Lead Developer Advocate - VP

Job Description

Purpose of the role

To design, develop and improve software, utilising various engineering methodologies, that provides business, platform, and technology capabilities for our customers and colleagues.

Accountabilities

• Development and delivery of high-quality software solutions by using industry aligned programming languages, frameworks, and tools. Ensuring that code is scalable, maintainable, and optimized for performance.
• Cross-functional collaboration with product managers, designers, and other engineers to define software requirements, devise solution strategies, and ensure seamless integration and alignment with business objectives.
• Collaboration with peers, participate in code reviews, and promote a culture of code quality and knowledge sharing.
• Stay informed of industry technology trends and innovations and actively contribute to the organization’s technology communities to foster a culture of technical excellence and growth.
• Adherence to secure coding practices to mitigate vulnerabilities, protect sensitive data, and ensure secure software solutions.
• Implementation of effective unit testing practices to ensure proper code design, readability, and reliability.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Embark on a transformative journey as a Lead Developer Advocate - VP at Barclays. In this role, you will combine deep software engineering experience with a passion for teaching, technical communication, and helping others become better engineers. This is not a traditional software engineering role. You can expect to spend approximately 30–50% of your time working hands-on with technology, building production-quality solutions, prototypes, demonstrations, code samples, educational platforms, and workshop content. The remainder of your time will focus on teaching and coaching engineering teams, creating technical learning experiences, running workshops and events, developing educational content, and helping engineers adopt modern tools and practices. You will work directly with engineering teams as a technical SME and coach, while also communicating with audiences ranging from individual practitioners to hundreds of engineers and senior technology leaders. You will help turn complex technologies and engineering practices into practical, engaging learning experiences that people can apply in their day-to-day work. This is an ideal role for someone with a considerable and recent software engineering background who has moved, or wants to move, towards Developer Advocacy, technical education, enablement, or Developer Relations while remaining a credible and active technical practitioner.

To be successful as a Lead Developer Advocate - VP, you should have:

• Significant and recent hands-on software engineering experience, including experience designing, building, and delivering real-world production applications using modern development practices, with proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Python, Java, C#, or Go
• An ample ability and passion for teaching technical concepts, whether gained through Developer Advocacy, Developer Relations, technical training, engineering enablement, mentoring, or similar experience, with the ability to turn complex subjects into engaging and practical learning experience
• Excellent technical communication and presentation skills, with the confidence to work hands-on with engineering teams, facilitate interactive workshops, and present technical subjects to audiences ranging from individual practitioners to rooms of hundreds of people
• Experience designing and creating technical learning content, such as hands-on workshops, demonstrations, code samples, tutorials, documentation, videos, prototypes, or other educational experiences that help developers learn new technologies and improve their engineering craft
• The ability to engage and influence across different levels of a technology organization, adapting your communication for hands-on engineers, technical SMEs, and senior technology leaders while building credibility through both technical expertise and effective communication

Other highly valued skills include:

• Hands-on experience with AI-enabled and agentic software development, using tools and frameworks such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or AI orchestration frameworks, together with an enthusiasm for continually learning and teaching emerging technologies
• Experience building and engaging technical communities through activities such as workshops, hackathons, engineering events, communities of practice, technical forums, or other knowledge-sharing programmes
• Good technical content creation and storytelling skills, with experience producing compelling developer-focused materials such as tutorials, articles, documentation, presentations, videos, demonstrations, or structured learning programmes

…