OCHO PEOPLE | JOB SPECIFICATION
Software Delivery Lead
Belfast, Office-Based
AT A GLANCE
- Senior software leadership role in a Belfast deep-tech company securing communications for autonomous systems
- Office-based in Belfast city centre
- £75,000 to £80,000 base, flexible for an exceptional candidate; stock options and 5% employer pension
- A rare chance to set the technical direction for the software function at a pivotal stage of the company's growth
ABOUT OUR CLIENT
Our client is a Belfast-headquartered deep-tech company working on secure communications for autonomous and robotic systems. The business operates across defence, security and resilience, with its first commercial market in ports and critical national infrastructure. Seven years in, and with a team in the mid-20s, it is moving from research and early productisation into commercial delivery, and is preparing for its next funding round. Belfast is, and will remain, its engineering headquarters.
THE ROLE
This is the senior software leadership seat in the business. You will own the embedded architecture and act as design authority for a core secure communications stack and the HMI applications built on top of it, working alongside a Head of Hardware and other technical leads. The role is a genuine blend of hands-on engineering and leadership: you need to be close enough to the code to help the team when it matters, and strategic enough to set direction, anticipate problems and shape how the function grows. You will also represent the software organisation externally, contributing to bids, customer conversations and partner engagements. As the business transitions from R&D projects into product delivery, you will help lead that cultural shift for a team that is technically strong and ready to be led well.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Own the embedded software architecture and act as design authority for the secure communications stack and HMI applications
- Lead, line-manage and develop a team of around 12 engineers, balancing capacity across concurrent projects
- Architect and deliver embedded libraries, drivers and applications for low-SWaP Layer 2 and Layer 3 secure networking, including network orchestration and routing
- Drive rapid prototyping from TRL3 to TRL8, targeting 8 to 12 week delivery cycles
- Set and enforce design standards, code review practices, quality gates and release management processes
- Design for compliance with relevant standards including MISRA, ISO/IEC 62443, DO-178C and NIST frameworks
- Own project schedules and risks across concurrent workstreams, planning and estimating with accuracy
- Provide technical input to bids, proposals and Statements of Work
- Represent the company as the embedded software technical lead with customers and partners
- Champion continuous improvement across the software team
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
Essential
- Experience as a technical lead or team lead, with direct responsibility for embedded engineers
- Proven delivery of secure embedded networking at Layer 2/3, including orchestration and routing
- Experience designing HMI applications for industrial or cyber-physical systems
- A track record of delivering secure, compliant software in a fast-moving scale-up environment
- Commercial awareness and experience working directly with customers or partners
- Right to work in the UK and able to commit to office-based working in Belfast
Nice to have
- Secure communications and applied cryptography experience, a significant advantage for this role
- Experience with compressed, rapid-prototyping timelines and TRL-based delivery
- Hardware-software co-design and embedded security techniques
- Wireless, cellular, satellite or industrial communication systems
- Cloud or backend development, for example Python, Go or Java
- AI-assisted development tools or on-premise LLM deployment
WHY APPLY
- £75,000 to £80,000 base salary, with genuine flexibility for an exceptional candidate
- Stock options offering meaningful upside as the company scales toward its next funding round
- 5% employer pension contribution
- Office-based in a modern, secure Belfast city centre location overlooking the harbour
- Senior leadership visibility, working directly with the Director of Engineering and CTO
- The chance to own the technical direction for the software function while the company is still at a size where your decisions genuinely shape it
- Work at the intersection of autonomous systems, secure communications and defence technology, few roles in Northern Ireland sit at this intersection
GET IN TOUCH
For a confidential conversation about this role, connect with Ryan Quinn on LinkedIn. Or apply via the link below.
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