Software Developer Team Lead - 12 Month FTC

About the CompanyAt IMSERV, we're proud to be one of the UK's leading energy data and metering specialists. We deliver award-winning services to customers across the country, providing specialist metering technology for electricity, gas and water, alongside highly accurate energy data collection services.About the RoleThe purpose of the role is to lead the software engineering function for the Astral platform, taking ownership of the people, delivery, engineering standards, and ongoing development of the platform. This includes taking immediate responsibility for delivery across the current offshore and partner setup, establishing the cadence, estimation, and release discipline required to make delivery more predictable.The role will also focus on raising engineering standards across documentation, testing, CI/CD, environment management, and release processes to ensure the platform can withstand external technical due diligence while maintaining delivery pace. A key focus will be reducing key-person dependency by ensuring knowledge, processes, and technical decisions are properly documented and embedded across the team.The role will establish IMSERV's own engineering capability, develop a clear plan to reduce reliance on external partners, work closely with the Technical Architect to progress Astral towards a multi-tenant, API-first architecture, and ultimately leave behind a robust, well-documented and sustainable engineering operation that can continue effectively without the post-holder.ResponsibilitiesTake ownership of the delivery cadence across the partner teams.Deliver the agreed programme milestones, including progress toward the multi-tenant, API-first architecture with the Technical Architect.Stand up IMSERV's own engineering capability alongside the partners: hire against an agreed plan, structure the team into cross-functional squads, and progressively bring critical knowledge and control in-house to cut key-person risk.Establish a delivery function (scrum and delivery management) rather than personally remaining the only person holding cadence together, and leave a documented, sustainable operation and a recruitment and operating plan for a permanent team or successor.Run and mature agile practice (planning, stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives); unblock teams and manage dependencies and the critical path.Provide honest, evidence-based delivery reporting to leadership, including realistic forecasts and early escalation of risk.Lead, manage, and develop the engineering team across full-stack, data, and cloud/DevOps disciplines.Hire and build IMSERV's in-house engineering capability, and manage the transition from partner-led to blended delivery.Manage IMSERV's offshore development and support partners as an effective, accountable extension of the team, including quality, SLAs, and onboarding to full operation.Run the Astral platform end to end: the portal, the API tier, data orchestration and rules engines.Set and enforce engineering standards: documentation, code review, automated testing, CI/CD, environment management, and release discipline.Balance new features against technical debt and platform investment, and keep the platform reliable, secure, scalable, and cost-controlled in production.Embed AI coding tools into daily practice with appropriate review and quality controls, and take the platform's AI features into production reliably.Partner with the Product Owner to translate product priorities into a well-formed, estimated backlog with clear acceptance criteria.Bring engineering judgement to scope and sequencing decisions, protecting MVP integrity and flagging scope, cost, and timeline trade-offs early.What you'll needKnowledge & QualificationsTrack record leading software engineering delivery for a live SaaS product, ideally through a re-platforming or single-tenant to multi-tenant transition.Genuinely hands-on technical credibility in the stack (C#/.NET, Angular, Azure), sufficient to set standards and earn the team's respect, without being the person who must write the code.Proven delivery leadership in an agile environment: has personally gripped an under-performing or under-planned delivery and made it predictable.Experience managing offshore and/or third-party delivery partners, and building an in-house team from a partner-led starting point.Strong product partnership instincts: comfortable shaping and sizing a backlog with a Product Owner and holding the line on scope.Evidence of raising engineering discipline (testing, CI/CD, documentation, release management) in a real organisation, not just advocating for it.Comfortable with a time-boxed, fixed-term remit: able to grip quickly, deliver within the term, and hand over a durable, well-documented operation rather than leaving the organisation dependent on them.SkillsModern delivery practice: CI/CD, automated testing and DevOps culture, with evidence of raising these where they were weak without killing delivery pace.Practical, current use of AI coding assistants, and a working understanding of what shipping LLM-backed product features involves: evaluation, cost and safety.Able to lead remote and distributed engineers effectively.Credible in code review and architecture discussions; comfortable as the technical escalation point.Commercially minded: prioritises customer and business outcomes.Benefits28 days' holiday plus Bank HolidaysBuy & sell annual leave schemeUp to a 10% bonusEnhanced salary sacrifice pensionLife assurance (up to 6x salary*)Simply Health plan (with upgrade options)Car salary sacrifice scheme*(*Length of service and T&Cs apply)Equal Opportunity StatementAt IMSERV, we're committed to building a team where everyone feels valued, respected and able to do their best work. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences and communities. A diverse team brings fresh perspectives, strengthens collaboration and helps us deliver the best possible service to our customers.If you're interested in the role but don't meet every single requirement, we'd still encourage you to apply.(Please note that we reserve the right to close this position before the expiry date.)TPBN1_UKTJ