Development Manager

The Development Manager will be responsible for a team of four, comprising a Lead Developer, a Software Engineer (React/React Native), a PHP/React Developer, and a Junior QA Tester, the role focuses on planning and prioritising workloads, scoping projects, governing testing cycles, and ensuring the consistent delivery of high-quality software.

Alongside managing project delivery, the Development Manager provides day-to-day leadership, mentoring, and support to the development team, fostering collaboration, continuous improvement, and individual development. The role requires sufficient technical knowledge to conduct meaningful code reviews, contribute to project scoping alongside the Lead Developer, and validate work before wider testing. It also oversees development governance, including change control, security monitoring and reporting, and the continuous improvement of CI/CD processes from a coordination and project management perspective.

Whilst the role includes leadership responsibility for the development team, formal HR line management experience is not essential. We welcome candidates with strong technical leadership skills who are looking to develop their people management capabilities, with the opportunity to take on formal line management responsibilities as the role evolves.

Key Responsibilities

Team & Delivery Management

• Own and manage the day-to-day workload and throughput of the development team, ensuring tasks are appropriately prioritised, allocated, and progressing.

• Organise and manage the full project lifecycle from scoping through to development, testing, and release.

• Coordinate developer capacity and testing cycles, including managing deployments into development environments to support the QA tester.

• Triage and manage incoming requests from internal teams and customers, including feature requests, issues, and development queries.

• Plan and manage sprint cycles and longer-term project planning, involving all relevant team members.

• Maintain project visibility systems, tracking project and task statuses, and produce progress reports for director-level review.

• Coordinate cross-discipline work where projects span multiple areas of the platform (e.g. mobile, PHP/back-end), ensuring dependencies are identified and managed.

Scoping & Technical Understanding

• Work closely with the Lead Developer to scope incoming projects, applying detailed technical thinking to requirements before development begins.

• Act as a technical gatekeeper - validating that development work meets requirements prior to handoff to wider QA testing cycles.

• Develop sufficient understanding of the Culverdocs platform and its multiple products to make informed scoping and allocation decisions.

• Lead on documenting technical requirements and assessing development and maintenance effort for larger projects, working alongside the Director and Lead Developer on commercial proposals and costings where required.

Process & Quality Improvement

• Drive best practice across all testing types - working closely with the junior QA tester to build structured and effective testing cycles.

• Identify and implement process improvements to build team efficiency and reduce issues across the development lifecycle.

• Improve and mature CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes over time.

• Implement and develop Agile methodologies, including sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.

Security & Compliance Coordination

• Monitor Snyk tooling for vulnerabilities, report on findings, and coordinate remediation tasks with the development team.

• Lead the coordination of penetration testing activities - including scoping engagements with third-party testers, tracking findings, and driving remediation to closure.

• Own change control processes, ensuring key changes are logged and tracked for internal compliance and monitoring purposes.

DevOps & Infrastructure Monitoring

• Support and contribute to the improvement of system monitoring and automated alerting capabilities, with the opportunity to take an increasing role in maturing DevOps practices as the business grows.

People & Team Development

• Mentor and support all members of the development team.

• Foster a collaborative, inclusive working environment that encourages knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Essential

• Proven experience in a software development role with a strong understanding of modern development practices.

• Demonstrable experience in a team lead, delivery management, or project management capacity within a software development environment.

• Strong time management and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and competing priorities.

• Technical proficiency sufficient to conduct meaningful code reviews and contribute to scoping - experience in PHP and/or JavaScript-based frameworks is advantageous.

• Solid understanding of Agile methodologies and experience running sprint cycles.

• Experience managing or coordinating QA and testing processes, including manual and automated testing approaches.

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and deployment practices.

• Experience with security tooling or coordinating vulnerability remediation (e.g. Snyk, penetration testing management).

• Comfortable working in a fast-moving, consultancy-led SaaS environment where priorities can shift.

Desirable

• Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services, including Cloud Run, Firebase, or BigQuery.

• Familiarity with React, React Native, or PHP/Laravel development environments.

• Experience contributing to commercial scoping, proposals, or effort estimation for client-facing development projects.

• Experience with project management or visibility tooling (e.g. Monday.com or similar).

Pulled from the full job description

• Free parking
• Company pension
• Casual dress
• On-site parking, We're proud of our supportive, open, and engaging culture and we like to have fun too. Alongside a competitive salary, we offer:
• Auto enrolment Pension Scheme.
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays.
• Healthcare cash back plan.
• Training and development opportunities.
• Hybrid working minimum of 2 days per week in-office for team collaboration.
• Free parking.
• Secure bike storage and shower facilities.
• Complimentary snacks and refreshments.
• Regular social events.
• Office dogs that love all the fuss and attention you can give!

Applicants must be based in the UK and have the right to work in the UK, this role is based in Swindon, Wiltshire, UK.

At Culverdocs, we equip businesses with innovative data capture solutions that transform paper-based process into efficient, digital solutions. Our mission is to deliver world class technology backed by dedicated support and expert guidance, ensuring our clients can seamlessly capture, process, and manage data in real-time. We strive to simplify all types of business data capture, automate reporting, and build lasting partnerships, helping businesses across industries streamline operations, reduce costs, and drive sustainable success.