Software Development Manager

Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited; Bristol; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited is seeking a Software Development Manager to lead high-impact teams within the PlayStation SDK Developer CPU Toolchain. This role focuses on people leadership and operational excellence across multiple time zones, with responsibilities including mentoring, career development, and capacity planning.

You will oversee Agile teams, guide tooling and testing practices, and communicate with senior leadership and product managers.

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years of experience managing software development teams.
• Proven success in people management including mentorship.
• Experience leading multiple Agile software engineering teams.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication, including senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of engineers across time zones.
• Define team development and career paths with members and mentors.
• Collaborate with other groups across different time zones.
• Monitor performance and deliver regular appraisals.
• Manage capacity planning, hiring, onboarding and succession planning.
• Drive Agile practices and remove obstacles in undefined situations.
• Communicate with senior leadership, product managers, and engineers.
• Provide guidance on tooling, automation, and testing practices (e.g., Jenkins).

Skills

People management

Team leadership

Agile leadership

Communication skills

Tools

Jenkins

Confluence

JIRA

Job description

We are looking for a strong Software Development Manager to lead high-impact teams within the PlayStation SDK Developer CPU Toolchain department. This role is centred on people leadership and operational excellence, rather than hands‑on technical ability. This role requires a balanced leader, someone who can manage high‑performing teams, and have a solid understanding of development tools. You will be responsible for supporting and developing the team members, including setting goals and ambitions; supporting and mentoring team members across a range of career levels from graduate to staff software engineer. The role requires working with teams in multiple time zones and may require some travel through the year. What you'll be doing

• Lead, mentor, and help develop a team of engineers, fostering a positive and collaborative work environment.
• Define team member development and career path opportunities with team members and mentor them to achieve goals.
• Work together with other groups and teams across different time zones.
• Monitor and review team members' performance, deliver regular performance appraisals.
• Manage team capacity planning, hiring, onboarding and ensure effective succession planning for your teams.
• Recognize challenges, help remove obstacles, and clarify tasks in situations that are not well defined.
  3-5+ years of experience managing software development teams. Proven success in people management including mentorship.
• Effective leading of multiple Agile teams in software engineering domains.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, which encompass presenting to senior leadership, product managers, software engineers, project managers.
• Significant experience with software engineering practices, software automation and testing systems (for example, Jenkins).
• Enough development tools experience to provide guidance in high‑level goal‑setting discussions.
• A solid understanding of the software development lifecycle and driving reductions in technical debt.

Nice-to-haves

• Solid grasp of Confluence, JIRA (or similar project management tools) and support ticket management frontends.
• Prior experience with console or PC game development.
• Development and debugging tools experience on Windows and/or Linux.
• Experience in low‑level languages such as Rust and C++.
• Knowledgeable about the Clang for LLVM open‑source project (or GNU GCC toolchains).

Sony Interactive Entertainment isn't just the Best Place to Play - it's also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we're part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting‑edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity., Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.