R&D Team Leader – Classic PMS Platform (Hospitality)

This is a mission-critical, on-premise product that has been evolving for over 30 years and sits at the heart of hotel operations across Israel. The role combines people leadership, technical leadership, and business ownership, managing a team of approximately 10 developers and QA engineers while driving innovation, efficiency, quality improvements, and AI adoption within a complex legacy environment.
We are looking for a strong leader who can inspire experienced professionals, establish a culture of excellence, and successfully lead meaningful change while maintaining the stability and reliability of a business-critical platform.

Responsibilities:

Leadership & People Management:

• Lead and manage a cross-functional team of approximately 10 employees and QA engineers.
• Develop, mentor, and grow team members both professionally and personally.
• Drive performance improvements and elevate engineering standards across the team.
• Build a culture of accountability, ownership, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Effectively lead and influence highly experienced and long-tenured engineers.
• Recruit, onboard, and develop new talent.
• Technical Leadership
• Own the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of the company's core product.
• Drive architectural improvements and long-term modernization initiatives.
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, code quality standards, and review processes.
• Improve system performance, reliability, scalability, and maintainability.
• Identify technical debt and create practical strategies for reducing it while preserving business continuity.

Innovation & AI-Driven Development:

• Lead the introduction of AI-powered development practices and tools.
• Identify opportunities to improve productivity, quality, and delivery speed through AI and automation.
• Drive automation initiatives across development, testing, and release processes.
• Improve testing efficiency through automated testing and regression frameworks.
• Evaluate and introduce modern technologies, methodologies, and tools that enhance development effectiveness.
• Champion continuous improvement and modernization within a legacy technology environment.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Work closely with Product Management, Customer Support, Professional Services, Project Management, and Customer Success teams.
• Translate business requirements into effective technical solutions.
• Balance customer needs, business priorities, platform stability, and long-term technical improvements.
• Support strategic decision-making regarding product evolution and roadmap execution.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience managing software development teams.
• Proven experience leading teams of 8+ employees.
• Demonstrated success in driving performance improvements and building high-performing teams.
• Experience working in medium to large-scale software organizations.
• Strong technical background with the ability to mentor senior engineers.
• Experience managing complex, business-critical systems.
• Track record of improving development processes, engineering quality, and operational efficiency.
• Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to lead organizational and technological change in complex environments.
• Experience with PowerBuilder- Big Advantages.
• Experience leading large-scale legacy software platforms – Big Advantages.
• Experience working with on-premises enterprise systems – Big Advantages.
• Background in ERP, PMS, or other enterprise business systems- Big Advantages.
• Experience in low-level development, systems programming, or highly complex technical environments – Big Advantages.
• Experience leading modernization and transformation initiatives – Big Advantages.
• Experience implementing AI-assisted development practices – Big Advantages.
• Experience managing teams with highly experienced senior engineers – Big Advantages.
• Hospitality or Hotel Tech industry experience – Big Advantages.