Lead Software Engineer

Jackalope Digital LLC; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment

Private medical cover

Pension plan

Life assurance

Income protection

Music industry perks

Winter break

Job summary

Sony Music Entertainment in London seeks a Lead Software Engineer to join the PDEGO team and shape architecture, standards and long-term technical direction at global scale. You'll mentor engineers and partner with product and business stakeholders to deliver scalable platforms.

You will design microservices, drive reliability, performance and observability, and collaborate across distributed systems while shaping the roadmap for the platform you focus on.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience implementing distributed systems.
• Strong experience with Python and JavaScript.
• Experience building frontend applications using TypeScript and React.
• Experience with various database technologies (Snowflake, MySQL, Neo4j, Kafka, OpenSearch).
• Experience designing microservices and APIs using REST, HTTP, and OAuth.
• Comfortable with AWS cloud technologies.
• Experience writing tests (unit/integration/automation).
• Experience working in Agile teams.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder influence.
• Mentoring engineers and driving technical excellence.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical design and implementation of scalable software solutions for global B2B2C platforms.
• Drive architecture decisions across distributed systems, APIs, data pipelines, and platform services.
• Partner with Product, Operations and stakeholders to translate complex requirements into technical solutions.
• Write clean, well-tested code and establish engineering best practices.
• Lead architecture reviews and modernization initiatives.
• Design resilient services and integrations with internal and third-party platforms.
• Champion reliability, performance, observability and operational excellence.
• Mentor engineers through coaching, code reviews, and guidance.
• Identify technical debt and lead scalability improvements.
• Troubleshoot production issues and perform root cause analysis.
• Collaborate to define long-term technical roadmap for the platform.

Skills

Distributed systems

Python

JavaScript

TypeScript

React

REST APIs

OAuth

AWS

Testing

Agile

Mentoring

Communication

Architecture

Data modeling

Tools

Snowflake

MySQL

Neo4j

Kafka

OpenSearch

Job description

About Sony Music Entertainment

At Sony Music Entertainment, we fuel the creative journey. We’ve played a pioneering role in music history, from the first-ever music label to the invention of the flat disc record. We’ve nurtured some of music’s most iconic artists and produced some of the most influential recordings of all time.

Today, we work in more than 70 countries, supporting a diverse roster of international superstars, developing and independent artists, and visionary creators. From our position at the intersection of music, entertainment, and technology, we bring imagination and expertise to the newest products and platforms, embrace new business models, employ breakthrough tools, and provide powerful insights that help our artists push creative boundaries and reach new audiences. In everything we do, we're committed to artistic integrity, transparency, and entrepreneurship.

Sony Music Entertainment is a member of the Sony family of global companies.

Sony Music's Product, Design, Engineering & Global Operations (PDEGO) team is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to join our engineering team in our London office. Our PDEGO suite powers all of Sony Music's most critical business capabilities—ensuring monetization, data and analytics depth, marketing and music release at scale for artists across the globe.

As a technical lead, you'll help shape the architecture, engineering standards, and long-term technical direction of one of our product spaces at global scale. You'll work closely with engineering, product, and business stakeholders to modernize systems while mentoring engineers and driving technical excellence across the team.

What you'll do:

• Lead the technical design and implementation of scalable software solutions supporting Sony Music's critical global B2B2C platforms.
• Drive architecture decisions across distributed systems, APIs, data pipelines, and platform services.
• Partner closely with Product, Operations, and teams of stakeholders to translate complex business requirements into elegant technical solutions.
• Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code while establishing engineering best practices across the team
• Lead technical design sessions, architecture reviews, and modernization initiatives
• Design resilient services and integrations with internal and third-party platforms
• Champion application reliability, performance, observability, and operational excellence
• Mentor engineers through technical coaching, code reviews, and architectural guidance
• Identify technical debt and lead initiatives to improve scalability, maintainability, and developer productivity
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and drive root cause analysis across distributed systems
• Collaborate with engineering leadership to define the long-term technical roadmap for the platform you are focused on

Who you are:

Seeking 10+ years of software engineering experience in the following areas:

• Experience implementing distributed systems
• Strong experience with Python and JavaScript
• Experience building frontend applications using TypeScript and React
• Experience with various database technologies and query languages (we use Snowflake, MySQL, Neo4j, Kafka, OpenSearch, and more)
• Experience designing microservices and APIs using REST, HTTP, and OAuth
• Comfortable with AWS cloud technologies
• Experience using log analysis and monitoring tools to investigate production issues and improve reliability
• Experience writing unit, integration, and automated tests
• Experience working within Agile development teams
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence engineering and business stakeholders
• Passion for solving complex technical problems and mentoring engineers

The ideal candidate

• Deep understanding of software architecture, domain modeling, and scalable system design
• Experience designing data models and optimizing schemas for complex business domains
• Experience working with large datasets and high-volume systems
• Can mobilize engineering teams around a technical vision and lead execution across multiple initiatives
• Establishes engineering best practices, coding standards, and development processes that improve quality and delivery
• Strong systems-thinking mindset with the ability to balance immediate business needs against long-term platform investments
• Demonstrated experience leading complex technical initiatives without direct people management responsibility
• Passionate about mentoring engineers and fostering a culture of technical excellence
• Interest in music, technology, and building systems that directly support artists and creators

What we give you:

• You join a vibrant global community with the opportunity to channel your passion every day
• A modern office environment designed for you, empowering you to bring your best
• Hybrid work environment: Our London office is designed for collaboration, offering a balanced hybrid setup (3 days in office / 2 days remote)
• Investment in your professional growth and development enabling you to thrive in our vibrant community
• The space to accelerate progress, positively disrupt and create what happens next
• We give you the platform to champion positive change, with the opportunity to contribute to our social impact, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
• We provide an excellent range of benefits like private medical cover, a generous pension scheme, life assurance, income protection, plus loads of music industry perks. There’s also time off over winter break

Equal Opportunities
As an active part of a culturally and socially diverse society, Sony Music’s aim is that our workforce is diverse and inclusive. Sony Music is an equal opportunity employer and supports workforce diversity.
We employ, retain, promote and otherwise treat all employees and job applicants according to their merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We apply this policy without regard to any individual’s sex, race, religion, origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition or disability.
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Please note that applicants must be at least 18 years of age.