Lead Software Engineer - Hardware Lifecycle

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Job Title: Lead Software Engineer - Hardware Lifecycle

Reports to: Head of Digital Delivery

Location: Hybrid, on-site 1 day per week (with more as needed) in Cwmbran, Wales.

Job Type: Permanent

About Us

We are a pioneer in network infrastructure monitoring with IoT technology, and develop innovations that keep critical resources flowing for water and wastewater utilities. Our customers operate large fleets of our sensors and dataloggers, with tens or hundreds of thousands of devices. Good software is critical to managing those fleets.

About the Role

The Hardware Lifecycle team is responsible for the software that enables HWM and our customers to manage device fleets at every stage of their lifecycle: deliver, deploy, run and renew.

We're looking for an experienced Lead Software Engineer to lead the transformation of this software. Our strategy is to focus on three core products:

• An installation and deployment app, used by field engineers (mobile)

• A fleet monitoring cloud application for internal use (Ruby on Rails)

• A customer fleet administration cloud application (C# .NET and React)

Today we have five. Two existing mobile apps need to be combined and rationalised into the single installation and deployment app, and a legacy desktop application will receive maintenance changes only until our support commitments end. Leading the team to that target state, and making these three products a genuine differentiator for HWM, is the core of this role.

The role also carries a significant element of product ownership. You'll work closely with Product Management and the Head of Digital Delivery, but we're looking for someone self-driven who takes real ownership of the product. With the support of a designer, you'll get close to customers and field engineers, understand their problems and turn that into clear direction for the team, rather than working through tickets defined elsewhere.

You'll lead three direct reports. The team is deliberately small, with a focused set of three products and extensive use of AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code.

The team sits within our wider Digital team, alongside several similarly shaped teams working on other priority areas. These teams share knowledge, help each other out and form tiger teams when a problem needs it, so you won't be working in isolation.

This is a hands-on leadership role. We expect up to 40% of your time to be spent coding, varying with the phase of work, so you'll keep your technical skills sharp while leading the team.

Key Objectives for the first 12 months

• Deliver measurable improvements in fleet operations, such as faster provisioning and deployment, and fewer support requests per thousand devices

• Agree a roadmap and target architecture for consolidating onto the three core products

• Evaluate the mobile platform options (.NET MAUI and Flutter), make a recommendation and begin delivering the combined installation and deployment app on the chosen platform

• Build on the team's existing use of AI-assisted development to make it a core strength, and use it to accelerate the modernisation of our legacy code

Responsibilities

• Lead the Hardware Lifecycle software team, providing technical guidance, mentorship and coaching, and improving team processes

• Own the technical direction and architecture of the team's software, and clearly articulate engineering trade-offs to technical and non-technical colleagues

• Act as product owner, working with Product Management, customers and colleagues across the business to shape and prioritise the backlog, and take responsibility for the outcomes delivered

• Manage legacy applications through to end of support, limiting changes to essential maintenance

• Design, develop and maintain high-quality software across our tech stack (C# .NET, React, Xamarin/.NET MAUI, Ruby on Rails, Azure, Git)

• Support our move from a Windows-centric environment to a more platform-agnostic approach, including Linux

• Identify and mitigate technical risks, and develop strategies to address technical debt

• Provide responsive support for urgent user issues

Role Requirements

Leadership Skills

• Proven experience of leading a software team, including:
• Experience of leading a team through a legacy modernisation or re-platforming
• A strong sense of product ownership, with experience of shaping requirements and priorities rather than only implementing them
• Excellent communication skills, with stakeholders and team members alike
• A cool head with excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting skills

Technical Skills

• Significant experience in software development, with strong C# .NET skills
• Experience of mobile app development (Xamarin, .NET MAUI or Flutter) and web development, ideally React
• Open-minded and willing to work across multiple technology stacks, including those new to you
• Regular, hands-on use of AI-assisted development tools
• Experience with Linux as well as Windows environments
• Familiarity with cloud-based services, especially Azure, and security fundamentals
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git and automated testing
• Significant experience with RDBMS and SQL

Desirable

• Experience with Flutter/Dart or Ruby on Rails
• Experience of IoT, device management or fleet/asset management systems
• Experience in the utilities or critical infrastructure sector
• Personal or open-source projects outside of work (links welcome with your application)

What we Offer

37.5 hours per week with core working hours and flexible options. Benefits include 26 days of annual leave plus bank holidays, the option to buy or sell holidays, a pension plan with employer contribution up to 10.5%, a salary sacrifice car scheme, health coverage, parental leave, and an employee assistance programme.

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