Software Development Manager
Your next challenge?
Our software helps vets treat patients, researchers run studies and students learn their profession. We're looking for someone to lead the team behind it.
About the role
The Royal Veterinary College develops, integrates and supports the digital systems that underpin clinical care, research and teaching across our university and hospitals. As Software Development Manager, you'll lead a small, experienced team of developers and a UI/UX designer, and act as product owner for the systems the team looks after, whether built in-house or delivered by our partners.
This is a role with real breadth. One day you might be working through a release plan with clinicians, the next reviewing an architecture decision or pairing with a developer on a tricky integration. You'll have the autonomy to shape how the team plans, builds and ships, and the backing to grow it.
What you'll be doing
Product ownership
- Set the vision and roadmap for the systems in the team's care, making sure they deliver what the College needs
- Spend time with the people who use our systems, understand how they work, and turn that into clear, prioritised work for the team
- Plan releases and deployments, and keep stakeholders informed with clear, regular reporting
- Help appraise new products and platforms, bringing recommendations to IT groups and project boards on feasibility, risk and opportunity
Leading the team
- Line manage and support a team of three
- Set technical direction and champion modern engineering practice across testing, code review, CI/CD and documentation
- Choose and embed the tools that help the team plan and deliver, such as Jira or Azure DevOps
- Explore how AI tools can support the team's work, and help colleagues use them well
Staying hands-on
- Design and build software in ASP.NET Core, C# and SQL Server
- Design and maintain integrations between our own systems, third-party platforms and SaaS products, using APIs and message-based architectures
- Lead on incidents, making sure what we learn shapes what we build next
What you'll bring
Essential
- Experience leading or line managing a software team
- Experience as a product owner, or in a similar role bridging users, stakeholders and developers
- Confidence building roadmaps, planning releases and reporting to non-technical audiences
- Strong commercial experience with ASP.NET Core, C# and SQL Server
- Experience building integrations using RESTful APIs and message-based architectures
- Good working knowledge of Git, automated testing and CI/CD
- A clear communicator who can explain technical decisions simply and represent users' needs to developers
Desirable
- Experience with Jira, Azure DevOps or similar delivery tooling
- Experience integrating or working with SaaS platforms and their suppliers
- Practical experience of AI-assisted development
- Angular, TypeScript, NgRx and RxJS
- Ionic and Capacitor
- Docker
- SignalR or other real-time technologies
- Event sourcing, CQRS or Elasticsearch
- Experience in a university, hospital, laboratory or clinical setting
Why join us
Your work will directly support animal care, veterinary education and research at one of the world's leading veterinary schools. It's a small team, so you'll have real autonomy and see the tangible difference your decisions make.
We also offer a working life that leaves room for everything else:
- A nominal 35-hour working week
- 30 days annual leave, plus bank holidays and 3-4 additional days when the University closes over Christmas
- Membership of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), one of the UK's most generous pension schemes with a current 14.5% employer contribution and 6.1% employee contribution (20.6% combined rate)
- Hybrid working, supporting a healthy work-life balance
Working arrangements
This is a hybrid role based at our Hawkshead Campus in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. Occasional out-of-hours or weekend support may be needed if one of our systems has an incident.
How to apply
Apply through our website. For an informal conversation about the role, contact Jenny Wilshaw at jwilshaw@rvc.ac.uk.
We promote equality of opportunity and diversity within the workplace and welcome applications from all sections of the community.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. We therefore encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.
