Senior / Lead Developer - Mercator Digital

What we’re looking for

We are seeking a skilled and motivated Lead Software Developer to join our dynamic team. In this crucial role, you will lead a group of developers, fostering a collaborative environment and guiding them towards excellence. Your responsibilities include overseeing project execution, providing technical expertise, and ensuring code quality. As a mentor and coach, you will nurture professional growth, encourage innovative thinking, and facilitate skill development. Your leadership will drive the team’s success, enabling the delivery of high-quality software solutions for our clients.

Mercator Lead Developers perform a critical role in our technical teams. They build solutions that intrinsically meet end-user requirements and ensure the product being developed is aligned with their needs whilst delivering business value. You yourself may also be situated on a key client project and supporting other developers who aren’t your immediate reports.

Job type

Full time, permanent. We encourage those who may need a more agile approach to the structure of their working day to apply; we are always willing to discuss flexible options where we can.

Location

You’ll be expected to travel to our customer’s site and potentially sites UK wide; working from client/office/home locations as appropriate.

As Lead Software Developer in Mercator you will:

Report to the Chief Technology Officer, providing key operational information about projects and collective updates on developers’ performance.
Help nurture our thriving development community, working closely with our Community Manager.
Evangelise software development and promote best practice across all our technical teams.
Provide essential support, coaching and mentoring to other developers.
Continuously monitor and assess the skills and capabilities of our developers and suggesting appropriate interventions to help them grow and mature in their roles.
Participate in the wider technical communities of service (inside and outside of Mercator), building relationships, sharing agile best practice and knowledge.
Build resilience and responsiveness in the organisation by being open and honest about risks and challenges and the actions required to address unexpected developments.
Keep continually abreast of changes to user habits, preferences and behaviours across various digital platforms and their implications for successful delivery of digital services.
Assist the Senior Leadership Team with bids and tenders.

Within our clients you will:

Work with the client team to create and deliver outstanding digital services that meet well-defined user needs.
Work with the Product Manager to develop the overall technical construct of the product being developed.
Use agile methodologies and handle near-term and long-term priorities, work with your Agile Delivery Manager/Scrum Master to maximise visibility of those plans and enable your team to release frequent service improvements that deliver real value for users.
Direct the development of user-driven prototypes to test potential new features with users to explore potential improvements to existing products.
Prioritise and maintain the product backlog, collaborating with Business Analysts and Developers to create and refine user stories that deliver service improvements for users.
Ensure that you maximise take-up of your digital service, identifying and meeting assisted digital requirements.

Knowledge/experience

You will need:

Practical experience of user centred design and user needs analysis.
Proven ability to challenge and remove any unnecessary barriers to service delivery.
Demonstrable understanding of the digital landscape and the opportunities for service improvement and innovation offered by digital technology.
Proven ability to manage stakeholders, prioritising and managing business expectations and requirements.
Strong negotiation skills and the proven ability to influence external partners, stakeholders and customers to secure mutually beneficial outcomes.
Demonstrable experience of current agile project management practices
Ability to apply critical thinking and drive creativity and innovation across our technical teams.
Experience of open source and cloud platforms.
Experience of working in fixed time variable scope projects.
Experience in the design, delivery and operational management of high quality, user-focused digital services in Government Digital Data & Technology is desirable.