Head of Development

Head of Development ¦ Hybrid (onsite 1-2 days a month)¦ £80-85k + Benefits

Xpertise has been retained by a leading technology‑driven organisation to support the search for a Head of Development. This is a pivotal leadership role, responsible for driving engineering excellence, shaping technical strategy across AWS and Azure platforms, and leading high‑performing development teams to deliver secure, scalable and innovative products.

Reporting directly into senior technology leadership, you will combine hands‑on technical expertise with people leadership, setting the standards for modern engineering practices and backend architecture. This is an exciting opportunity to influence the future technical direction of the business and deliver real impact through high‑quality software delivery.

• Provide overall technical and people leadership for the development function, creating a culture of accountability, learning and continuous improvement.
• Lead the end‑to‑end product development lifecycle, from concept and design through to delivery and live operation.
• Define and own backend architecture, with a strong focus on AWS‑hosted, cloud‑native solutions and scalable microservices.
• Act as a hands‑on technical leader, offering guidance on Java (17+), Spring Boot, RESTful APIs and event‑driven architectures.
• Champion engineering best practice, including TDD, code quality, automation and API standards.
• Oversee containerised deployments (Docker) and CI/CD pipelines within AWS environments.
• Collaborate with Product, Architecture, Dev Ops and QA to ensure delivery meets business and customer needs.
• Mentor engineers and technical leads, conducting code reviews and supporting career development.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and cloud services, driving innovation with pragmatic adoption.

• Proven experience leading backend engineering teams within agile, product‑led environments.
• Strong technical background in Java and AWS, with experience delivering cloud‑native services.
• Deep understanding of Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices and API lifecycle management.
• Strong advocate of TDD and automated testing practices.
• Experience with Docker and CI/CD pipelines, ideally hosted within AWS.
• Solid understanding of HTTP, JSON, API versioning and modern integration patterns.
• Comfortable working with senior stakeholders, translating business objectives into meaningful technical direction.

• Authentic, inspiring leadership style with a passion for developing people and teams.
• Excellent problem‑solving and analytical skills.
• High attention to detail, quality and continuous improvement.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in fast‑paced, agile environments.