Job Description:
From day one, our mission has been to create an independent business with a unique culture – one that is controlled by the people who work for it. Finding the most talented and entrepreneurial people has always been key to our success.
People come to Howden Group Holdings for lots of different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. That’s what sets us apart, and why we nurture and retain the best talent in the market. Whatever your priorities – work/life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering - you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden Group.
ROLE PROFILE:
xTrade Head of Software Engineering
WHO WILL THIS PERSON TYPICALLY REPORT TO?:
MD, xTrade
ROLE PURPOSE:
- To lead the xTrade software engineering team of around 40 FTEs (both onshore and offshore) including five direct reports, focused on performant and secure digital trading solutions for global specialty insurance
- To collaborate with architects to define the technical vision and strategy relating to application builds, platform development, API/event framework and service-oriented architecture
- To define software development methodologies as part of the xTrade SDLC and ensure adherence to agreed process
- To actively anticipate potential future risks and act to prevent them or to mitigate their effects
- To define and maintain the xTrade security posture
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
Planning and Strategy:
- Leads Agile software delivery capability, including structure and process optimisation and planning across number of simultaneous projects
- Ability to articulate technical solutions to business stakeholders in a compelling way
- Owner of delivery capability strategy across all software engineering and QA, including resourcing blend, skills, metrics, capacity management etc.
- Helps to ensure that capabilities remain fit for purpose and able to meet and exceed future demands
- Manages demand pipeline, engineering schedule, budget and resource allocation
- Accountable and responsible for QA, including defining structure and managing function
Technical:
- Sets the technical standards across the team for software design and development for all xTrade software applications
- Develops and manages sophisticated web applications and integration layers utilising standard and emerging development tools
- Aligns the development approach with the overall xTrade architecture strategy
- Drives improvements in development practice
- Ensures the operational support and monitoring is in place for live running of services working closely with Operations Teams
- Provides technical consultation and expertise to Account Management, Product and other functions including to help effort estimate engineering tasks
- Strong appreciation of the importance of UX/UI design and front-end implementation, which are strategically important differentiators for xTrade
- Practical experience of implementing event-driven architecture
- Ready to provide hands-on technical input
- Reviews all documents related to Product requirements and participates in product brainstorming sessions
- Interacts with the delivery team to help to ensure successful delivery of each sprint iteration and product release and leads retrospective reviews
- Ensures that SDLC is efficient and as strategically aligned as possible
- Meets data and security compliance regulations as part of application design and implementation
- Keeps up to date with latest technologies and applying them when appropriate
- Attains optimal team performance through removing technical obstacles
- Oversees code creation, deployment and release, using best practices framework
- Maintains a level of excellence across the team regarding standards and style guides
- Puts in place processes which ensure code and infrastructure best practice security, with at least OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities covered
- Put in place processes which ensure data/input is properly validated and handled.
- Put in place processes which ensure response times and query performance is optimal and meets any performance requirements
- Ensure that applications are optimised for scalability
Software Engineering - Stack
- PHP/Laravel framework
- Event-driven Node.js micro services
- Strong responsive HTML5/CSS3 + CSS pre-processing (LESS/SASS)
- Strong JavaScript (AngularJS/Vue.js/Vuetify)
- Strong git version control
- SPA architecture
- Implement applications for use on multiple devices
- RESTful APIs and related infrastructure (APIM, Apigee, etc)
- Consuming APIs / web services
- Bootstrap
- Data Visualisation
- Unit Testing (JUnit or similar)
- NPM, Grunt, Bower, Webpack etc
- LEMP
- Manages SQL and NoSQL databases (MySQL/SQL Server/CosmosDB)
KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE
- Experience of working as a Lead Software Engineer or similar role (preferably at least 5 years)
- Has worked in a variety of industries/sectors
- Demonstrable experience in the entire web application development process including design, development and deployment
- Experience of working in Agile project environment
- Experience of reviewing existing processes and leading improvement activities
- Experience decomposing monoliths into microservices and/or general strong microservices experience
- Good working experience of building and managing APIs
- Experience transitioning tech stacks efficiently and effectively
- Experience of implementing effective TDD
(London Market) insurance experience advantage but not requirement
- Previous working with Azure would be an advantage
- Experience of creating automated pipelines for deploying code
- PHP – experience with MVC frameworks (e.g. Laravel)
- Working with external partner technology teams and managing blended teams of Howden and 3rd party staff
SKILLS/BEHAVIOURS
- Self-motivated and service oriented
- Able to translate customer needs into a functional and attractive digital environment, ensuring a great user experience
- Able to react positively to change
- Good attention to detail with ability to produce accurate solutions
- Strong approach to creating and documenting processes
- Able to work effectively in a team
- Able to work to deadlines. Will be flexible when required
- Ability to build strong and productive working relationships with other internal and external functions to deliver an effective end-to-end engineering process
- Understanding of database creation, integration, and management: relational + non-relational
- Familiar with unit testing
- Working knowledge of CMS frameworks
- API creation and integration knowledge
QUALIFICATIONS
- Able to demonstrate from previous work or Degree-level education in related subject (software engineering, web development, computing, etc.) or equivalent proven commercial experience
What do we offer in return?
A career that you define.
Yes, we offer all the usual rewards and benefits - including great healthcare provision, a wide variety of wellbeing offers, competitive salary, generous pensions and more - but we know you expect all that.
What you might not expect is a job where everyone has a voice, where volunteering in the community is part of the day job, and where everyone is encouraged to play a part towards our sustainability goals. We want people who want to make a difference - not just in the workplace, but in the industry and in the wider community.
Our Culture: People First
We are proud to be at the global table, but we are most proud of our culture. It has been built on a single and constant set of principles over more than 25 years, and it has helped us become:
An international group with independence and people at its heart
A home for talent with a unique culture: the biggest small company in the world
The focus on being a People First business has always been at the very heart of the Group. David’s vision was to create an independent business with a unique culture; one that would survive and thrive as a business controlled by the people working for it. Finding the most talented and entrepreneurial people to join the Group has been and will continue to be key.
Diversity & Inclusion
At Howden Group Holdings we consider our people our chief competitive advantage and as such we treat colleagues, candidates, clients, and business partners with equality, fairness and respect, regardless of their age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or family circumstances.
