C++ Engineer

Digital Waffle; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Digital Waffle in Birmingham is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to take ownership of the backend engineering function. The role combines hands-on development with technical leadership, mentoring, architecture work and AI adoption to enhance platform performance and development velocity.

You will work with Product, Front End and R&D teams to drive quality and delivery, while guiding secure coding practices and efficient team processes in a hybrid setup with 2–3 days onsite per week.

Qualifications

• Deep C++ experience with strong knowledge of STL
• Experience designing scalable backend services and APIs
• Hands-on leadership with mentoring and code reviews
• Experience in Agile engineering environments
• Familiarity with AI/ML-powered solutions and AI tooling
• Understanding of AI architecture: prompt engineering, vector databases, RAG
• Strong problem-solving and proactive engineering approach
• Experience leading backend engineers and sprint ceremonies
• Background in secure coding and engineering best practices

Responsibilities

• Lead development and evolution of scalable backend systems and APIs.
• Take technical ownership of backend projects from planning through production delivery.
• Define technical requirements with Product Managers and Architects.
• Mentor and develop a team of backend engineers.
• Drive improvements in architecture, performance, reliability and observability.
• Identify bottlenecks and optimise queries, services and system performance.
• Evaluate and implement AI-powered tools to improve productivity and code quality.
• Lead adoption of AI practices including LLMs and AI-assisted development.
• Oversee sprint planning, stand-ups and retrospectives with Product and Delivery teams.
• Champion secure coding, testing, code review and best practices.

Skills

Leadership

C++ expert

Back-end architecture

Agile

AI/ML concepts

Code reviews

Mentoring

Performance optimisation

Job description

A growing technology business is hiring a Lead Software Engineer to take ownership of its backend engineering function and help shape the next phase of its platform.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone with deep C++ experience who enjoys combining technical delivery with mentoring, architecture and modern AI adoption. You’ll work closely with Product, Front End and R&D teams to improve platform performance, engineering quality and development velocity.

Salary: Up to £70k depending on experience

Location: Birmingham, hybrid working, 2 to 3 days per week onsite

What you'll be doing

• Lead the development and evolution of scalable backend systems and APIs.
• Take technical ownership of backend projects from planning through to production delivery.
• Work closely with Product Managers, Architects and Engineers to define technical requirements.
• Lead and mentor a team of backend engineers, supporting their development and technical progression.
• Drive improvements across architecture, performance, reliability and observability.
• Identify bottlenecks and optimise database queries, services and system performance.
• Evaluate and implement AI-powered tools to improve engineering productivity and software quality.
• Help shape the adoption of LLMs, AI-assisted development and modern AI engineering practices across the team.
• Lead sprint planning, stand-ups and retrospectives alongside Product and Delivery teams.
• Champion secure coding, testing, code review and engineering best practice.

What you'll need

• Strong commercial experience as a Lead Backend Engineer, Senior Backend Engineer or similar technical leadership role.
• Expert-level C++ experience with strong knowledge of the standard library, STL containers and algorithms.
• Experience designing and maintaining scalable backend services and APIs.
• Strong understanding of database systems and performance optimisation.
• Previous experience leading, mentoring or coaching software engineers.
• Experience working within Agile engineering environments.
• Hands-on experience developing, integrating or deploying AI or Machine Learning-powered solutions.
• Familiarity with LLMs, AI-assisted development tools and modern AI frameworks.
• Understanding of AI architecture including prompt engineering, vector databases, RAG and AI service integration.
• Experience evaluating and introducing AI tools that improve developer productivity.
• Strong problem-solving skills with a proactive and pragmatic approach to engineering.

Nice to have

• Experience contributing to hiring and onboarding technical teams.
• Exposure to hardware-integrated software, access control, security or workforce management platforms.
• Experience improving engineering observability, reliability and secure development practices.

This role would suit an experienced C++ engineer who wants to combine hands-on development with technical leadership and play a key role in introducing modern AI capabilities into an established engineering environment.