Head of Software Development

At CV-Library, we have a simple vision: to help the world to work and we are looking for exceptional and talented people to help us realise this vision in both UK and overseas markets.   

We are in a period of focused internal investment, following a year of key strategic acquisitions and significant investment across all parts of the business from Tech and Data to People and HR, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us or a better place to grow your career!  

The Role

Hours: Monday-Friday, 09:00-17:30

Location: Fleet/Remote

Working Pattern: Hybrid - 3 days per week on site

CV-Library is undergoing a major technology transformation. We are modernising our platforms, evolving our architecture and investing heavily in our engineering capability to support the next phase of growth. This is an opportunity to lead the development organisation through our current transformation and shape it for rapid iteration, experimentation and long-term scale.

As Head of Software Development, you will work closely with the CTO to define and execute the future of software delivery at CV-Library. This is a senior leadership role at a pivotal moment, as we build innovative, AI-enabled products that redefine how candidates and recruiters connect. You will own engineering standards and all aspects of talent, performance and succession management.

You will also work closely with the SLT and company founder, ensuring our technology capabilities continue to deliver measurable impact and commercial advantage.

You will oversee a team of around 35 developers across multiple squads delivering critical software as part of our transformation projects. Reporting directly to the CTO, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring our teams deliver on time and to the highest standards of technical excellence.

This is a leadership role suited to someone who thrives in a lean, outcome driven environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Act as a senior leader in the technology team, contributing to long-term strategy and planning
• Partner with the CTO, Product and Delivery leadership to define a clear, customer-focused software Delivery strategy with predictability and stakeholder alignment at its core
• Build, lead and mentor high-performing engineering teams, fostering a culture of ownership, quality and continuous improvement
• Partner with the Head of Delivery to drive outcomes with your specific focus on software development, retaining depth and hands-on involvement when it adds value
• Champion modern engineering practices, along with the Head of Platform Operations, such as cloud-native development, automated testing, observability, optimisation and security
• Work closely with our Lead Architect to evolve the technical architecture of our digital platforms, ensure scalability, resilience, security and maintainability
• Drive delivery using agile and lean principles, improving product velocity while maintaining high standards of reliability and quality
• Manage and develop integrations with third-party platforms such as analytics, content management, customer relationship management and AI services
• Maintain high standards of code quality, reliability and scalability across PHP, Go, Next.js and other core languages
• Act as a bridge between technical and non-technical stakeholders, clearly articulating trade-offs, timelines, risks and opportunities

What we're looking for:

• Proven experience leading software delivery teams (5+ years and 25+ engineers) and line management of engineering managers in complex, evolving technology environments
• Demonstrated success driving large-scale platform, architectural or delivery transformations
• Strong commercial awareness, aligning technology decisions to business outcomes and customer value
• Comfortable operating at scale with agile technology decisions to business outcomes and customer value
• Confidence balancing speed, quality and risk, making pragmatic engineering decisions in a growing organisation
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage, challenge and influence senior stakeholders across the business

Technical experience:

• Strong background in modern software engineering with hands-on experience across backend, frontend and API development
• Experience using AI to empower development and delivery teams e.g. coding assistants, test generation
• Deep practical evidenced experience with backend technologies (e.g. Go, Node.js, or similar)
• Experience designing, building and consuming APIs (REST and/or gRPC)
• Exposure to modern frontend frameworks (e.g. React, Vue, Angular, or similar)
• Deep understanding of cloud-native architectures, with experience using AWS and containerisation technologies
• Experience with event-driven architectures