Software Engineering Manager - SAP Decoupling

Marks and Spencer; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

20% colleague discount on M&S products

Holiday allowance

Discretionary bonus

Pension and life assurance

Induction and training

M&S Choices perks portal

Family policies

Wellbeing support

Job summary

Marks & Spencer, a well-loved British retailer, is seeking a Software Engineering Manager to lead high-performing teams and shape technical direction. You will spearhead the decoupling of core capabilities from SAP and build scalable backend services, while aligning with the technology strategy and business goals.

You will work within a hybrid model in London, guiding architects, delivery, and product stakeholders to deliver secure, resilient software that supports millions of customers and

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading and developing high-performing software engineering teams.
• Excellent understanding of software architecture, system design and cloud technologies.
• Strong people leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience with modern software engineering practices, security, reliability and scalability.
• Experience leading large-scale technology transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing software engineering team, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Oversee delivery of software initiatives aligned to business goals, timelines and quality.
• Drive engineering excellence by setting standards and promoting best practices.
• Ensure software solutions are secure, reliable, and maintainable in production.
• Manage vendor, partner and stakeholder relationships for high-quality delivery.
• Act as engineering lead for SAP decoupling initiatives with Product and Delivery teams.
• Collaborate with Domain and Solution Architects to design scalable backend services.
• Form and scale engineering teams to build new services and modernise capabilities.
• Promote adoption of AI tooling across the software lifecycle where appropriate.

Skills

People leadership

Software architecture

Cloud technologies

DevOps practices

Stakeholder management

Microservices

Java

Team scaling

Tools

Kubernetes

Dynatrace

SQL Server

MongoDB

Ignite/Redis

React/Next.js

Job description

All the details

As part of the M&S Software Engineering team, you'll be joining a well-loved historic brand, working on solutions that serve millions of loyal customers and thousands of colleagues. This is an exciting time as we continue our transformation into a digital-first, engineering-led organisation, with technology playing a key role in delivering value across the business.

As a Software Engineering Manager, you'll combine people leadership, technical direction and delivery excellence to build high-performing teams, drive engineering standards and deliver scalable software solutions that support business outcomes.

A key focus of this role will be supporting the Fashion, Home & Beauty programme to decouple core business capabilities from SAP. As part of this transformation, you will lead the engineering activities required to build new backend services and evolve existing platforms, ensuring solutions are scalable, maintainable and aligned to M&S technology strategy.

What You'll Do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Lead and develop a high-performing software engineering team, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Oversee the delivery of software initiatives, ensuring solutions are aligned to business goals, customer needs, timelines and quality expectations.
• Drive engineering excellence by establishing strong technical standards, challenging solution design decisions and promoting modern software engineering practices.
• Ensure software solutions are secure, reliable, resilient and operationally effective, with quality, performance and maintainability built into delivery.
• Manage relationships with vendors, partners and stakeholders, holding them accountable for high-quality delivery and successful business outcomes.
• Act as the primary Engineering contact for the wider SAP Decoupling Programme, partnering closely with Product, Delivery and Business stakeholders to ensure successful outcomes.
• Work with Domain Architects and Solution Architects to design and deliver appropriate technical solutions that support business processes transitioning away from SAP.
• Form, scale and lead engineering teams responsible for building new services and modernising existing capabilities, leveraging both existing and new engineering resources.
• Ensure strong engineering maturity, adherence to M&S technology standards and the effective adoption of AI tooling across the software development lifecycle where appropriate.

Who You Are

Your skills and experience will include:

• Proven experience leading and developing high-performing software engineering teams, delivering scalable and high-quality software solutions.
• Strong software engineering background with experience across a range of technologies, architectures and distributed systems.
• Excellent understanding of software architecture, system design, cloud technologies, DevOps principles and engineering best practices.
• Strong people leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence both technical and non-technical audiences.
• A collaborative, servant-leadership approach with strong analytical and problem-solving skills, coupled with a focus on continuous improvement and ownership.
• Experience leading large-scale technology transformation initiatives, modernisation programmes or platform migrations across complex enterprise environments.
• Strong technical judgement with the ability to challenge architectural decisions, balance business priorities with technical requirements and drive pragmatic outcomes.

Tech Stack

The teams use a variety of technologies, including:

• Java, Spring, Spring Boot and Micronaut
• React, Next.js, TypeScript and Angular
• Azure Cloud, Kubernetes and Dynatrace
• SQL Server and MongoDB
• Ignite and Redis

Additional technologies for this programme are expected to include:

• Java and Micronaut
• Potential use of Kotlin for new backend service development

Desirable Experience

• Knowledge of the Retail domain, particularly around the Clothing Product Development and Planning lifecycle, would be highly advantageous.
• Experience delivering SAP modernisation, decomposition or decoupling programmes.
• Experience designing and delivering microservices architectures, API-first integrations and cloud-native backend services.

What's in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We're inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you've completed your probation.
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more.
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours.
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future.
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one.
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal.
• Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave.
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services.
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you.

Everyone's Welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We're disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’s transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

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