Director of Software Development

An exciting new opportunity with a high-growth B2B SaaS business scaling a complex, customer-facing platform used at significant volume. With continued investment in engineering, tooling, and leadership, they're looking for a Director of Software Development to help evolve and scale their engineering organisation.

This role suits someone who came up through software engineering, understands modern development at depth, and now leads through strong principles, clear thinking, and trust rather than command-and-control.

The Role

You'll own the end-to-end software development operation, leading a small group of Software Development Managers who manage 40-50 engineers across development, DevOps, and QA.

Engineering leadership is UK-based, alongside the build-out of a new technology hub in South Africa, giving you the opportunity to shape a distributed, high-performing engineering organisation.

This isn't a role for someone stepping away from engineering, it's for someone who still cares deeply about how software is built, even at senior leadership level.

What You'll Be Responsible For

• Owning delivery, quality, and scalability across the development function.
• Embedding modern DevOps practices as part of development - CI/CD, automation, small batch delivery, and fast feedback.
• Driving continuous improvement using metrics and meaningful engineering KPIs.
• Improving developer productivity through better tooling, process, and engineering discipline.
• Leading and developing managers, creating consistency while allowing teams autonomy.
• Partnering closely with the CTO on technology strategy, platform evolution, and future capability.
• Balancing delivery pressure with sustainable, high-quality engineering., * Modern tech stack, robust engineering processes, and clear growth ambitions.
• Remote-first culture with purposeful collaboration.
• Opportunity to shape engineering culture at scale, not just maintain it.

If you're managing managers, scaling teams, and want to do it in an environment that values engineering quality and long-term thinking, I'd be keen to talk.

• 3+ years in a senior engineering leadership role (Director, Head of Engineering, VP, or Senior Engineering Manager).
• Strong technical background, having progressed from hands-on software engineering.
• Proven experience managing managers and scaling engineering teams.
• Comfortable leading distributed and offshore teams.
• Deep understanding of modern & mature software development and DevOps practices.
• Analytical, pragmatic, and outcome-focused; with the credibility to engage at both strategic and technical levels.

Why This Role

• Senior leadership position with genuine influence and ownership.

Spectrum IT Recruitment (South) Limited is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy., Established in 2008, Spectrum IT is a leading Software and Technology specific recruitment agency, providing permanent and contract IT resource for businesses. Our team of around 30 employees are based on the University of Southampton Science Park, a key hub for technology on the South Coast. Who We Can Help Spectrum IT works with a wide cross section of businesses, from start-ups to multinationals. 95% of placements are within Software focused businesses, or where Software is key to the business model. Typically, around 200 different businesses are supported annually, with more than 900 candidates placed. How We Work We bring together talented IT professionals with businesses of all sizes. Our extensive experience can help your business with single hires right through to building large software development project teams of 50+. Regular engagement with the IT community enables us to keep up to date with the ever-changing IT landscape.