Lead Software Engineer

CPS Group (UK) Limited; Cardiff; Hybrid; GBP 68,000 - 83,000; Full time

Job summary

CPS Group (UK) Limited is seeking an Engineering Team Lead in Cardiff with a strong hands-on coding background. The role combines technical leadership with delivering production-grade software in a financial software environment.

You will spend ~90% of your time writing, reviewing, and shipping code while mentoring a team of four engineers and shaping the technical direction with key stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Experience building backend systems in Java/Spring Boot.
• Proven project delivery with balanced scope and quality.
• Prior line management or leadership readiness.
• Strong communicator with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Write, review and ship production code with the team.
• Break down features into increments and manage dependencies.
• Integrate AI and automation into engineering workflows.
• Conduct 1:1s and foster code-review culture.
• Translate technical trade-offs for non-technical stakeholders.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Code reviews

Mentoring

Stakeholder comms

Tools

Jenkins

Grafana

Prometheus

Job description

Engineering Team Lead (Hands-on Development)

Cardiff | Hybrid (3 days a week on-site)

Up to £75,000 + up to £15,000 bonus

AI is changing how modern engineering teams operate - smaller squads, faster pace, and higher output. I am recruiting for a well-established financial software business in Cardiff looking for a hands-on Engineering Team Lead to guide a team of 4 engineers.

You will spend roughly 90% of your time hands-on writing, reviewing, and shipping production code, while using the remaining 10% to mentor your team, shape technical direction, and drive delivery with key stakeholders.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Stay on the tools: Write, review, and ship high-quality production code alongside your team while guiding architectural and design decisions.
• Drive delivery: Break down complex financial software features into deliverable increments, manage dependencies, and keep ways of working lean.
• Champion practical AI: Integrate AI and automation into day-to-day engineering workflows where it genuinely adds speed and quality.
• Mentor & grow talent: Run structured 1:1s, foster a constructive code-review culture, and support the career progression of 4 engineers.
• Bridge tech & business: Translate technical trade-offs clearly for non-technical stakeholders and external clients, ensuring smooth, no-surprise releases.]

What We’re Looking For:

• Strong background building robust backend systems (Java / Spring Boot) with sharp technical judgement around PR reviews and technical debt.
• Proven experience planning and delivering software projects, balancing pace, scope, and code quality under pressure.
• Prior line management experience, or a strong track record of mentoring engineers and a readiness to step into formal leadership.
• Clear, confident communicator comfortable speaking with both engineering teams and external customers.
• Nice to have: Experience in FinTech/financial services, React/TypeScript, CI/CD (Jenkins), or observability tools (Grafana/Prometheus).

Why Apply?

You’ll be joining an 80-strong Cardiff tech hub powering mission-critical credit and loan management platforms across 10 European countries - giving you the stability of a market leader with the agility of a small, AI-enabled team.