Development Practice Head

Summary :

As Development Practice Head, you will take high-level responsibility of owning and defining the strategy and operational aspects of the Development Practice. You will serve as the leader on technology strategy, trends and best practices. For both clients and project teams, you will provide vision and frame the business value from technology initiatives to meet the client's business goals and objectives. Moreover, as Development Practice head you will take responsibility for growing talent and work with other leadership members to further develop Xpanxion's Technical capabilities. Collaboration and partnership with our U.S. based teams will be critical for success in this role.

Role and Responsibilities :

- Define the strategy and provide oversight for various Technology driven initiatives for the software engineering teams

- Proactively identify potential risks/issues and work with the team to develop mitigation strategies

- Build a culture of rapid innovation and collaboration, mentoring managers/Leads and individual contributors across the organization and build strong bridges with multiple internal and external stakeholders

- Drive developers and leaders to adopt processes and strategies to develop and innovate faster; coach engineers to challenge assumptions and think differently

- Build and grow the team by recruiting, hiring and developing top talent

- Good experience in people management training, mentoring, attrition management and performance appraisal

- Set and drive towards achieving high standards of execution and foster a culture of thinking fast and thinking big

- Owning and driving innovation and continuous improvement

- Drive Agile development methodologies

People Management :

Resource Selection :

- Implement effective assessment methods for hiring high quality Development Resources and while assigning development resources to projects.

- Setup interview panel for hiring development resources

- Plan and execute induction of development resources including contractors

Resource allocation :

- Review and address development resources staffing needs as the project progresses. i.e. Ramp up / down, Resource Transitions, Assessing organizational resource needs

- Provide support to Projects in all phases, as applicable. E.g. Pre-Sales - Guidance on availability of skill set and other required information for proposals as per requirement.

- Manage the attrition in the development team.

- Bench & Buffer resources planning, management and control.

- Setup and own Anchor program and Resource rotation program.

Resource Development :

- Track and assess the competencies required by all roles in the Development stack with inputs from Program Manager and Technology practice and create/update competency matrix.

- Arrange the necessary training, mentoring and coaching to fill the competency gaps of Development Resources.

- Setup and Track career path for every Development Resources.

- Identify needs and initiate training's.

- Set up and track the development of Trainees

- Plan and execute Learning and Development programs for development team

Resource Feedback :

- Perform appraisals of all Development Resources. ( KRAs and Self Development Plans)

- Identify weak resources. Set up and track skill development plans of weak resources.

- Plan and track closure of skill gap identified during resource assignment along with Program Manager.

- Address any issues/concerns raised by the resources.

Desired person specification :

- Total industry experience of 18-20 years

- BE as preferred minimum qualification with good academic records.

- Must have a smart and confident personality. Good to carry himself with a positive body language.

- A natural communicator with excellent articulation skills who can express thoughts and explain technical concepts in clear, plain English (both written and verbal)

- Should be confident and assertive while presenting the domestic and international clients.

- US work Experience would be preferred. Person should have worked and managed the onshore offshore model of working. Should be open to travel if required as part of business needs.

- Must have managed large teams. Should bring-in strong Leadership experience on table.

- Bled of experience in product and service based industry would be ideal fit.

- At least 10+ years of development experience in a software product company using technologies such as Java/Dot Net and J2EE and/or other application server technologies, database systems, data warehousing and Business Intelligence

- Experience with Agile development methodologies, test-driven development and Devops.

- Experience in working at Organization level/across projects/business units

- An inquiring mind that consistently looks for solutions to problems and opportunities to learn new things

- Excellent interpersonal skills to build positive working relationships across groups and all management levels

- Ability to effectively deal with ambiguous situations.

- Ability to coach/mentor the development team.

- Good understanding of Proposal Writing, RFP's and RFI.

- Preferably male candidate, so that would be available and comfortable with for late business calls .We need a person who would be comfortable to spend some extended hours if required as part of business schedules.