Background to the role:
In 2024 Northcoders Group launched a new standalone tech consultancy brand, Counter, using aspects of our Incubate proposition. To provide organisations with a new, high quality and affordable onshore technology partner to help them to overcome their unique tech challenges and then to provide long term and sustainable capability. Allowing them to scale, prosper and successfully deliver on their respective missions.
Working with a team of advisors and consultancy experts, we have devised innovative Discovery Frameworks and workshops that will help our clients uncover and understand their technical and strategic challenges that may be blocking their route to productivity, revenue or profitability.
Once we understand clients’ challenges, we will assemble and land teams of highly skilled UK based technical problem solvers, handpicked from our diverse and highly sought after Northcoders and Tech Returners talent pools. These consultants will be selected on technical excellence as well as cultural alignment to respective clients so that they can seamlessly deliver the precious business value they need at speed.
The consultant teams will be mentored by dedicated Tech Leads ensuring that every team member is technically and strategically aligned with our client’s mission and up-skilled to deliver within our client’s technology stack, working practices and ceremonies. The Associate Tech Lead role is a transitional role towards tech lead. It provides an environment in which an individual can up-skill towards becoming a tech lead whilst being largely focused on internal and managed service Counter offerings.
If this sounds like rewarding work that you would love to do, then please read on and click apply.
Reports to: Tech Lead - On Project
Department: Counter
Base Location: Manchester or Leeds - Clients will often require travel and whilst we will focus on clients within a commutable distance you can expect the potential for travelling to the clients office on a form of regular cadence when in a tech lead or supporting tech lead role capacity.
The Associate Tech Lead role is a transitional role towards tech lead.
Associate tech leads operate on a Counter live project as an individual contributor whilst working towards taking on their own project (as a Tech Lead) in the future.
Outside of the on project requirements, an Associate Tech Lead can be expected to be supported by the Technical Director and existing Tech Lead individuals to develop their knowledge and progress towards a Tech Lead role deployed on engagement.
- Maintenance and advocacy of plan
- Working with the Technical Lead, you will identify what a client is looking to achieve whilst also being realistic around what is capable within their cost and time options.
- Identifying external dependencies and building up relationships where required
- Working closely with Counter account management in order to keep visibility high on progress
- Advocate for team agile working practices
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Supporting the tech lead in operating in an agile way. Whichever form of agile works for the team, you’ll support them with guiding ceremonies like planning or retrospective actions
- Provide technical architecture direction
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A good associate tech lead will seek input from their team and external client teams whilst maintaining accountability for the technical architecture
- Technical expertise
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Comfortable with a variety of languages as technical stacks - we don’t expect you to know each of the frameworks or languages in depth but you can be expected to build up skills in the stack utilised by the client
- Commercial knowledge development
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You will utilise the internal development and client projects to develop commercial understanding. Reflecting on the commercial cost of the work being undertaken along with the commercial value gained.
This role provides a venue for an individual to build up their technical skills alongside developing existing engineers in a live client project environment. With this in mind a level of interest in dealing with different stakeholders whilst balancing the commercial spend/investment we make on projects will be important.
Of equal importance is how you help those your internal engineers develop and progress around you.
You are someone who loves learning about their craft and then loves sharing their knowledge. You keep up to date with the latest tech trends be it through reading blogs, listening to podcasts and ideally through attending events and conferences.
Adding value
Individuals on projects at Counter contribute to Counter’s ecosystem in three key areas, known as the “Three C’s”:
Counter
This area for an Associate Tech Lead is how their contributions add value to Counter as an organisation. The examples of evidence around this could be:
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Contributions to marketing activity such as blogs, social media voice
- Talks/meetups delivered
- Development of or improvements to Counter processes and approaches
- Supporting other Tech Leads and/or projects
- Interaction with wider organisation such as work with Internal Development team or presentations around Counter
Client
When on a project, the Associate Tech Lead has an opportunity to add value to the client they are working with. Examples of how this can be evidenced are:
- Unsolicited feedback from the client regarding the project
- Feedback surveys provided to the client every 2 months
Consultant
This area highlights the Associate Tech Lead’s influence on the consultants within the team they are a member of. Counter encourages clients to consider full-time roles for consultants (excluding the Tech Lead and Associate Tech Lead). While the Tech Lead cannot directly control hiring decisions, they play a key role in supporting consultants’ development, ensuring they’re in a stronger professional position at the end of the engagement, whether with the client or elsewhere.
Evidence of impact here includes:
- Positive feedback in consultant surveys
- Client feedback that mentions consultants by name
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Hybrid working model
- 4.5 day working week
- Pension: 5 % employee , 5 % employer contribution
- Holidays: 5 weeks plus bank holidays
- Annual leave for your birthday
- Healthcare optional
- Medicash optional
- Death in service
- EAP employee assistance program
Counter, a consultancy brand under the Northcoders Group, adopts a model where we help clients attract, onboard, upskill and integrate talent into their businesses, in order to give the team a seamless start to long and successful careers there.
Counter teams are formed for our clients by deploying a Counter Tech Lead to work within the client’s organisation in order to hire appropriate team members and then to work in collaboration with them directly on live clients projects. Providing support, extra training and all the guidance to fast-track the individuals’ journey within that organisation.
Read more at https://counter.partners
