Lead Developer

Maxwell Bond; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 77,000 - 94,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Manchester City Centre office visits

Travel to Lytham head office

Job summary

Maxwell Bond is partnered with a growing organisation seeking a hands-on Lead Developer to shape the technical future. You will provide architectural direction, mentor the team and drive the move from a legacy monolith to a modern services-based architecture.

You’ll stay close to code while promoting CI/CD, automated testing and AI-enabled practices to enhance delivery. The role is hybrid with Manchester City Centre visits and some travel to Lytham.

Qualifications

• Experience in Azure cloud and cloud-native development.
• Exposure to AI-enabled engineering practices.
• Distributed or services-based architectures.
• CI/CD and modern DevOps practices.
• Infrastructure as Code with Terraform.
• Apply test-driven development to improve code quality.
• Technical leadership and mentoring experience is essential.
• Experience improving engineering standards and delivery.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across engineering, shaping architecture, standards and best practices.
• Stay hands-on with development and contribute to code.
• Lead transition from monolithic to services-based architecture.
• Drive engineering excellence with automated testing and CI/CD.
• Mentor and coach developers to raise technical capability.
• Collaborate with product and business to align technical decisions with commercial goals.
• Improve platform performance, scalability, reliability, and observability.
• Support AI-driven engineering practices to boost productivity and delivery.
• Identify and remove bottlenecks to enable delivery.

Skills

Technical leadership

Architecture design

Mentoring

Cloud-native development

Tools

Terraform

Job description

We're working with a growing organisation that is undertaking a major engineering transformation and is looking for a hands-on Lead Developer to help shape its technical future. This is a key leadership role, combining software engineering, architecture, mentoring and technical strategy as the business modernises its platform and adopts a more services-based approach.

You'll provide technical direction, lead architectural decisions, drive engineering best practices and support the development of a talented engineering team. This Lead Developer role will suit someone who enjoys staying close to the code while influencing wider technology decisions and business outcomes.

As their Lead Developer, you'll:

• Provide technical leadership across the engineering function, helping to shape architecture, standards and best practices.
• Remain hands-on with development, contributing to code and supporting the delivery of complex technical solutions.
• Lead the ongoing transition from a legacy monolithic platform to a modern services-based architecture.
• Drive engineering excellence through automated testing, CI/CD and quality-led development practices.
• Mentor and coach developers, helping to raise technical capability across the team.
• Collaborate with product and business stakeholders to ensure technical decisions align with commercial objectives.
• Improve platform performance, scalability, reliability and operational visibility.
• Support the adoption of AI-driven engineering practices to enhance productivity and delivery outcomes.
• Identify and remove technical and delivery bottlenecks, enabling teams to deliver more effectively.
• Take ownership of improvements and high-quality software delivery.

Key Technical Requirements:

• Microsoft Azure and cloud-native development (AWS or GCP is also relevant)
• Exposure to AI-enabled engineering practices
• Distributed or services-based architectures
• CI/CD and modern DevOps engineering practices is highly desirable
• Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and deployment capabilities
• Apply test-driven development to improve development and maintaining code
• Technical leadership and mentoring experience is a must
• Experience improving engineering standards, quality and delivery

Salary up to 85K, Hybrid working (Manchester City Centre office visits couple days a week), ownership of technical direction and play a major role in shaping architecture

*Please note that travel to their Lytham head office will be required around 4 times a month*