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:
Hands-On Development & Technical Leadership
- 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.
Testing & Quality Assurance
- 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.
Team Build & Day-to-Day Management
- 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.
Operational Handover & Support
- 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.
What our Shoal needs:
- 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.
What We Offer:
- 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!
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