Technical Lead (Engineering Coach)

• The Team 

  Our Web & Mobile Engineering practice has expanded rapidly and we’re delivering solutions using the latest Cloud Data, Cognitive Engineering, DevOps and Web platforms. Our teams are working on disruptive solutions to solve complex problems faced by the insurance industry.

  Our Web & Mobile practice aims to provide the highest levels of quality and engineering techniques and our Engineering Coaches will be technically strong individuals with a passion for developing the professional competencies of other engineers in the Web and Mobile space.

  The Role

  In other organisations this role might be called a Technical Team Lead or Engineering Manager, except that the dynamic here is very different. We believe that coaching is the most successful way to develop people and we want our teams to have autonomy and take decisions for themselves, rather than “go through someone” to execute.  This role is all about empowering others to be successful as part of our flatter organisational structure.

  We want someone who is self-motivated, eager to learn new technologies and values the importance of developing people to become fantastic engineers and great team players. You will play a key leadership role for our Agile teams, providing technical leadership to the engineers, providing guidance in architectural discussions, and developing technical competencies in the team through effective coaching. 

  Our Engineering coach will have a strong technical background and be passionate about supporting, mentoring and managing a team of engineers.  You will bring a reputation for successful delivery and won’t be afraid to get into the detail sitting alongside our engineers to collaborate on solving complex problems.  We will provide you with extensive opportunities to learn and grow, and want you to bring creativity, ingenuity, experience, and insight into software product development, data analytics, and innovation strategies.

  What you'll be doing

  • Use your technical knowledge to give expert feedback to engineers to support them on solving complex business problems.
  • Take on people leader responsibilities for approx. 6 engineers, using your own experience as a technologist to model the skills and behaviour necessary to be a fantastic engineer.
  • Where required, get hands-on with code, pipelines and technical solutions.
  • Contribute and collaborate with other team members; from Architects to Product Owners and Business SMEs ensuring that the team are building high-value customer-centric software products
  • Encourage autonomy amongst the engineering team, and facilitate their decision-making through active listening and questioning, but also act as a decision-maker if necessary.
  • Initiate and contribute to code conduct reviews as well as the continuous improvement of software delivery processes by following best practices of automation and CI/CD.
  • Ensure that testing is at the front of the design & development process, and that QA is embedded throughout the work undertaken by Agile teams.
  • Be a servant-leader, without ego or prejudice, who encourages ideas, feedback, and challenge from everyone regardless of level or experience.

  Below is an overview of the skills and experience we are looking for, but remember, don’t rule yourself out if you don’t have everything on the list – it’s your intellect and your attitude we are after.

  Experience - what you’ve been doing and how you’ve honed your craft:

  Essential 

  • A minimum of 2 years of experience as senior or lead engineer, team lead, or engineering manager
  • Passion for coaching and mentoring talent, empowering individuals to think differently in how they approach and solve problems.Proven experience in planning, organising and prioritising to keep the team focused on the right things. 
  • 4+ years of IT experience with n-tier, database and client server design/development
  • Have demonstrable experience helping people to grow and develop (management, coaching, teaching, mentoring, tutoring)
  • Advanced programming skills in Object Oriented languages, preferably Java, or advanced skills in front end technologies and frameworks such as JavaScript, TypeScript or Angular.
  • Knowledge and experience of DevOps as part of Agile software development as well as a good understanding and extensive experience of Agile Methodologies  
  • Relevant commercial experience in a similar role

  Desirable - if you’ve got some of these, great; if not that’s ok too

  • Experience working with US companies, building relationships with teams in other locations and driving change from a remote location.
  • Engineering of highly scalable microservices and serverless based platforms, software containerisation, container hosting platforms and services, API gateways and service mesh technology.  
  • Proven commercial experience with any of the following technologies: C#, C++, .Net, Node, React, JQuery, Ionic, SQL, AWS, Google Analytics
  • Familiarity with supporting tools & technologies: GIT, TFS, Azure DevOps, BitBucket, Jenkins, , Gigafox, Robot Framework, Selenium, Docker and monitoring tools such as DataDog, DynaTrace, AppDynamics.

  So that's us (nai).

  Aflac Northern Ireland is an equal opportunities employer.