Software Development Manager

The Role

We are looking for a Software Development Manager to lead and grow our engineering team. This is a hands‑on leadership role that blends people management, delivery ownership, and technical direction. You'll be responsible for the developers who build and maintain our e-commerce platforms, integrations, and data systems – setting the standards, shaping the roadmap, and making sure we ship reliable, scalable software at pace.

You'll manage a team of full‑stack and backend engineers, own delivery end‑to‑end, and remain close enough to the code to make sound architectural calls and unblock your team. You'll report to the CTO and work across a broad, integration‑dense stack spanning Shopify Plus, Node.js services, serverless, and a modern GCP/Big Query data platform.

• Mentor and line‑manage a team of full‑stack and backend engineers, owning their growth, performance, and development.
• Run regular 1:1s, set clear objectives, and give consistent, actionable feedback.
• Drive hiring – define roles, interview, and build a high‑performing, collaborative engineering culture.
• Manage team capacity, balance workloads, and protect focus time so the team can deliver sustainably.
• Own delivery of the engineering roadmap, translating business priorities into a clear, achievable plan.
• Run agile ceremonies (planning, stand‑ups, retrospectives) and keep work moving through the pipeline.
• Balance BAU, incident response, and project work, managing dependencies, risk, and trade‑offs.
• Report progress, blockers, and delivery forecasts clearly to the CTO and wider stakeholders.
• Guide architecture across e‑commerce platforms, internal tools, and data systems, ensuring reliability, performance, scalability, and security.
• Set direction for backend services and APIs (Node.js, REST/GraphQL), serverless functions, and microservices (AWS Lambda or equivalent).
• Oversee data infrastructure and pipelines across platforms such as Big Query, MongoDB, or PostgreSQL, ensuring efficient data models and performant queries.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards – code review culture, testing, CI/CD, and modern development workflows.
• Own the integration landscape connecting e‑commerce platforms, ERP, marketing, fulfilment, and third‑party services.
• Identify opportunities for automation and system improvement across the business, and turn them into delivered outcomes.
• Ensure integrations are robust, well‑tested, observable, and resilient as the business scales.
• Manage technical relationships with key vendors and platform partners.
• Work closely with e‑commerce, design, content, operations, data, and finance teams to deliver reliable systems and features.
• Translate business needs into technical delivery, and communicate technical concepts clearly to non‑technical stakeholders.
• Champion engineering best practice across the wider tech function.
• Stay technically credible – contribute to code, architecture, code reviews, and complex problem‑solving where it adds the most value.
• Lead by example, setting the bar for quality, pragmatism, and delivery.

• 5+ years in software engineering, with 2+ years leading or line‑managing engineers, ideally within retail, e‑commerce, or high‑traffic digital environments.
• Proven people leadership – mentoring, performance management, and hiring high‑performing teams.
• Strong hands‑on background with Node.js or similar backend technologies in production.
• Experience designing and building APIs (REST or GraphQL) and integrating with third‑party systems.
• Hands‑on experience with serverless architectures (AWS Lambda or equivalent).
• Experience with databases and data platforms such as MongoDB, Big Query, PostgreSQL, or similar.
• Solid grounding in CI/CD pipelines, version control (Git), and modern development workflows.
• A track record of delivering software in an agile environment – planning, prioritising, and shipping reliably.
• Comfortable balancing hands‑on technical work with the demands of leading a team.

• Experience with Shopify (Plus) platform integrations or Shopify Liquid.
• Experience across multi‑brand, multi‑market, or multi‑entity technology estates.
• Familiarity with the GCP ecosystem…