Software Development Team Lead

Royal Society of Chemistry; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 57,000 - 69,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Flexible working arrangements

Job summary

The Royal Society of Chemistry is seeking a Software Development Team Lead on a permanent, full‑time basis. The role will be hybrid with the Cambridge office and UK-home working options, and entails shaping software architecture and guiding cross-functional teams of developers, testers and SREs throughout the lifecycle.

You will own the technical direction of the product roadmap, mentor engineers, drive high‑quality delivery, and ensure scalable, secure systems for a global audience,

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of programming principles and how they impact the maintainability of enterprise applications.
• Extensive, expert‑level knowledge and hands‑on experience with .NET C# back‑end development.
• High level understanding of front‑end development (HTML/CSS/JS/Vue.JS).
• Experience with DevOps best practice, such as continuous delivery, continuous testing, infrastructure as code etc.
• Understanding of cloud architecture principles and hands‑on experience with AWS or similar platforms.
• Proven experience delivering projects across the full software development life cycle (SDLC).
• Experience working within Agile practices, particularly Scrum and Kanban.
• People management experience including delivery quality, workloads and personal development.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a cross‑functional development team of back‑end, front‑end, test automation and SRE engineers.
• Shape and own the software architecture and the product roadmap.
• Guide agile teams through implementation, prioritise backlog work and ensure high‑quality, reliable delivery.

Skills

C#/.NET

Node.js

Vue.js

HTML/CSS/JS

AWS

Agile/Scrum/Kanban

DevOps

People management

Back-end development

Tools

AWS

Job description

Circa: Salary - Salary Plan, 63,000.00 GBP AnnualThe Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has a great opportunity for a Software Development Team Lead to join us on a permanent full-time basis.

As a Software Development Team Leader for the Royal Society of Chemistry, you will shape the software architecture and the fine-grained detail of configuration and implementation throughout the software development lifecycle for performance, security and maintainability of the applications we build.

You will play a key role within our DevOps function, acting as a hands‑on technical leader while managing a team of cross‑functional engineers. This team includes back‑end developers (C#/.NET, Node.js), front‑end developers (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Vue.js), test automation engineers, and Site Reliability Engineers (AWS).

Alongside leading and developing your team, you will remain actively involved in technical delivery—supporting design decisions, coding, guiding implementation, and ensuring best practices are followed. Your work will enable the Royal Society of Chemistry to build, scale and continuously improve our digital platforms and services for a global audience.

You will take ownership of the technical direction of the product roadmap, working closely with Solution Architects and other technical leaders to contribute to and evolve a shared architectural vision. You will guide agile teams through implementation, prioritise and assign backlog work, and ensure high‑quality, reliable delivery of solutions, including responsibility for technical changes and releases.

In addition to your technical leadership, you will line manage and mentor a small group of developers, fostering a collaborative, high‑performance culture and supporting their professional growth.

At the RSC we embrace flexibility and offer hybrid working, which means our teams come together when they need to collaborate. Although this role is contractually based at our Cambridge office, you will also be able to work from home within the UK, with the expectation that you will attend our offices and travel as needed for your role. If you need flexible working arrangements, please outline this in your application.

We are looking for:

• Deep understanding of programming principles and how they impact the maintainability of enterprise applications.
• Extensive, expert‑level knowledge and hands‑on experience with .NET C# back‑end development.
• High level understanding of front‑end development (HTML/CSS/JS/Vue.JS).
• Experience with DevOps best practice, such as continuous delivery, continuous testing, infrastructure as code etc.
• Understanding of cloud architecture principles and hands‑on experience with AWS or similar platforms.
• Proven experience delivering projects across the full software development life cycle (SDLC), from requirements gathering and design through to deployment and post‑release support.
• Experience working within Agile practices, particularly Scrum and Kanban.
• People management experience including delivery quality, workloads and personal development.

Visit our Work For Us website to learn more about us, our benefits, equal opportunities statement and inclusive culture pledge.

At the RSC, we recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce and welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds to apply. We particularly encourage applications from disabled and ethnic minority candidates.

As a part of the Disability Confident Scheme, we endeavour, where possible, to offer an interview to candidates meeting the essential criteria of the role, who has a substantial physical/mental impairment which impacts their ability to carry out day‑to‑day tasks.

We are committed to making our recruitment processes accessible to all and as part of this, we are flexible in the ways we give and receive information.