Lead Backend Engineer: Routing & Optimisation (Hybrid)

HIVED; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Holiday allowance

Birthday day off

Private medical insurance

Performance reviews

EMI options

Team lunch

Volunteer days

Cycle to work

Dog-friendly office

Laptop provided

Job summary

HIVED is seeking a Lead Engineer to own the routing and planning domain within the city-scale delivery network. You’ll guide the Routing Squad, shape technical strategy, and build scalable systems that decide how parcels move efficiently.

You’ll work with data scientists, product, and operations to translate priorities into measurable outcomes, mentor engineers, and raise engineering standards in a fast-growing, hybrid London environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience in backend or distributed systems.
• Experience leading engineers with ownership of delivery.
• Ability to translate complex problems into robust technical solutions.
• Strong system design skills in distributed, production-grade environments.
• Interest in hard optimisation problems like routing and scheduling.
• Strong analytical thinking and practical judgement.
• Track record of setting high engineering standards and delivering results.
• Experience working cross-functionally with product, operations, data scientists and leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Routing Squad across strategy, delivery, team leadership, and execution of squad goals.
• Own technical direction for routing optimisation, supply‑demand matching, parcel distribution, forecasting and planning.
• Translate business priorities into clear technical strategy, measurable outcomes and pragmatic execution plans.
• Guide architecture and system design for scalable, reliable optimisation and planning systems.
• Collaborate with optimisation engineers, data scientists, product and operations to ship solutions.
• Lead exploration and evaluation of new approaches in routing, scheduling, optimisation and distributed systems.
• Set and uphold high engineering standards through reviews, architectural guidance and mentoring.
• Manage, coach and develop engineers in the squad, including hiring and performance planning.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Distributed systems

Backend development

System design

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Ownership mindset

Technical mentoring

Job description

HIVED is seeking a Lead Engineer to own the routing and planning domain within the city-scale delivery network. You’ll guide the Routing Squad, shape technical strategy, and build scalable systems that decide how parcels move efficiently.

You’ll work with data scientists, product, and operations to translate priorities into measurable outcomes, mentor engineers, and raise engineering standards in a fast-growing, hybrid London environment.