De Fontenay LTD

We're looking for someone to take ownership of the operational backbone behind our development and support teams. Not a coder. Not a CTO. Someone who makes the machinery run - the people, the processes, the infrastructure, the compliance - so our talented developers can focus on what they do best: building brilliant work for our clients. This is a new role for Laser Red, and it's a big one. You'll sit in our Management Team, line manage our development and support teams, and be directly responsible for how our technical function operates day to day. If you're the kind of person who bridges the gap between technical teams and the wider business - someone who's equally comfortable in a 1:1 with a developer and a strategy meeting with directors - we want to hear from you. Full time, permanent position (35 hours a week) Location Hybrid - work from our Lincoln or Grimsby offices, or from home. (Must be a UK resident with a valid driving licence) Why This Role Exists As Laser Red has grown, our Lead Developers have taken on more and more management responsibility alongside their technical work. It's meant less time coding, less time mentoring, and less time doing the things they're genuinely brilliant at. This role fixes that. You'll take on the people management, operational oversight, and cross department coordination so our technical leads can get back to leading technically - setting standards, reviewing code, mentoring the team, and building great solutions. You don't need to be a web developer. You need to be a strong manager with a technical operations background who can earn the trust of a skilled team, bring structure without bureaucracy, and make things run better. What You'll Be Responsible For People management and team development. You'll line manage our development team of around 10 people (including our Lead Backend and Lead Frontend Developers) plus our Support Manager and their team. That means regular 1:1s, performance reviews, career development conversations, recruitment, onboarding, and being the person who handles the day to day people stuff - workload concerns, conflict resolution, wellbeing. You'll be their voice in the Management Team. Capacity planning and resource allocation. Making sure the right people are working on the right things at the right time. You'll own our internal scheduling and capacity tools, coordinate with Project Managers on project handovers, and keep an eye on utilisation - flagging burnout risks or gaps before they become problems. Infrastructure and hosting. We manage hosting across multiple providers for 150+ client websites. You'll own the hosting estate - performance, uptime, cost optimisation - and drive migration projects as we improve our infrastructure. You'll work alongside our senior developers on technical architecture decisions; they own the direction, you own the operations and execution. Security, compliance and governance. Cyber Essentials certification, GDPR compliance, accessibility standards, AI usage policy governance, and regular security reviews. You'll own the compliance posture for the business and liaise with external assessors and auditors as needed. R&D, innovation and continuous improvement. This is where it gets interesting. We want someone who's naturally curious about better ways of working - someone who'll research new tools, trial AI applications, evaluate emerging technologies, and then actually implement them across the team. Not just ideas, but execution. Training, rollout, adoption. You'll champion our innovation time and make sure it delivers real value back to the business. Tooling, systems and technical debt. We have internal tools for estimation, scheduling, and time tracking that need day to day management and adoption. You'll also own the technical debt backlog - the housekeeping that keeps our infrastructure clean and our projects maintainable. Documentation standards, staging site hygiene, repository management, backup cleanup. Reporting and data. Build and maintain operational dashboards that give leadership clear visibility on infrastructure costs, team utilisation, hosting profitability, and technical health. Not vanity metrics - useful data that drives decisions. Client facing technical advisory. Where the opportunity arises, you'll support our Account Managers on client conversations that involve digital systems, process improvement, or operational efficiency. Particularly with manufacturing, engineering, and industrial clients, your operational and systems expertise adds genuine commercial value. How This Role Works We want to be transparent about how this fits into the team. Our Lead Developers retain all technical authority. They own code standards, architecture decisions, code review, technical mentoring, and tooling choices. They're the people who decide how things are built and whether the quality is right. You own the operational layer around them. People management, resource planning, processes, infrastructure, compliance, reporting. You decide what gets worked on and when. You make sure the team has what they need. You handle the management overhead so the technical leads don't have to. The relationship works when both sides trust each other. You don't need to evaluate code quality - you need to listen to the people who can, champion their recommendations, and translate technical needs into business decisions. The absolute must haves: Proven experience managing technical teams. - doesn't have to be web or agency. Manufacturing, engineering, IT operations backgrounds are equally valid. What matters is you've managed skilled people and done it well. Strong IT operations and infrastructure knowledge. - server management, hosting, networking fundamentals. You understand the systems side of technology. Compliance experience. - GDPR, Cyber Essentials, ISO, accessibility standards, or equivalent. You've worked within compliance frameworks and ideally led a business through certification. Project management discipline. - you can take something from business case to delivery without losing the thread. You plan, you track, you deliver. Data literacy. - comfortable building reports and dashboards, making sense of operational metrics, and using data to drive decisions rather than gut feel. Genuinely good with people. - you build trust, you handle difficult conversations, you develop people. You can earn the respect of a team who know more about their craft than you do. Process improvement mindset. - Lean, continuous improvement, operational efficiency. You spot waste and fix it without creating bureaucracy. Curious about technology. - you actively research, trial, and implement better ways of working. AI, automation, new tools - you're the person who makes innovation actually happen. Comfortable in a small business. - we're a team of 33. You'll roll your sleeves up. There's no one to delegate everything to. Nice to have (but honestly, we can teach you): Agency, SaaS, or digital environment experience - even tangentially. If you've worked adjacent to web development, that helps. Linux server familiarity - command line, SSH, server administration. CI/CD and deployment pipeline understanding - even conceptually. Knowing what a release process looks like matters. ERP, MES, or scheduling tool experience - production planning, resource management, capacity systems. These skills transfer directly. Budget and CAPEX management - experience managing technology budgets and making the financial case for investment. Client advisory experience - advising businesses on digital transformation, systems implementation, or operational improvement. Manufacturing, engineering, or industrial sector background - our core client base is in these sectors. If you speak their language, that's a genuine advantage. Experience & Qualifications 3+ years managing technical teams in any sector Degree or equivalent experience in a relevant field (IT, business, engineering, operations) Any formal management training or qualifications are a bonus, but real world experience matters more Full UK driving licence What You'll Achieve in Your First 90 Days Month 1 - Meet every member of the dev and support teams. Understand our tools, systems, and how work flows through the business. Build relationships with the team leads and the wider Management Team. Month 2 - Start delivering quick wins: documentation gaps, hosting cost optimisation, process improvements. Take over 1:1s with the dev team. Establish a regular security review cadence. Begin building the operational dashboards leadership needs. Month 3 - Present a 6 month roadmap covering infrastructure, compliance, R&D priorities, and process improvements. Have at least one visible win the team can point to and say "that made my life easier." Establish a working rhythm where the Lead Developers feel empowered and supported. Here's what's in it for you! A seat at the table: You'll be part of the Management Team with direct input into how the business operates and grows. This isn't a middle management role that gets told what to do - you'll shape the direction of the technical function. Real autonomy: We'll give you the scope to make this role your own. We've told you what we need - how you deliver it is up to you. . click apply for full job details