Software Engineering Discipline Lead

We continually strive to help our workforce achieve their professional and personal goals, engaging them in challenging and inspiring projects.

Key Accountabilities

• Workforce Capacity & Resource Arbitration: Managing the finite software engineering resource pool; deciding allocations and balancing priorities across project delivery, product development, and sustainment, including making conscious trade-offs regarding technical debt.
• Engineering Governance & Standards: Establishing and enforcing software development processes, quality benchmarks, and regulatory/safety compliance.
• Quality Assurance & Compliance: Accountable for driving the overall quality framework, robustness, and contractual compliance of software delivered by the discipline, operating under the technical and quality authority of the Chief Engineer - Hardware.
• Capability Development: Defining training matrices, career pathways, and recruitment strategies to scale the software engineering practice.
• Delivery Effectiveness: Accountable for the collective health, productivity, and output of the entire software engineering team.
• Line Management: Formal line management, performance evaluations, and leadership development for Software Team Leads.

Key Responsibilities

• Define, mandate, and rigorously enforce software engineering processes, technical standards, and frameworks, holding teams accountable for compliance and consistent application.
• Lead software resource planning and execute software resource arbitration across projects, products, and sustainment activities.
• Establish and maintain software verification, validation, and quality assurance practices to provide independent governance oversight across projects and products.
• Establish, monitor, and enforce software quality metrics (such as defect density, test coverage, and code quality benchmarks) to ensure high-quality software delivery.
• Conduct or delegate architecture and code reviews to ensure compliance with software engineering standards and architectural principles.
• Maintain visibility of software technical debt across products and projects, developing remediation and investment strategies for the Chief Engineer -Hardware.
• Manage the software engineering toolchains, version control, CI/CD pipelines, and licensing infrastructure required to support the software development lifecycle.
• Lead performance management, career progression, compensation reviews, and succession planning activities across the Software Discipline.

Key Attributes & Experience

• Degree in Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with proven experience in functional management or leading engineering teams.
• Extensive engineering experience across the product lifecycle in an engineering environment.
• Experience managing geographically distributed engineering teams across multiple physical sites.
• Familiarity with safety-critical software standards (e.g., DO-178C, DEF STAN 00-56) or secure systems development desirable.
• Registration on, or eligible to gain registration on the NER as a Professional Engineer is desirable.