Software Development Manager

Harris; Manchester; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary: £50,000 - £60,000

25 days holiday

5 Personal Days leave entitlement

Lifestyle Reward £325 per annum/pro R-

Private medical and dental care

Employee Share Ownership Plan

Job summary

Onefile Ltd, a Harris Computer company, is seeking a Software Development Manager to lead and develop a high-performing software team in Manchester. This full-time, permanent role requires in-office presence in Manchester for at least two days a week and focuses on delivering against priorities with a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.

The successful candidate will combine strong leadership with sound understanding of software development environments, agile practices and

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading software development teams.
• Strong people management, coaching and performance development.
• Experience coordinating engineering activities and priorities.
• Ability to establish clear expectations, promote accountability and support consistent team performance.
• Good understanding of software development methodologies, Agile practices and modern engineering environments.
• Strong organisational, problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience with resource planning, capacity management and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and support software developers, fostering a positive, collaborative and high-performing team environment.
• Conduct regular one-to-one meetings, performance reviews and career development discussions.
• Establish clear individual objectives and expectations aligned with departmental priorities.
• Identify development opportunities, support career progression and address performance challenges constructively.
• Promote employee engagement, wellbeing and a culture of continuous learning.
• Ensure development teams remain aligned with agreed priorities, commitments and business objectives.
• Monitor progress against planned activities, proactively identifying risks, dependencies and potential obstacles.
• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration between developers, technical leads, product teams and other stakeholders.
• Support the resolution of delivery challenges and ensure appropriate actions are taken to maintain progress.
• Provide clear visibility of team performance, progress and areas requiring attention.
• Plan and coordinate team capacity to support business priorities and operational requirements.
• Work with stakeholders to balance workloads, manage competing priorities and ensure effective utilisation of resources.
• Identify resource constraints, capability gaps and opportunities to improve team effectiveness.
• Promote efficient, scalable and sustainable software development practices.
• Encourage the adoption of automation, AI-assisted development tools and emerging technologies to improve productivity and effectiveness.
• Work collaboratively with technical specialists to identify opportunities for process optimisation and operational improvements.
• Support teams in adapting to evolving technologies, working practices and organisational requirements.
• Build strong working relationships with Product Management, Engineering, Quality Assurance and other business functions.
• Communicate progress, challenges and priorities clearly to relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure expectations, responsibilities and commitments are understood across teams.
• Contribute to departmental planning and support the achievement of wider business objectives.

Skills

Leadership

People management

Agile practices

Stakeholder management

Resource planning

Team coordination

Communication

Organisational skills

Tools

Azure

Microsoft .NET

Job description

Onefile Ltd, a Harris Computer company, is seeking a Software Development Manager to help lead, develop and support a high-performing software development team. This is a full-time, permanent role with the requirement of being in the Manchester office a minimum of 2 days per week.

This role is central to ensuring our development teams operate effectively, deliver against agreed priorities and continuously improve their performance.

The successful candidate will combine strong leadership and organisational skills with a sound understanding of software development environments, fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities:

People Leadership and Development

• Lead, mentor and support software developers, fostering a positive, collaborative and high-performing team environment.
• Conduct regular one-to-one meetings, performance reviews and career development discussions.
• Establish clear individual objectives and expectations aligned with departmental priorities.
• Identify development opportunities, support career progression and address performance challenges constructively.
• Promote employee engagement, wellbeing and a culture of continuous learning.

Team Performance and Coordination

• Ensure development teams remain aligned with agreed priorities, commitments and business objectives.
• Monitor progress against planned activities, proactively identifying risks, dependencies and potential obstacles.
• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration between developers, technical leads, product teams and other stakeholders.
• Support the resolution of delivery challenges and ensure appropriate actions are taken to maintain progress.
• Provide clear visibility of team performance, progress and areas requiring attention.

Resource and Capacity Management

• Plan and coordinate team capacity to support business priorities and operational requirements.
• Work with stakeholders to balance workloads, manage competing priorities and ensure effective utilisation of resources.
• Identify resource constraints, capability gaps and opportunities to improve team effectiveness.

Continuous Improvement and Innovation

• Promote efficient, scalable and sustainable software development practices.
• Encourage the adoption of automation, AI-assisted development tools and emerging technologies to improve productivity and effectiveness.
• Work collaboratively with technical specialists to identify opportunities for process optimisation and operational improvements.
• Support teams in adapting to evolving technologies, working practices and organisational requirements.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong working relationships with Product Management, Engineering, Quality Assurance and other business functions.
• Communicate progress, challenges and priorities clearly to relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure expectations, responsibilities and commitments are understood across teams.
• Contribute to departmental planning and support the achievement of wider business objectives.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Proven experience leading or managing software development teams.
• Strong people management skills, including coaching, mentoring, performance management and employee development.
• Experience coordinating engineering activities and managing competing priorities.
• Ability to establish clear expectations, promote accountability and support consistent team performance.
• Good understanding of software development methodologies, Agile practices and modern engineering environments.
• Strong organisational, problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience with resource planning, capacity management and continuous improvement.
• Ability to support teams through organisational and technological change.

Desirable:

• Experience working in SaaS or cloud-based software environments.
• Familiarity with Microsoft .NET and Azure technologies.
• Understanding of AI-assisted software development and engineering automation.
• Experience introducing process improvements that increase team productivity and effectiveness.
• Experience working with multidisciplinary teams in a product-focused organization.

Personal Attributes

• A supportive and approachable leader who builds trust and develops people.
• Results-oriented, with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Proactive in identifying challenges and driving improvements.
• Adaptable, open-minded and comfortable working in evolving technology environments.

Why join Onefile?

Onefile is the leading learner management platform and pioneer of the first Eportfolio software. Onefile’s platform streamlines workflows, unlocks funding, and enables education and training providers to achieve higher learner success rates at pace and at scale.

With award-winning software and outstanding service, Onefile is trusted by 650+ public and private organisations to support a wide range of qualification programmes, including apprenticeships, and has helped over 2.3M educators and learners achieve their goals.

We are a growing £12m ARR scale-up, with ambitious plans to reach £25m ARR in the next 3–5 years.

Benfits:

Harris offers an extremely competitive UK employee benefits programme.

• Salary: £50,000 - £60,000
• 25 days holiday
• 5 Personal Days leave entitlement
• An annual Lifestyle Reward amounting £325 per annum/pro rata.
• Private medical and dental care
• Employee Share Ownership Plan

Supporting your application

Our recruitment process will comprise of interviews and, at times, a written exercise, an assessment day and/or a presentation. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we want to make sure we do all we can to make this a positive experience for you.