Software Engineering Team Lead

DTC | A Codan Company; Whiteley; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

DTC | A Codan Company is seeking a Software Engineering Team Lead in the United Kingdom to guide a team delivering SDR software. The role combines hands-on development with mentoring, architecture direction, and delivery ownership in a security-conscious, high‑reliability context.

You will align with product, operations, and business stakeholders to ensure timely, high-quality releases while promoting best practices and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Experience in embedded environments and software delivery within a team.
• Proven ability to lead technical delivery in software teams.
• Proficiency with modern software practices, design, testing, CI/CD, and secure development.
• Ability to communicate complex topics clearly to diverse audiences.
• Strong problem-solving and pragmatic judgment.
• Experience mentoring engineers in a collaborative setting.
• Awareness of reliability, observability, incident response, and performance.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a software engineering team of engineers.
• Own delivery of features from planning to release.
• Provide technical direction on design, architecture, and coding standards.
• Collaborate with Product, QA, DevOps, and stakeholders to translate priorities into plans.
• Break down work into clear tasks with estimates and acceptance criteria.
• Contribute hands-on coding, testing, and debugging as needed.
• Review code and designs for quality, security, and maintainability.
• Identify risks and blockers and manage dependencies.
• Promote agile practices and transparent progress reporting.
• Ensure solutions meet business and operational needs.

Skills

C

C++

VHDL

MATLAB

Python

GitHub

GitLab

Embedded software

Technical leadership

CI/CD

Code review

Secure development

Automated testing

Source control

Software design

Communication

Problem solving

Mentoring

Reliability

Observability

Incident response

Performance

Supportability

SDLC

Tools

GitHub

GitLab

Job description

Title: Software Engineering Team Lead
Date: 26 Aug 2026
Location: United Kingdom, Whiteley, Hampshire, GB

Who We Are

DTC, a Codan Company, is a leading provider of advanced communications technology supporting defence, security, and mission-critical operations worldwide. As part of Codan Limited, an international technology company with a long-standing reputation for delivering trusted communications solutions, DTC combines specialist engineering expertise with global resources to develop and support products that perform in the world's most demanding operational environments.

Serving customers across Europe and internationally, DTC delivers secure communications capabilities that enable defence forces, government agencies, public safety organizations, and critical infrastructure operators to achieve reliable, resilient, and effective communications. Our solutions are designed to meet the evolving requirements of modern operations, where performance, interoperability, and operational readiness are essential.

Innovation, technical excellence, and customer partnership are central to our approach. We work closely with government, defence, and industry partners to develop technologies that address emerging operational challenges while meeting rigorous quality, security, and regulatory standards.

As part of the Codan Group, employees benefit from the strength of a global organisation while contributing within a focused, agile business dedicated to delivering advanced communications solutions. We are committed to fostering a professional environment that values expertise, collaboration, integrity, and continuous improvement.

Joining DTC offers the opportunity to work alongside experienced professionals on technologies that support national security, defence modernisation, and critical communications capabilities throughout Europe and around the world. We seek individuals who are motivated by technical excellence, innovation, and the opportunity to contribute to solutions that have a meaningful operational impact.

Role Summary

The Software Engineering Team Lead is responsible for guiding a team of software engineers to deliver high-quality, reliable, and maintainable SDR software. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role that combines engineering expertise, delivery ownership, mentoring, and collaboration with product, operations, and business stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, support, and mentor a team of software engineers, helping them grow technically and professionally.
• Own the delivery of software features, improvements, and technical initiatives from planning through to release.
• Provide technical direction for the team, including design decisions, architecture alignment, coding standards, and engineering best practices.
• Work closely with Product Managers, Engineering Managers, QA, DevOps, and other stakeholders to understand priorities and translate them into achievable engineering plans.
• Break down complex work into clear, well-scoped tasks with realistic estimates, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Contribute hands‑on to software development where appropriate, including design, coding, testing, debugging, and troubleshooting.
• Review code and technical designs to ensure quality, maintainability, performance, security, and scalability.
• Identify and manage technical risks, delivery blockers, dependencies, and opportunities to reduce technical debt.
• Promote agile engineering practices, including sprint planning, daily stand‑ups, retrospectives, continuous improvement, and transparent progress reporting.
• Ensure the team builds solutions that meet business needs, customer expectations, operational requirements, and agreed engineering standards.
• Provide expertise into the software development process

Required Skills And Experience

• Strong experience in software engineering, typically gained through several years of hands‑on development in commercial embedded environments
• Proven ability to lead technical delivery within a software engineering team.
• Strong knowledge of modern software development practices, including software design, automated testing, CI/CD, source control, code review, and secure development.
• Ability to communicate complex technical topics clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong problem‑solving skills, sound engineering judgement, and the ability to make pragmatic trade‑offs.
• Experience mentoring engineers and creating an inclusive, collaborative, and high‑performing team environment.
• Understanding of operational considerations such as reliability, observability, incident response, performance, and supportability.
• Experience in some or preferable all of the following C, C++, VHDL, MATLAB, Python, Git Hub and Git lab
• Full Software Development Lifecycle experience from requirements capture to Final test.

Desirable Skills

• Experience leading distributed, hybrid, or cross-functional engineering teams.
• Experience of working in embedded communication platforms such as Software Defined Radios (SDRs) would be desirable but not essential
• Experience improving engineering practices, development processes, tooling, or team ways of working.
• Familiarity with architectural decision records, technical roadmaps, service ownership models, or platform engineering concepts.
• Experience supporting recruitment, onboarding, performance development and progression planning for engineers.

Success Measures

• The team delivers predictable, high-quality software aligned to agreed priorities and commitments.
• Technical solutions are maintainable, secure, scalable, and aligned with engineering standards.Engineers receive clear guidance, constructive feedback, and opportunities to grow.
• Delivery risks, blockers, and dependencies are identified early and communicated transparently.
• The team continuously improves its engineering practices, collaboration, and delivery effectiveness.