Lead Backend Engineer (C++ & AI), Hybrid

Digital Waffle; Royal Leamington Spa; Hybrid; GBP 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

Digital Waffle is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to own the backend and shape the platform's next phase. Hands-on leadership with deep C++ experience, mentoring and architecture.

You will work with Product, Front End and R&D teams to improve performance, quality and velocity, and explore AI-adoption, LLMs and AI tooling across the stack. Hybrid role in Leamington Spa with 2–3 days onsite.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading backend engineering teams.
• Deep C++ expertise with STL and algorithms.
• Experience designing scalable backend services and APIs.
• Strong DB knowledge and performance optimisation.
• Hands-on leadership with mentoring and architecture responsibilities.
• Experience in Agile engineering environments.
• Hands-on AI/ML powered solution development and integration.
• Familiarity with LLMs and modern AI tooling.
• Understanding AI architecture incl. prompt engineering, vector DBs, RAG and AI service integration.
• Ability to evaluate and introduce AI tools to boost productivity.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and evolution of scalable backend systems and APIs.
• Take technical ownership of backend projects from planning through to production delivery.
• Work with Product Managers, Architects and Engineers to define technical requirements.
• Lead and mentor a team of backend engineers, supporting their development and 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.
• Shape the adoption of LLMs, AI-assisted development and modern AI engineering practices.
• Lead sprint planning, stand-ups and retrospectives alongside Product and Delivery teams.
• Champion secure coding, testing, code review and engineering best practice.

Skills

Lead backend engineering

C++

APIs and backend services

Database performance tuning

Team mentoring

Agile methodologies

AI / ML capabilities

LLMs / AI tooling

Prompt engineering / vector databases

Code review / secure coding

Job description

Digital Waffle is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to own the backend and shape the platform's next phase. Hands-on leadership with deep C++ experience, mentoring and architecture.

You will work with Product, Front End and R&D teams to improve performance, quality and velocity, and explore AI-adoption, LLMs and AI tooling across the stack. Hybrid role in Leamington Spa with 2–3 days onsite.