Digital Tech Lead

First Line Software; Hemel Hempstead; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

Training programs

Workation program

Job summary

First Line Software seeks a Digital Tech Lead to steer a guest-facing digital products suite, including a guest portal, loyalty platform, and AI concierge. You will stay hands-on while setting technical direction and delivering features within a cloud-native stack.

You will lead architecture, reviews, and delivery, mentoring engineers and aligning with nearshore teams to maintain engineering excellence and velocity.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in digital engineering roles, with at least 2 years in a technical lead or principal engineer capacity.
• Hands-on delivery mindset with ability to design and code in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong communication to explain trade-offs to engineers and business stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical leadership across all digital engineering delivery — setting standards for code quality, testing, CI/CD, and release management
• Lead architecture and solution design for new digital features and products, working with the Integration Architect to keep alignment with the wider architecture
• Conduct code reviews and architecture assessments with nearshore partner teams, ensuring outputs meet the required engineering standards
• Actively contribute to delivery — writing code, building features, and shipping working software alongside the product engineering team
• Own the technical definition of user stories — breaking down business requirements into well-scoped engineering tasks and acceptance criteria
• Introduce and embed modern engineering practices: CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, containerisation, code quality gates
• Act as the technical accountability lead for nearshore digital engineering partner teams — reviewing architectures, assessing quality, and ensuring delivery meets required standards
• Identify and address performance gaps in partner engineering quality and velocity
• Mentor and develop internal Data & Digital Product Engineers in digital engineering best practices
• Contribute to engineering capability build — tooling, practices, and onboarding standards for new engineers

Skills

ASP.NET

C#

React

Next.js

TypeScript

REST APIs

GraphQL

AWS

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub Actions

Optimizely

Bloomreach

LangChain

Tools

GitHub Actions

Docker

Kubernetes

Optimizely

Bloomreach

LangChain

Job description

About the company

At First Line Software, we drive business success with cutting-edge IT solutions and a relentless focus on innovation. Since 2010, our global team of over 300 professionals has excelled in industries including healthcare, data engineering, and retail digitalization. By leveraging Generative AI, we deliver impactful results and help clients stay ahead of the curve. Join us to be part of a collaborative team that values growth, excellence, and social responsibility.
Let's see what we can create together!

The project and your role

You’ll join a digital engineering team responsible for a set of guest-facing digital products: a guest portal, a loyalty platform, a public-facing booking website, and an AI concierge and booking assistant, all built on a modern, cloud-native stack. As Digital Tech Lead, you will be the most senior hands-on engineer on the team, setting technical direction while staying embedded in the code and the delivery itself.

Your responsibilities:

• Provide hands-on technical leadership across all digital engineering delivery — setting standards for code quality, testing, CI/CD, and release management
• Lead architecture and solution design for new digital features and products, working with the Integration Architect to keep alignment with the wider architecture
• Conduct code reviews and architecture assessments with nearshore partner teams, ensuring outputs meet the required engineering standards
• Actively contribute to delivery — writing code, building features, and shipping working software alongside the product engineering team
• Own the technical definition of user stories — breaking down business requirements into well-scoped engineering tasks and acceptance criteria
• Introduce and embed modern engineering practices: CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, containerisation, code quality gates
• Act as the technical accountability lead for nearshore digital engineering partner teams — reviewing architectures, assessing quality, and ensuring delivery meets required standards
• Identify and address performance gaps in partner engineering quality and velocity
• Mentor and develop internal Data & Digital Product Engineers in digital engineering best practices
• Contribute to engineering capability build — tooling, practices, and onboarding standards for new engineers

Your skills

• Modern web engineering: ASP.Net, .NET8, C#, React, Next.js, TypeScript, REST and GraphQL APIs
• Cloud: AWS — Lambda, API Gateway, S3, CloudFront, Amazon Connect
• DevOps: CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or equivalent), containerisation (Docker/Kubernetes)
• CMS and digital experience platforms: Optimizely, Bloomreach, or equivalent
• AI/ML integration: LLM orchestration (LangChain), conversational AI, WhatsApp Business API
• Security and compliance: OWASP standards, PCI-DSS awareness
• 4+ years in digital engineering roles, with at least 2 years in a technical lead or principal engineer capacity
• Proven hands-on experience in modern web architectures (React/.NET or React/Next.js, API-first design)
• Experience leading engineering quality and standards across hybrid engineering models
• A practitioner-first approach — you write code and review code, leading by doing rather than only directing
• Strong communication skills — able to explain technical trade-offs clearly to both engineers and business stakeholders

Nice to have:

• Consumer-facing digital product experience: eCommerce, hospitality, travel, or retail

What we can offer

• Our modern stack projects are the right mix of exciting and challenging
• Gain access to our diverse range of training programs, courses, and certifications
• Choose your work style — this role is hybrid, with 3 days a week in the office
• Enhance your language skills with our corporate English classes
• Work from anywhere and explore the world with our Workation program