Lead Engineer

Grant Thornton UK LLP; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Income protection

Matched pension

Life cover

Private medical

Doctor@Hand

Stronger Minds

Job summary

Grant Thornton UK is seeking a Lead Engineer who will own the technical direction and delivery quality across one or two small teams. This hands-on role involves building solutions while mentoring engineers and setting engineering standards within a matrix organization.

You’ll work with product managers and senior stakeholders to translate technical constraints into business language and ensure predictable delivery.

Qualifications

• Hands-on IC, building solutions while mentoring engineers
• Experience with AI tooling and GenAI platforms
• Strong understanding of systems and architecture design

Responsibilities

• Own technical direction and delivery quality across one or two small teams
• Mentor engineers and develop their judgement on AI tooling
• Build and maintain integrations, API connections and infrastructure for GenAI platform
• Represent engineering with senior stakeholders and translate technical design to business needs
• Keep technical debt visible and delivery pace predictable
• Contribute to engineering standards and improve the wider function

Skills

Python

C# .Net

AI tooling

GenAI experience

Mentorship

System design

End-to-end delivery

Tools

APIs

Cloud

CI/CD

Job description

• As a Lead Engineer within our team, you’ll own technical direction and delivery quality across one or two small teams, working directly alongside product managers and senior business stakeholders
• You’ll be a hands‑on individual contributor, building solutions while mentoring the engineers around you, setting the standard for how problems get solved, and being accountable for what gets shipped
• You’ll work in a matrix, being embedded in a service line for day‑to‑day delivery and connected to a wider engineering function for craft, standards and career
• Set technical direction for your team(s) and own the quality of what is delivered
• Mentor engineers on craft, and develop their judgement about when and how to use AI tooling
• Build and maintain the integrations, MCP builds, API connections and infrastructure that sit beneath and around our GenAI platform
• Build systems, tools and solutions in an AI-native way
• Represent engineering credibly with senior stakeholders, translating between technical design and business need in both directions
• Keep technical debt visible, trade‑offs explicit, and delivery pace predictable
• Contribute to our engineering standards and help the wider function improve over time

Benefits

• Income protection
• Matched pension
• Life cover
• Private medical, including anytime access to Doctor@Hand and Stronger Minds
• Professional subscriptions

Stakeholder presence. You can work directly and credibly with non‑technical people at a senior level, and translate technical constraints into business language without losing precisionEngineering depth. You’ve written and shipped production-grade software – most likely in Python, C# .Net, or both (or similar). You think in systems, hold the line on fundamentals, and know what AI tooling is doing under the hoodDelivery credibility. You’ve owned end‑to‑end delivery in a team‑based model. You surface problems early, bring options, and keep stakeholders informed without being managedAI-native judgement. You’re fluent across AI-native engineering, from building natively in the platform, using AI‑enabled tools to accelerate your own craft, and taking coalface experiments through to production‑grade operationalised solutionsIt would be great if you had following skill, but don’t worry if you don’t tick the box, we’ll help you develop along the wayAI and LLM experience - you’re comfortable using GenAI tools such as Copilot, Claude or ChatGPT