Lead Backend Engineer - Low Carbon Tech (LCT)

Octopus Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Octopus Group is seeking a Lead Backend Engineer to join their Low Carbon Tech team in London. This role involves leading initiatives to integrate electric vehicle chargers, solar energy, and heat pumps into homes, ensuring a seamless customer experience.

The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of backend development experience, with expertise in systems design and database optimisation. A keen interest in green technology is essential, and there is potential for remote work.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience of robust backend development.
• Experience in systems design and database optimisation.
• Excited about integrating AI tools into your workflow.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of core initiatives and missions.
• Partner closely with Product to drive quarterly goals.
• Guide technical discussions and unblock delivery dependencies.

Skills

Backend development

Systems design

Database optimisation (PostgreSQL/MySQL)

Cloud execution

Leadership potential

Clear communication skills

AI tool integration

Interest in green technology

Tools

Python

Django

PostgreSQL

AWS

Terraform

Job description

Octopus Energy started with a bold idea: to build Britain’s first truly digital energy supplier. By combining world‑class tech with brilliant humans who care deeply about customers and driving the renewable energy transition, we made it happen and in 2025, we became Britain’s largest energy supplier.

Now, we’re scaling our services business, making it easy to switch to heat pumps, solar and EVs, and launching smart tariffs for Low Carbon Tech.

With this, we’re also taking the learnings, products and experiences that customers love here and rolling them out worldwide.

OE Tech is the engineering and product organisation inside Octopus Energy. Here you’ll have real ownership, variety, and the chance to shape products that make a tangible difference in people’s lives: lowering bills, enabling greener living, and delivering experiences customers genuinely love. You’ll work side by side with teams across services, marketing, operations, and data, and see the impact of your work in the real world, fast.

We are looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to join our Low Carbon Tech team. We are installing EV Chargers, Solar, Batteries and Heat Pumps into homes to drive the energy transition at pace. As customer demand grows, our goal is to ensure scaling up never means slowing down or compromising on a world‑class customer journey for low‑carbon tech.

To make that happen, we are building a new, dedicated engineering and product team to completely re‑imagine this process – making it fast, transparent, and predictable for our customers from day one. This will be a small multi‑disciplinary team who’ll sit within our much larger Low Carbon Tech team.

You’ll help design and build the platform architecture, data integrations, and automations that eliminate real‑world friction. If you want to design and build solutions to scale up electrotech in the nation’s homes, this is the mission for you.

What you'll do

• Take ownership of core initiatives and missions, bringing cross‑functional alignment and technical clarity while supporting your team to deliver high‑impact features effectively.
• Partner closely with Product to drive quarterly goals, offer valuable contributions to roadmap planning, and proactively structure workloads to reduce operational noise for your team.
• Build your leadership capability by guiding and mentoring others, supporting team responsibilities, onboarding new colleagues effectively, and creating a psychologically safe environment where people can thrive.
• Guide technical discussions, unblock day‑to‑day delivery dependencies, and use your influence to shape not just the technical output, but also the collaborative culture that makes Octopus an incredible place to work.

What you'll need

• 5+ years experience of robust backend development with deep expertise in systems design, database optimisation (PostgreSQL/MySQL), and cloud execution.
• You don't necessarily need years of formal management experience, but you do need to show leadership potential and a sincere enthusiasm for supporting a team. You are excited to guide others and help shape a collaborative team culture.
• Excited by the possibilities of integrating AI tools into your workflow to iterate quickly, combined with the discipline to rigorously check and ensure code quality.
• Clear communication skills, with a proven ability to translate complex technical constraints and architectural risks cleanly to non‑technical stakeholders (compliance, operations, business development).
• A genuine curiosity about the green technology landscape. You won't be expected to dive into physical engineering or device‑level software, so you don't need to be a hardware expert – we’re just looking for someone who shares our passion for getting clean energy into millions of homes.

Our Tech Stack

• Python, Django
• PostgreSQL, Celery, and asynchronous background processing
• API Architectures – HTTP, REST APIs, GraphQL
• Domain modelling, writing fault‑tolerant systems, and test‑driven deployment (TDD)
• AWS, Terraform, Packer, Consul, microservices, and distributed architecture scaling

Location

We would prefer someone who can work in our London office but will consider remote candidates. You must be able to work in the UK.

Equal Opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute. Our commitment is to provide equal opportunities, an inclusive work environment, and fairness for everyone.

We want to ensure you have all the tools and environment you need to unleash your potential. Need any specific accommodations? Whether you require specific accommodations or have a unique preference, let us know, and we'll do what we can to customise your interview process for maximum comfort and performance.