Head of Software Development
Home-based (with occasional travel to London and other locations)
About Us
At Family Action, we transform lives by providing practical, emotional, and financial support to those experiencing poverty, disadvantage, and social isolation.
Since 1869, we have been building stronger families, and today, we work with over 60,000 families across more than 150 community-based services. We also support thousands more through national programmes and grants, ensuring everyone has the tools to overcome challenges and thrive.
We are now looking for a Head of Software Development to join us on a full-time, permanent basis, working 37 hours per week.
The Benefits
- Salary of £61,959 per annum (inclusive of £6,751 market supplement and £480 home working allowance)
- An annual paid leave entitlement of 30 working days plus bank holidays
- Up to 6% matched-pension contributions
- Flexible working arrangements and new starters have the right to make flexible working requests from day one of employment
- Enhanced paid sick leave and paid family leave provisions
- Eye care and winter flu jabs vouchers
- Cycle to work scheme
- Investing in your professional development with ongoing quality training and career development opportunities
This is a rewarding opportunity for an exceptional software developer with leadership capabilities and experience delivering production web applications to join our forward-thinking charity.
Showcasing your leadership skills, you will have the chance to lead a new team and build systems from the ground up, innovating to make a positive impact on our charity and empowering our teams to excel in their vital work.
What’s more, you’ll lead important tech projects that will grow your portfolio of experience and enhance your expertise whilst helping drive real social change.
The Role
As Head of Software Development, you will lead the delivery of innovative digital systems that strengthen the services we provide to hundreds of thousands of children and families across the UK.
Leading, managing and coaching a new Software Development team, you will develop modern web applications, including a bespoke case management system for a large counselling service.
You will also architect systems and data to align with organisational goals, while establishing the tools, platforms, and processes that enable fast, high-quality development, testing, and deployment.
Additionally, you will:
- Ensure high standards of usability, performance, security, maintainability, and availability
- Incorporate accessibility, thoughtful user experience, and AI into software
- Gather operational requirements from staff and stakeholders
- Communicate priorities to your team and stakeholders
About You
To be considered as a Head of Software Development, you will need:
- Significant experience leading, coaching, and forming a collaborative and high-performing software development team that consistently delivers excellence
- In-depth experience leveraging public cloud platforms and services to deliver modern web applications, and setting up platforms, tools, and processes for effective software development, testing, and deployment
- Multiple years of experience developing and delivering production web applications using JavaScript/TypeScript and popular frameworks such as React
- Strong understanding of best practices in web application development, including usability, performance, security, and maintainability
- Expertise in designing and architecting systems and data to deliver business goals, coupled with expertise in authentication, authorisation, and permission systems
The closing date for this role is 13th July 2025.
Other organisations may call this role Software Development Manager, Lead Software Engineer, Development Lead, Senior Software Manager, or Technical Lead.
Webrecruit and Family Action are equal opportunities employers, value diversity and are strongly committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and all applicants for employment. Equal opportunities are the only acceptable way to conduct business and we believe that the more inclusive our environments are, the better our work will be.
So, if you want to take the next step in your career as a Head of Software Development, please apply via the button shown. This vacancy is being advertised by Webrecruit. The services advertised by Webrecruit are those of an Employment Agency.
