Head of Development Department

Specific-Group Software Solutions is an International software development company, delivering custom software solutions for enterprise clients in Europe. Our development centers are located in Austria, Germany, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Spain. Our primary focus & areas of expertise is financial domain. We deliver our solutions according to the latest technical standards for different industries and sectors, using new technologies and modern approaches.

Currently, we are searching for Head of Development to join our team.

Responsibilities:

• Improve quality of SPG services by applying continuous technical & architecture governance, developing standards & processes, implementing the best engineering practices, technologies and tools for effective use on projects;

• Optimize company standards by defining reusable solutions to be applied across all projects;

• Increase effectiveness of subordinates by encouraging continuous skills improvement (Webinars, Training Courses, Knowledge sharing sessions);

• Organize regular 1to1 sessions to manage individual Personal Development Plans;

• Support ongoing SPG pre-sales by defining technology stack, creating solution design documentation, system-level architecture diagrams, defining delivery phases, providing estimations, tracking risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies;

• Support HR team in staffing process in cooperation with PMs & COO – identifying project demands, defining required competencies, driving interviews, evaluating know-how and seniority level of candidates, providing actionable feedback;

• Align engineering standards across all SPG Nearshore locations, provide comprehensive information and instructions to all departments;

• Analyze technology, industry, market trends and keep up-to-date with those trends;

• Control and coordinate Team/Tech Leads on projects technology environment, toolkits, methodologies, artifacts, libraries and propose improvements;

• Ensure deliverables are in compliance with architecture and specifications by driving regular Architecture review, provide architectural recommendations and guidance for TLs, developers;

• Organize efficient communication channels and collaboration between Development and Quality Assurance, Business Analysis, Project Management Units;

• Take responsibility for estimation process using different techniques to guarantee preciseness, create work/feature-breakdown structure documents with full track of risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies;

• Take responsibility for implementation & tracking delivery KPIs on project, participates in setup of KPIs, react to responsible stakeholders in case of problems;

Requirements:

• 10+ years of professional experience in Information Technologies incl. 3+ years in Team Leader/Development Manager/Solution Architect roles;

• 8+ years of relevant development experience with Java, incl. Software Design & Architecture skills;

• Strong leadership skills are MUST;

• Able to build trust in the team and motivate colleagues to achieve company interests;

• Proactive position & positive outlook in meeting challenges and working to a high level (incl. C-level stakeholders) are must;

• Deep understanding & structural knowledge of the best engineering practices, design patterns, and architecture principles and the ability to apply them on the daily basis;

• Proven experience of managing delivery teams of 10+ FTEs;

• Expert knowledge of Agile Software Development Process and SDLC, ability to organize and control all technical aspects of development processes within the development team;

• Strong experience in project management practices incl. scope management, risk management, quality management, estimation and change management;

• Outstanding communication skills incl. ability to drive the discussion to particular decisions & action items, identify stakeholders and adopt communication style to particular role, effectively communicate with customer business, technicians & architects and management (incl. C-level);

• Advanced art-of-speaking and presentation skills;

• Expertise in databases (RDBMS, NoSQL), knowledge of SQL;

• Experience with containers and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes);

• Experience of work with public cloud provides (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc.), as well as other approaches (co-location, private clouds);

• Experience in design and implementation of continuous integration (CI)/ delivery (CD) setups;

• Good overview of theoretical foundations in Computer Science;

• Upper-Intermediate+ level of English;

• Professional commitment to quality, detail-oriented and outstanding problem-solving skills;

• Stress-tolerance despite any working conditions is must;

• Willing to make extra-mile to deliver commitments

Benefits:

• Office/remote work

• Professional growth (professional trainings, knowledge sharing meet-ups and etc)

• Annual assessment and salary review

• Transparent and clear management

• Friendly colleagues and atmosphere

• Extensive benefit package:

• medical insurance,

• fully covered sick leave for 14 calendar days in a year,

• compensation of external professional courses and trainings,

• English courses,

• additional holidays,

• financial bonuses,

• corporate gifts on special events,

• free parking spots,

• fruity days and etc.

• Company parties and team buildings;

• Comfortable well-equipped office in the city center (with kitchen, meeting rooms and event space)