Technical Lead

Change Recruitment; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 170,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Change Recruitment is seeking a hands-on Tech Lead in Sydney to drive sprint delivery and architecture decisions. You will mentor engineers, shape scalable frontend and backend solutions, and own critical performance improvements across distributed systems.

The role is hybrid (3 days in the Sydney office) with a focus on TypeScript, Node.js and React/Next.js in a high‑velocity product team. You will collaborate with Principal engineers and stakeholders to raise engineering standards.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of commercial software engineering experience with TS/JS stack.
• Leadership experience in an engineering squad while remaining hands-on.
• Strong backend fundamentals: APIs, GraphQL, SQL, data-access patterns.
• Experience diagnosing and improving backend, database and app performance.

Responsibilities

• Lead sprint delivery, estimation and technical planning to keep work on track.
• Design scalable, maintainable frontend/backend solutions.
• Diagnose API, database and performance issues and unblock blockers.
• Stay hands-on with production code, review PRs and mentor engineers.

Skills

TypeScript

Node.js

React/Next.js

Hands-on leadership

Sprint planning

API design

GraphQL

AWS

CI/CD

Observability

Distributed systems

Tools

Docker

Job description

Tech Lead | Sydney | $170k–$180k + Super

Join a high-performing product engineering team building one of Australia's largest consumer digital platforms.

This is a hands-on Tech Lead role where you'll spend around half your time writing and reviewing production code, with the remainder focused on leading sprint delivery, mentoring engineers and driving technical outcomes.

You'll work closely with Principal-level engineers and senior delivery stakeholders to shape architecture, solve complex technical problems, remove delivery blockers and raise engineering standards across the team.

You'll be trusted to take ownership, make pragmatic technical decisions and help your team deliver high-quality software at pace.

Hybrid working: 3 days per week in the Sydney office.

The wider environment also includes some PHP and CMS-based applications, so previous exposure to these technologies would be advantageous but isn't essential.

The engineering team is also investing heavily in AI, with future projects expected to incorporate AI-assisted development and intelligent product capabilities.

What You'll Do

• Lead sprint delivery, estimation and technical planning, keeping work on track and removing blockers.
• Design scalable, maintainable solutions across frontend and backend systems.
• Diagnose complex API, database and application performance issues.
• Stay hands-on writing production code, reviewing pull requests and technically unblocking engineers.
• Improve application performance, team velocity and engineering standards.
• Partner with Product, QA and Delivery to manage priorities, technical risk and stakeholder expectations.

What You'll Need

• 8+ years' commercial software engineering experience, with strong TypeScript, Node.js and React/Next.js experience.
• Previous experience leading an engineering squad while remaining hands-on.
• Strong backend fundamentals, including APIs, GraphQL, SQL/databases and data-access patterns.
• Experience diagnosing and improving backend, database and application performance.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, microservices and cloud-native architecture.
• Commercial experience with AWS, CI/CD, containerisation and observability.
• Strong delivery leadership across estimation, planning, prioritisation and team velocity.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to give clear technical direction, mentor engineers and work effectively with stakeholders.