Software Engineering Manager

Software Engineering Manager

Location: Co. Mayo – Hybrid

Working Arrangement: Two days per week onsite

Role Focus: People Leadership • Software Delivery • Engineering Excellence

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Software Engineering Manager to lead and develop high-performing engineering teams while owning the successful delivery of enterprise software solutions.

This is a hybrid position based in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, with two days per week onsite.

The role combines people management, delivery ownership and technical leadership. You will support engineers in their development, improve delivery predictability and promote high standards across architecture, code quality, automated testing, security and operational readiness.

Working closely with Product Management, Architecture, QA, DevOps, Project Delivery and Support, you will translate business and technical priorities into achievable delivery plans while balancing immediate customer requirements with the long-term health of the company’s products and platforms.

The role would suit someone with a strong software development background who has progressed into engineering leadership. Candidates from any programming-language background will be considered, provided they have the technical depth to challenge decisions and effectively guide engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities

People Leadership and Development

• Lead, coach and mentor software engineers, technical leads and senior developers.
• Conduct regular one-to-ones, performance reviews and career-development discussions.
• Build an engaged, accountable and collaborative engineering culture.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, retention and succession planning.
• Identify skills gaps and create appropriate training and development plans.
• Measure individual performance across delivery, quality, collaboration and professional development.

Software Delivery

• Own delivery commitments across assigned engineering teams and development streams.
• Ensure sprint and release commitments are realistic, achievable and properly resourced.
• Manage priorities, capacity, dependencies and resource allocation.
• Track delivery milestones and release plans, removing blockers and escalating risks early.
• Improve delivery predictability, transparency and accountability.
• Work closely with Product Managers and stakeholders to ensure delivery aligns with customer and commercial priorities.

Technical Leadership and Engineering Standards

• Work with Architects and Technical Leads to ensure solutions align with the wider technology strategy.
• Promote scalable, maintainable and supportable software design.
• Champion consistent engineering standards, peer reviews and sound development practices.
• Guide technical discussions across APIs, integrations, Azure cloud services, distributed systems and event-driven architectures.
• Balance short-term delivery requirements with technical debt and long-term platform sustainability.

Quality Engineering

• Embed quality throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Promote automated testing, code reviews, CI/CD and a “build quality in” approach.
• Ensure technical debt and engineering documentation are managed effectively.
• Support root-cause analysis following production incidents.
• Drive improvements in software reliability, resilience and supportability.

Agile Delivery and Continuous Improvement

• Ensure effective use of Azure DevOps and Agile delivery practices.
• Support planning, backlog refinement, estimation, sprint tracking and retrospectives.
• Provide clear delivery visibility through appropriate reporting, dashboards and metrics.
• Identify opportunities to improve team effectiveness and development-process maturity.
• Encourage teams to learn from delivery outcomes and implement continuous improvements.

Security, Governance and Operational Readiness

• Promote secure coding, security testing and data-protection best practices.
• Ensure development activity follows company processes and engineering governance requirements.
• Maintain appropriate traceability and documentation throughout the development lifecycle.
• Work with QA and DevOps to ensure releases are stable, secure and ready for production.
• Review deployment plans and monitor post-release performance and stability.

AI and Innovation

• Identify practical opportunities to use AI-assisted development, automation and emerging technologies.
• Support innovation and proof-of-concept initiatives.
• Use AI and automation to improve developer productivity, testing and the wider software development lifecycle.
• Ensure new technologies are introduced with appropriate security, quality and governance controls.

Skills and Experience

• Approximately seven or more years’ experience in software development.
• At least three years’ experience leading software engineering teams.
• Proven experience coaching engineers, managing performance and supporting career development.
• A track record of owning software delivery and balancing delivery speed, quality and technical priorities.
• Experience delivering enterprise SaaS, cloud-based or complex software platforms.
• Strong understanding of APIs, integrations and distributed systems.
• Experience with cloud platforms, ideally Microsoft Azure.
• Good knowledge of DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing and secure development practices.
• Experience working in Agile environments and driving continuous improvement.
• Experience leading distributed or multidisciplinary engineering teams would be advantageous.
• An interest in applying AI, automation and innovation to software development.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills.

What Success Looks Like

The successful Software Engineering Manager will build an engaged, capable and accountable engineering team while delivering measurable improvements across:

• Delivery predictability and transparency.
• Software quality and release confidence.
• Engineering standards and process maturity.
• Team engagement, productivity and career development.
• Platform stability and operational readiness.
• Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder communication.
• Responsible adoption of AI and automation within software development.