Totara is an innovative, fast-growing technology leader in the learning and development space and provider of learning development and HR solutions for 1500 customers across a variety of sectors in over 150 countries. At Totara, you will find an army of talented, motivated, and ambitious people. Our team of 120 people across 3 offices in the UK, US and NZ has been growing steadily over several years and we are now looking to expand the business further. As a community that looks after each other, we value diversity, collaboration, and personal development.

The purpose of the Development Lead is to maximise the effectiveness of the team and the solutions they build. Along with our Engineering Managers, they will work to nurture a high-performing development team that sustainably achieves excellent results. Collaboration is a cornerstone of the Development Lead, as you work closely with a cross-disciplinary team to design and implement solutions.

They communicate regularly with Product Owners/managers, Design Leads, Engineering Managers, and Architects to ensure progress towards outcomes, transparency of the work, and alignment with technical leadership. Working within Totara’s Outcome-Driven Approach, the Development Lead is responsible for supporting the design of feasible solutions aligned with our technical strategy.

The Development Lead will co-lead the software development team alongside the Product Owner and Design Lead (Trio) through a process to understand opportunities and identify and select a solution to implement within an agreed timeframe. The Development Lead is a mentor and leader within the team, providing guidance, feedback, and support to their colleagues.

They role model our values and work principles and drive improvement within the team and our products to support the stability and quality of the products we produce. Leveraging their knowledge of software development methodologies (Agile, XP, Lean, DevOps), the Development Lead supports the team’s ways of working to keep finding better practices for the team.

Working with the Agile Practice Lead and Engineering Managers, the Development Lead supports developing and adopting common standards and tools in the agile process, providing actionable feedback as practices are implemented and evolved. They lead with influence as they are not responsible for the people leadership within the team.

At a high level, you are responsible for:

Cultivating a high-performing development team with your peers and supported by our leaders.
Growing the capability of developers in your team through mentoring and feedback.
Ensuring the team develops quality solutions that align with our technical strategy and will satisfy our customers.
Building a world-class engineering culture within the team.
Guiding your team to develop effective ways of discovering and delivering valuable work (i.e. help identify, verify, decide, and break down work to be delivered within the allocated time frame).
Supporting healthy communication within the team and with stakeholders.
Role modelling great development within the team.
Contributing to our team of Development Leads.

The knowledge, skills and experience were looking for:

Growth mindset with strong emotional intelligence and collaboration skills.
Great communication and ability to adapt your working style.
Experience in leading cross-functional teams through solution discovery and delivery.
Proficiency in Git, continuous integration, issue tracking, and pull request workflows.
Strong troubleshooting skills, including performance and security issues.
Understanding of modern software development methodologies, principles, and patterns.
Excellent understanding of code quality and writing testable code.
Experience with unit, integration, and acceptance testing.
Knowledge of web security issues and securing code.
For Back-end specialisation: Proficiency in PHP or similar languages, SQL databases, and complex SQL queries.
For Front-end specialisation: Proficiency in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and frameworks like Vue.js or React, with expertise in web accessibility and responsive design.

We offer you an autonomous, supportive working environment where you can be a part of a team that has a direct impact on our team's culture and wellbeing. Totara is what it is because of our people. Our goal is to provide the spaces and support for our people to do their best work, and be celebrated as part of our team. Joining our team means joining the pursuit to create effective and engaging learning workplaces for all. We’re growing and are looking for people who are excited about making an impact.

If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you!