Lead Backend Engineer: Routing & Optimisation

United States Digital Space LLC; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Dynamic hybrid working

Huge learning opportunities

25 days holiday + public holidays

Birthday day off + tenure days off

Private medical insurance

Cycle to work

MacBook Air / Windows laptop

Job summary

United States Digital Space LLC is seeking a Lead Engineer to own the planning pipeline for supply‑demand matching, parcel distribution, and routing optimisation in London. You’ll lead a high‑impact squad, shape technical direction, and drive scalable, production‑grade systems.

You’ll work with data scientists, product, and operations, mentoring engineers and raising engineering standards while delivering real‑world improvements to the city’s delivery network.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, including backend or distributed systems.
• Experience leading engineers with ownership over delivery.
• Translate complex problems into robust technical solutions.
• Strong system design and architecture in distributed environments.
• Nice to have: routing, scheduling, optimisation, forecasting, logistics or marketplace systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Routing Squad across technical strategy, delivery, team leadership, and execution of squad goals.
• Own the technical direction for systems supporting routing optimisation, supply‑demand matching, parcel distribution, forecasting, and planning.
• Translate business priorities and operational needs into clear technical strategy, measurable outcomes, and pragmatic execution plans.
• Guide architecture and system design for scalable, reliable, production‑grade optimisation and planning systems.
• Work closely with optimisation engineers, backend engineers, data scientists, analysts, product, and operations to turn complex problems into shipped solutions.
• Lead exploration and evaluation of new approaches across routing, scheduling, optimisation, forecasting, and distributed systems.
• Set and uphold a high engineering bar through technical reviews, architectural guidance, mentoring, and accountability for maintainable software.
• Manage, coach, and develop engineers in the squad, including hiring, performance management, development planning, and resourcing.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, ownership, high performance, and continuous learning within the team.

Skills

Software engineering

Distributed systems

Backend

Leadership

Architectural design

Job description

United States Digital Space LLC is seeking a Lead Engineer to own the planning pipeline for supply‑demand matching, parcel distribution, and routing optimisation in London. You’ll lead a high‑impact squad, shape technical direction, and drive scalable, production‑grade systems.

You’ll work with data scientists, product, and operations, mentoring engineers and raising engineering standards while delivering real‑world improvements to the city’s delivery network.