Overview

Lead Software Engineer role seeking a passionate and experienced technical leader within our Engineering discipline. You will apply expertise in software design, development, quality assurance, and maintenance, while fostering excellence and best practices. You’ll join a talented team solving challenging digital transformation problems and contribute to projects across diverse sectors.

Responsibilities

• Take technical responsibility for high-quality engineering of complex services across all stages (design, build, test, deploy, operate, and continual improvement).
• Implement end-to-end architectures for larger services, ensuring deliverables are of a high standard and maintaining quality documentation.
• Structure and provide technical assurance for the work of teams, advising on design patterns and engineering approaches to ensure software quality, including non-functional requirements.
• Guide team members and participate in hands-on implementation of best practices in engineering.
• Collaborate with DevOps engineers to implement CI/CD pipelines supporting ongoing software quality.
• Build effective relationships with clients and stakeholders, offer options for decision-making, and provide commercially sound advice and solutions.
• Provide formal and informal guidance in developing strategies, frameworks and standards as required.
• Collaborate with Engineering, User-Centred Design, Service Operations, Delivery Management, and Data Science practitioners to achieve objectives within multi-disciplinary teams.
• Play a leading role in the Engineering discipline to maintain an energized community of engineers, influence innovation, adoption of standards and tools.
• Support the growth of the Engineering capability by helping recruit technical staff and contributing to InformedACADEMY.

Requirements

• Experience collaborating with client technical and business stakeholders to define deliverables meeting business and user needs.
• Independent perspective on technology stacks used to deliver solutions.
• Understanding of software engineering best practices and design patterns for enterprise-scale solutions.
• Proven track record of leading technical teams to solve complex problems and deliver innovative solutions.
• Background in Agile delivery environments, delivering software in controlled increments (e.g., Scrum, Agile Delivery phases, GDS Service Manual).
• Broad understanding of modern programming languages, leading frameworks, distributed system architectures (microservices), and the full software development lifecycle, including CI/CD and automated testing.
• Strong planning skills to assign robust estimates and align delivery plans with business objectives.
• Experience overseeing and quality assuring the technical delivery of team members, mentoring others on best practices.
• Commercial awareness to balance trade-offs for successful delivery.
• Effective communicator who can explain complex information to stakeholders and work under pressure in an agile environment.
• commitment to staying up-to-date through continuing professional development and training, including accreditations/certifications.

Desirable Skills And Experience

• Experience in a professional services/consultancy environment.
• Ability to deliver as part of multiple projects concurrently across teams.
• Experience with GOV.UK Digital Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice.
• Proven experience delivering complex software on leading cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) with knowledge of other clouds.
• Expertise in software engineering practitioner skills evidenced by domain-relevant accreditations/certifications.
• Hands-on knowledge of designing and implementing software solutions handling sensitive data.
• Experience implementing software solutions that operationalise data science and machine learning components.

Personal Qualities

• Hands-on problem-solver who leads by example and demonstrates commitment to software quality.
• Clear communicator, calm, resilient, and able to handle challenges.
• Strong planning, time management and organisational skills to balance priorities.
• Detail-oriented, reliable and punctual.
• Inquisitive with critical thinking to challenge assumptions and consider different perspectives.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Bring strong technical leadership to the team and wider discipline.
• Able to explain difficult topics and build consensus internally and with the wider business.

Benefits

Our benefits package complements competitive salaries and a dynamic working environment. Benefits include a comprehensive and flexible range of offerings focused on development, wellbeing, and work-life balance.

• InformedACADEMY – career development and professional certification support.
• Industry-leading health and wellbeing plan including 24/7 GP, mental and physical health support.
• Hybrid working
• Private healthcare cover
• Generous life assurance
• Gym membership
• Monthly office lunch
• Onsite massage sessions
• 25 paid working days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Sabbatical Leave Scheme
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave and pay
• Company pension contribution
• Profit share scheme
• Payment of professional subscriptions
• Generous referral scheme
• Qualifying period applies

Culture

We nurture a diverse, inclusive, rewarding and egalitarian workplace. We strive to live our values of Innovation, Excellence and Integrity by thinking differently, doing our best, and acting with integrity. We’re a team of problem solvers focused on helping clients accelerate and de-risk digital change, collaborating to design world-class digital services in areas where place or geography matter. Our culture emphasizes the balance of technical skills with cultural fit to foster creativity and collaboration for clients, partners, and our people.

Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Engineering and Information Technology
• Industries: Technology, Information and Internet