Development Manager

Hours: 35 hours per week (Monday to Friday)

Salary: up to £55,000 per annum

Join the Shoal at Weird Fish!

We are a talented and Dynamic team who work hard and represent the retail lifestyle brand we love. We offer something different from the norm, a sense of fun, an eye for practicality and plenty of style and quality. We are looking for a passionate individual to join the team, to help us grow and shape the exciting journey we are on.

We are seeking a talented Development Manager to join our IT department. You will be a hands-on technical leader responsible for designing, building, and delivering data and IT innovation solutions across the business.

This role combines active software development with leadership responsibilities, including building a new development team, setting technical standards, and managing delivery. The Development Manager will spend a significant proportion of their time writing code, deploying infrastructure, and directly supporting solution delivery using Node.js and Microsoft Azure, particularly Azure Functions.

Your key areas of focus:

• Act as a lead developer, taking ownership of core solutions and complex technical work.
• Design, develop, and maintain applications and services using Node.js.
• Build, deploy, and maintain Azure infrastructure, with a strong focus on Azure Functions and cloud-native services.
• Define and enforce coding standards, architecture patterns, and best practices.
• Carry out code reviews and provide hands-on technical guidance to the team.
• Lead the delivery of the IT and data innovation programme through direct technical contribution.
• Work closely with end users to understand requirements and translate them into working solutions.
• Manage priorities, timelines, and technical dependencies across multiple initiatives.

• Implement and maintain unit testing frameworks and standards across all developments.
• Lead and actively participate in User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Ensure solutions are production-ready, well-documented, and fully tested prior to release.

• Recruit, build, and develop a new development team from the ground up.
• Line manage developers and data analysts, providing mentoring and hands-on support.
• Set practical ways of working suited to a small, fast-moving development team.
• Manage and coordinate the work of external subcontractors and consultancies.
• Act as the technical lead when working with third parties, reviewing and assuring their outputs.
• Communicate technical solutions clearly to non-technical stakeholders.

• Lead the handover of solutions to IT Operations, including documentation and knowledge transfer.
• Provide second-line support to IT Operations for developed solutions.
• Support continuous improvement and ongoing optimisation of live systems.

• Proven experience in a hands-on lead developer role.
• Demonstrable experience designing and deploying solutions on Microsoft Azure, particularly Azure Functions.
• Experience deploying cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, and modern development practices.
• Strong understanding of unit testing, release management, and UAT processes.
• Experience mentoring developers and leading small technical teams.
• Experience managing internal teams and external development partners.
• Comfortable working in a greenfield environment and building a new team from scratch.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with a pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset.

• Opportunities for professional growth and skill development.
• Ability to have input and impact in our organisation.
• A collaborative and supportive team environment.
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays. Annual leave entitlement increases with length of service increments.
• 50% employee discount on full price items.

If you are passionate about Development Management and have the skills and experience, we’re looking for, we’d love to hear from you!