Product Development Group Manager

About Acron Aviation
Acron Aviation is an agile commercial aviation partner with a long heritage of providing established, industry-certified solutions, as well as future-focused, data-driven innovations. With customers across the globe our employees are committed to the company mission of innovating to create safer skies. For more information visit

Overview
The Product Development Group Manager is responsible for leading and enabling a high-performing software engineering function that delivers secure, scalable, reliable, and commercially viable products for aviation data analytics.

This role oversees the full product development lifecycle using Agile methodologies — from concept to deployment — ensuring that delivery timelines, quality standards, and cybersecurity requirements are consistently met.

The manager will also play a pivotal role in talent development, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement across the product engineering teams, in line with our values.

Key Responsibilities
*Leadership & People Management*

• Lead, coach, and inspire a multidisciplinary team of software engineers, QA specialists, DevOps engineers, and product delivery staff.
• Build an inclusive, high-performance, customer-centric culture based on accountability and transparency.
• Conduct regular one-on-one meetings, performance reviews, and career development discussions to help team members achieve their professional goals.
• Identify skills gaps, design and implement training or mentorship programs, and promote cross-functional learning.
• Drive employee engagement and retention through clear communication, recognition, and empowerment.
• Support recruitment and onboarding processes, ensuring alignment of new hires with organizational culture and technical excellence.
• Foster psychological safety, encouraging open feedback, experimentation, and innovation while maintaining delivery discipline.

*Product Development Lifecycle Management*

• Oversee the full Agile software development lifecycle (SDLC) — from planning, design, and development to testing, deployment, and maintenance.
• Collaborate with Product Management, Sales and Business Development to define and prioritize the roadmap, ensuring alignment between business strategy and technical execution.
• Manage resource allocation and project prioritization to optimize delivery efficiency and team workload balance.

*Agile Delivery & Process Optimization*

• Implement and continuously improve Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe) tailored to team dynamics and product needs.
• Oversee sprint planning, retrospectives, and continuous improvement cycles to enhance predictability and throughput.
• Drive the adoption of DevOps and CI/CD best practices, ensuring consistent, automated, and secure deployments.
• Develop and execute strategies to embrace new ways of working including use of emerging technologies

*Compliance, Security, and Quality Assurance*

• Ensure adherence to data protection, cybersecurity, and compliance standards (e.g., ISO 27001, GDPR, NIST).
• Partner with information security teams to integrate secure-by-design principles throughout the development lifecycle.
• Conduct periodic security reviews, risk assessments, and audits to maintain compliance posture.
• Establish robust quality metrics and drive automation in coding, testing and code quality validation.

*Stakeholder & Communication Management*

• Act as a bridge between technical teams, business stakeholders, and executive leadership.
• Communicate project status, delivery risks, and key metrics clearly and proactively.
• Collaborate with cross-functional leaders in product, operations, and compliance to ensure successful and secure product launches.

Essential Functions And Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of experience in product development / delivery, including 3+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Demonstrated success managing software development teams delivering complex, secure software systems.
• Strong understanding of secure software development principles, cloud security, and regulatory compliance frameworks.
• Experience with modern DevOps tools (e.g., Jira, GitHub, Jenkins, AWS, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes).
• Excellent communication, leadership, and conflict resolution skills.

Why Join Acron Aviation

• Be part of a leading aviation technology environment where operational and service delivery performance directly supports flight safety and efficiency.
• Work with diverse technologies and mission-critical systems across international aviation operations.
• Opportunities for career advancement in leadership roles within and across Acron Aviation companies.
• Collaborative and supportive team culture focused on service excellence and continuous improvement.

Please note: All candidates who wish to be considered for this vacancy must have the right to work in the UK.