Engineering Team Lead

HX Expeditions; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

HX Expeditions is seeking an Engineering Team Lead to blend technical depth with people leadership and delivery ownership. You will set technical direction, grow the team, and ship reliable, secure software that drives business outcomes.

You will own end‑to‑end delivery—from discovery through production operations—across frontend and backend platforms (e.g., .NET/C#, Node.js, React). The role demands strong architectural judgment and excellent stakeholder communication.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading software engineers.
• Deep understanding of modern web application architecture, APIs (REST/GraphQL), and relational databases (SQL Server/PostgreSQL).
• Practical experience with cloud platforms (Azure and/or AWS), CI/CD, automation, and observability.
• Excellent stakeholder communication; able to translate technical detail into business impact and vice‑versa.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical discovery, architecture reviews, proofs‑of‑concept, and spikes.
• Mentor, coach, and develop engineers across levels; conduct 1:1s and growth plans.
• Drive architectural decisions for scalable and maintainable solutions.
• Own delivery plan from product goals to production, tracking progress and removing blockers.
• Ensure robust testing, CI/CD, and high code standards through reviews.
• Monitor production, lead incident triage and root‑cause analysis, and implement fixes.

Skills

People leadership

Technical leadership

Frontend/backend

Cloud platforms

CI/CD

Observability

REST/GraphQL

SQL databases

Communication

Tools

.NET/C#

Node.js

React

Next.js

Job description

A bit about the role:

At HX our purpose is to awaken people to the beauty and fragility of the planet, with adventure that reignites a sense of wonder. We take curious travellers to incredible destinations, sustainably in true expedition-style with science and education at the heart of every journey. We bring them off the beaten track, to special destinations across the Arctic, Antarctic, Galapagos, British Isles, Alaska, Northern Norway, and Central / South America.

The Engineering Team Lead is a hybrid leader–engineer who combines technical depth, people leadership, and delivery ownership. You will set the technical direction, develop people, and ensure your team ships reliable, secure, and scalable software that meets business outcomes. You own results end‑to‑end—from discovery and planning, through delivery and production operations.

At HX, we are a passionate team who deliver our global operations from every corner of the world and our people are instrumental in continuing to inspire this adventure, play their part and deliver on our promise of guest centric and memorable experiences, benefiting the communities we visit, enriching our guests and inspiring a more sustainable world – to change the way they see the world.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership:

• Provide hands‑on technical guidance across frontend and backend systems (e.g., .NET/C#, Node.js, React, Next.js).
• Lead technical discovery, architecture and design reviews, proofs‑of‑concept, and spikes.
• Champion best practices for performance, security, accessibility, reliability, observability, and documentation.
• Drive clarity on architectural decisions and trade‑offs; ensure solutions are scalable and maintainable.

Team Leadership & People Management:

• Mentor, coach, and develop engineers across levels; run constructive 1:1s and growth plans.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, psychologically safe culture; model excellent communication.
• Collaborate with recruiting on hiring; support onboarding and capability planning.

Delivery Ownership:

• Own outcomes. Translate product goals into a realistic, value‑led delivery plan; track progress and remove blockers.
• Own quality. Ensure robust testing (unit, integration, e2e), CI/CD, and high code standards through reviews and pairing.
• Own operations. Monitor in production, lead incident triage and root‑cause analysis, and implement preventative fixes.
• Own continuous improvement. Balance new feature work with technical debt and platform hygiene.

Hands‑On Engineering:

• Contribute to code where it provides leverage (typically 50–70%).
• Set engineering standards via examples, pairing, and high‑quality design and PR feedback.
• Guide the team on secure coding, data management, and performance optimisation.

About you:

• Proven experience leading software engineers (people leadership and/or strong technical lead experience).
• Deep understanding of modern web application architecture, APIs (REST/GraphQL), and relational databases (e.g., SQL Server/PostgreSQL).
• Practical experience with cloud platforms (Azure and/or AWS), CI/CD, automation, and observability.
• Excellent stakeholder communication; able to translate technical detail into business impact and vice‑versa.

Nice to Have:

• A genuine love of software development—curiosity, craftsmanship, and pride in building elegant, maintainable systems.
• Experience with Salesforce (e.g., Core platform, Sales/Service/Marketing Cloud, integrations, or Apex best practices).
• Experience applying AI/ML in engineering workflows (e.g., coding assistants, test generation, anomaly detection, intelligent routing) or product features.
• Background in leading distributed teams and large‑scale refactoring or platform modernisation initiatives.

Key Behaviours & Attributes:

• Ownership mindset: accountable for outcomes, proactive risk management, and follow‑through.
• Pragmatic decision‑making with an eye for long‑term maintainability and operability.
• High empathy and integrity; sets the tone for collaboration and inclusion.
• Continuous improvement orientation; data‑informed and experiment‑friendly.