Software Development Lead

About
The company is seeking a Software Development Lead to support the delivery of a large scale Geospatial Digital Twin programme for a major national infrastructure owner in the Middle East. This multi-year initiative will design, build, and operationalize a Digital Twin platform that integrates geospatial data, real-time IoT/SCADA feeds, asset information, and core enterprise systems to enable data-driven planning, operations, and maintenance.

The Software Development Lead will work closely with the Project Manager and GIS Development Lead and a team of international experts, developers, and engineers to lead the design, development, and configuration of all non-Esri software components that make up the Digital Twin platform. This may include custom API development, integration services, and the implementation and configuration of additional software products and microservices.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Work alongside the GIS Development Lead to deliver all non-Esri software development and configuration activities for the Digital Twin platform across discovery, design, PoC, implementation, and post-implementation support phases.
• Design, develop, and maintain APIs, microservices, and integration services required to connect the Digital Twin platform with external systems and data sources.
• Lead the implementation and configuration of non-Esri software products and components that form part of the Digital Twin ecosystem (e.g., integration platforms, data services, custom web apps).
• Define and enforce software development standards, coding guidelines, and best practices across the development team.
• Collaborate with solution architects, data engineers, GIS specialists, and platform engineers to design and validate application and integration components, including non-functional requirements such as performance, scalability, security, and resilience.
• Lead the software development workstream during the Proof of Concept, including build, configuration, integration, testing, and validation of key use cases and data flows.
• Plan and oversee the transition of software components from PoC to a production grade environment, including environment setup, deployment pipelines, integrations, performance tuning, and go live readiness.
• Design and deliver automated testing frameworks for the Digital Twin software stack.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to software developers and related vendors, ensuring high quality, maintainable, and secure code.
• Support stakeholder engagement on software and integration topics, including workshops to capture technical requirements, user journeys, and interface specifications.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of technical documentation, including solution designs, API specifications, configuration guides, and operational runbooks.
• Support post-implementation operations for software components, including incident and problem resolution, minor enhancements, and continuous improvement of services and integrations.

Requirements

• Degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution.
• Proven experience leading software development for large scale digital, platform, or integration projects, preferably in infrastructure, utilities, or urban environments.
• Experience collaborating with GIS teams or integrating with GIS platforms (e.g., Esri ArcGIS) within broader digital or Digital Twin solutions.
• Strong hands-on experience with back-end development and API design (e.g., REST, GraphQL), including authentication/authorisation, versioning, and documentation.
• Experience designing and implementing integrations between enterprise/operational systems such as CMMS/EAM, ERP, BIM, SCADA/IoT platforms, and data warehouses/lakes.
• Solid understanding of systems integration concepts and technologies, including APIs, web services, message queues, and event-driven architectures.
• Practical experience with modern software architectures such as microservices, containerisation, and cloud native patterns.
• Familiarity with data and information architecture concepts, including working with time series data, asset data, and streaming data pipelines.
• Demonstrated experience working within multidisciplinary, multinational teams distributed across multiple time zones.
• Strong organisational and coordination skills, with experience planning and controlling software development workstreams using formal delivery methodologies (e.g., Agile/Scrum, PMI, PRINCE2, Hybrid).
• Hands-on involvement in testing, acceptance, performance tuning, and go live activities for complex or integrated software systems.
• Excellent communication and documentation skills, with the ability to explain technical and integration concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Fluency in spoken and written English.

Desired Skills

• Experience working with national infrastructure owners, transport authorities, utilities, or public works organisations.
• Arabic language skills are a strong advantage.