Software Development Manager

About Us

Club L London is the next-generation online fashion retailer for the forward-thinking woman. Conceptualised and crafted in-house and abroad, we specialise in accessible luxury and designs of unrivalled quality that flatter all figures.

From prom to occasion, maternity, bridal, and beyond, we deliver an elevated shopping experience that connects our global community of trend-setting consumers, influencers, and content creators with fresh collections dropping weekly. Our engineering team builds and runs the platforms behind Club L London and Lavish Alice across multiple markets - and we're scaling fast.

The Role

We are looking for a Software Development Manager to lead and grow our engineering team. This is a hands-on leadership role that blends people management, delivery ownership, and technical direction. You'll be responsible for the developers who build and maintain our e-commerce platforms, integrations, and data systems - setting the standards, shaping the roadmap, and making sure we ship reliable, scalable software at pace.

You'll manage a team of full-stack and backend engineers, own delivery end-to-end, and remain close enough to the code to make sound architectural calls and unblock your team. You'll report to the CTO and work across a broad, integration-dense stack spanning Shopify Plus, Node.js services, serverless, and a modern GCP/BigQuery data platform.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & People Management

, mentor, and line-manage a team of full-stack and backend engineers, owning their growth, performance, and development.

Run regular 1:1s, set clear objectives, and give consistent, actionable feedback.

Drive hiring - define roles, interview, and build a high-performing, collaborative engineering culture.

Manage team capacity, balance workloads, and protect focus time so the team can deliver sustainably.

Delivery & Programme Management

Own delivery of the engineering roadmap, translating business priorities into a clear, achievable plan.

Run agile ceremonies (planning, stand-ups, retrospectives) and keep work moving through the pipeline.

Balance BAU, incident response, and project work, managing dependencies, risk, and trade-offs.

Report progress, blockers, and delivery forecasts clearly to the CTO and wider stakeholders.

Technical Leadership & Architecture

Guide architecture across e-commerce platforms, internal tools, and data systems, ensuring reliability, performance, scalability, and security.

Set direction for backend services and APIs (Node.js, REST/GraphQL), serverless functions, and microservices (AWS Lambda or equivalent).

Oversee data infrastructure and pipelines across platforms such as BigQuery, MongoDB, or PostgreSQL, ensuring efficient data models and performant queries.

Establish and enforce engineering standards - code review culture, testing, CI/CD, and modern development workflows.

Platform Integrations & Automation

Own the integration landscape connecting e-commerce platforms, ERP, marketing, fulfilment, and third-party services.

Identify opportunities for automation and system improvement across the business, and turn them into delivered outcomes.

Ensure integrations are robust, well-tested, observable, and resilient as the business scales.

Manage technical relationships with key vendors and platform partners.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Management

Work closely with e-commerce, design, content, operations, data, and finance teams to deliver reliable systems and features.

Translate business needs into technical delivery, and communicate technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders.

Champion engineering best practice across the wider tech function.

Hands-On Contribution

Stay technically credible - contribute to code, architecture, code reviews, and complex problem-solving where it adds the most value.

Lead by example, setting the bar for quality, pragmatism, and delivery.

More About You

5+ years in software engineering, with 2+ years leading or line-managing engineers, ideally within retail, e-commerce, or high-traffic digital environments.

Proven people leadership - mentoring, performance management, and hiring high-performing teams.

Strong hands-on background with Node.js or similar backend technologies in production.

Experience designing and building APIs (REST or GraphQL) and integrating with third-party systems.

Hands-on experience with serverless architectures (AWS Lambda or equivalent).

Experience with databases and data platforms such as MongoDB, BigQuery, PostgreSQL, or similar.

Solid grounding in CI/CD pipelines, version control (Git), and modern development workflows.

A track record of delivering software in an agile environment - planning, prioritising, and shipping reliably.

Comfortable balancing hands-on technical work with the demands of leading a team.

Nice To Have

Experience with Shopify (Plus) platform integrations or Shopify Liquid.

Experience across multi-brand, multi-market, or multi-entity technology estates.

Familiarity with the GCP ecosystem (BigQuery, Cloud Functions, and related services).

Experience integrating with ERP systems (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central) or fulfilment/WMS platforms.

Experience with modern frontend frameworks such as React.

Familiarity with SCSS, Tailwind, or modern CSS frameworks.

Experience with internal tooling platforms such as Retool.

Exposure to e-commerce platforms and retail technology ecosystems.

What's on offer?

Annual bonus scheme

Bi-Annual Dress Allowance

25 days of annual leave (plus bank holidays)

Extra day off for your birthday

Flexible working hours around core hours of 10-4

Early Finish Fridays

Cycle to work scheme

40% staff discount across Club L and Lavish Alice products

Healthcare Cashplan

Free onsite gym

Enhanced pension contribution

Enhanced maternity and sick pay

Free snacks, drinks & treats

Social events