Software Engineering Team Lead - BBC Studios Software Engineering Team Lead - BBC Studios

We are currently looking for a Software Engineering Team Lead to manage our Studios Data Platform engineering team within Commercial Data Technology. The team are responsible for building and maintaining the cloud infrastructure of the platform, integrating SaaS products and building new software features to expand its capabilities.

The Studios Data Platform team are responsible for the infrastructure, SaaS applications, software products and tooling that power the platform. You will be responsible for leading a small team of backend/fullstack oriented engineers, providing them with effective coaching and support to deliver high-quality software solutions. We care deeply about creating a culture and environment where people feel included and supported to contribute and do their best work, and we expect our team leads to help create and foster that environment.

Some of the key responsibilities of this role:

• Recruit, mentor and manage an effective software engineering team.


• Help create an inclusive environment for your team, where everyone can contribute and do their best work.


• Lead your team in the design, development and operation of effective software that meets complex requirements for the immediate team and broader BBC Studios.


• Lead technical discussions and make well-informed technical decisions in the best interests of BBC Studios.


• Establish good working relationships with vendors and supporting the engineering department manager with getting the most value from our vendors.


• Collaborate closely with product leads to ensure the team is working in the most effective way possible, on the things that add the most value.


• Learn new technologies, keep up-to-date with existing technologies and help introduce them where appropriate.


• Collaborate with other leaders across your department and the wider business to foster a culture of engineering excellence and help drive the technical strategy of BBC Studios.


• Encourage your team to work beyond its boundaries with other teams in the BBC, sharing their knowledge and contributing to our shared engineering culture.


• Define, lead and encourage continuous improvement of the team's delivery and development processes.


• Deputise for the engineering department manager when required (with the support of your peers).
  
  We are looking for someone that has a background in developing high performance software solutions and either has people management experience or wants to make the first step into people management. That person is a strong communicator and has a collaborative approach to creating solutions to challenging problems and has demonstrable experience in supporting software engineers, helping them achieve their full potential in their roles.


We don't expect you to have experience in all of these but the below gives examples of skills and practices we value:


• Experience line managing or leading a software engineering team with the design, implementation and operation of the software and/or architecture for a given project.


• Ability to recruit an effective software engineering team, with demonstrable experience creating a positive, inclusive culture within a team


• Strong experience in backend software engineering using general-purpose programming languages to write clean, well-documented, and testable code that meets business needs using techniques such as Test Driven Development. While this role is not required to be hands-on (feel free to get stuck in if you wish to), we do expect you to have experience of this in previous roles.


• Leading the QA and testing functionality of the team using automated testing techniques, such as end-to-end testing and contract tests.


• Leadership communication skills - A great candidate will be able to communicate as capably with your engineering team as non-technical senior stakeholders, to be able to collaborate, advise and influence effectively based on the audience.


• Experience operating cloud infrastructure at scale using best practices. Establishing effective DevOps techniques like CI/CD and effective monitoring. Experience leading the response to incidents using effective incident management techniques.


• The ability to lead on and encourage continuous improvement in the way your team works, introducing and implementing new tools, practices and processes to enable your team to be the best it can be.


• Curiosity and an openness to change - we are always learning new technologies and requirements can frequently change. If that energises you, you'll enjoy this opportunity!


• Experience of database design, performance optimisation, troubleshooting and awareness of cloud-based Big Data "data warehouse" systems such as Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery or Athena.
  
  BBC Studios is a world-renowned content studio and channels & streaming business, powered by British creativity, with a reach that touches audiences in every corner of the globe.


We work with outstanding creative talent who are responsible for platform-defining shows from Strictly Come Dancing to Bluey, Prehistoric Planet to Planet Earth III.

The range and quality of our content is unsurpassed, creating critical and commercial successes and global phenomena.

From BAFTAs to RTS Awards, BBC Studios is Britain's most awarded production company and the only producer with three of the top ten shows on IMDB; we're the home of bbc.com, the widest-read English language news website in the world; and the UK's largest distributor of British content.

We offer flexibility, competitive benefits and the opportunity to be part of the BBC's exciting mission. Some of the key benefits you'll get from working in this role are:
Flexible/Agile working - opportunities across the business. We believe in empowering you to do your best work, so we offer support and flexibility to balance work and home. We're happy to discuss a formal flexible working pattern. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at the offer stage.
Unrivalled training and development opportunities - we operate a people-first culture and pride ourselves on your development. Our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certifications.
Excellent career progression - BBC Studios offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation. Leaders at the BBC are passionate about helping our people grow in the organisation and you will have regular sessions with your line manager to support you with your career ambitions.
Benefits - We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (plus an additional day which is a Corporation Day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.