in such an environment.

Skills & Experience

• Strong software/development foundations and understanding of software delivery lifecycle management (Agile, DevOps etc.).
• Strong technical understanding of system architecture and how systems are structured, maintained and scaled.
• Demonstrable recent evidence of hands-on technical capability through development, troubleshooting, architecture, personal projects or other practical technical involvement.
• Experience leading or working closely with technical/development teams and delivering complex digital solutions.
• Evidence of personally taking ownership for delivery and driving projects or technical problems through to completion.
• Excellent client and stakeholder skills, including the ability to gather requirements and translate needs into technical solutions.
• Strong commercial awareness and the ability to operate successfully with autonomy, pace and adaptability.
• A demonstrable appetite for learning, experimentation and remaining technically current.
• Degree / Diploma / Other in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, Business or related field.
• Experience embedding SaaS platforms within infrastructure or construction services.
• Information Security certification (e.g. CISSP, CISM).
• Project Management or Agile certification.

This career-defining role is not simply about keeping the lights on; it’s about building, developing and evolving the systems that power the business and its clients.

It requires someone technically curious enough to get into the problem, tenacious enough to find the answer, disciplined enough to finish the job and confident enough to say when something isn’t working.

A role for someone who thinks like an engineer, acts like a leader, delivers like an owner and engages like a partner.