Development Manager

Vitality, Development Manager (Core Systems), Bournemouth, £Competitive + Bonus + Benefits

Vitality is an award winning, dynamic and vibrant financial services provider, with a ground-breaking vision for the future, where individuals are enabled to succeed and are rewarded and recognised for their contribution to our business.

In exchange for your hard work and commitment to Vitality in this Development Manager (Core Systems) role, we have designed a generous benefits package to reward our employees, this includes; 

- Bonus
- A genuine long-term opportunity to grow and establish a long-term career
- Our award winning private medical insurance 
- A comprehensive flexible benefits scheme
- Stakeholder Pension Plan with employer contribution
- Vitality Partners and Rewards

As our Development Manager (Core Systems) you will oversee the software development function for a suite of applications, bringing best practices to continuously improve the quality of work delivered through improved processes, standards and tools used for software delivery; to work with Service & Operations to set-up and evolve a continuous integration delivery approach including automated deployment of software into production. To provide expertise, technical authority and guidance whilst taking active ownership for the quality of development teams work.

Responsibilities as our Development Manager (Core Systems) include:

- Advocate quality through the use of best practice techniques and tools for development teams
- Establish and maintain standards and good practices for software development
- Track, manage availability of capacity and skills within the team
- Delivery against Product Plans that are aligned with the Group Architecture and Design Authority
- Using your agile experience, Provide forecast sprint plans of scope and time for project and product enhancements, with progress reporting through burn up charts
- Ensure all sprint ceremonies are appropriately represented from the Dev team to achieve outcomes, including scrum of scrums across application teams
- Advocate good practice software engineering practices (e.g.TDD and BDD, continuous integration, automated tests, pair programming, code reviews)
- Encourage technical collaboration across software development teams and driving the
teams to deliver on time and to the best achievable code quality
- Support Senior Developers by providing technical advice and guidance on development practices
- Embed a culture of agile working and continuous improvement across developers and testers, encouraging simplicity, efficiency, ownership and accountability

Skills and Experience required of our Development Manager (Core Systems):

- Track record of successfully delivering large or complex product / projects, with significant software development components through the full lifecycle
- Proven ability in leading, managing and growing development teams, developing good practices and driving continuous improvement in performance
- Knowledge of design and architecture concepts (i.e. microservices) and ability to apply knowledge within the development cycle
- Understanding of engineering principles and the application and execution within an insurance environment, e.g. pair programming, code reviews
- Good knowledge of software engineering practices including: BDD, TDD, continuous delivery and integration, full automation
- Understanding of agile development principles
- Financial Services experience is desirable but not essential (Desirable)
- Experience of transitioning or hybrid operating Models from Waterfall to Agile (Desirable)

Working for Vitality as a Development Manager (Core Systems) you'll experience an exciting mix of creativity and innovation, within a framework of challenging objectives and a passion for delivering the best. 

Our people are chosen for their skills, knowledge, enthusiasm and attitude but above all, their belief that anything can be achieved.

Closing Date: Wednesday 13th June 2018

If you feel you have the skills and experience to become our Development Manager (Core Systems) please click ‘apply’ today.