Lead Software Engineer

StepChange Debt Charity; Leeds; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Hollybank Trustees Ltd in Leeds is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to shape the design and delivery of our cloud-first web platforms, powered by Next.js, TypeScript, and AWS.

You will act as technical authority, set front-end standards, mentor engineers, and drive CI/CD, DevSecOps, and infrastructure-as-code practices within Agile squads to deliver high-quality digital experiences for clients.

This role combines hands-on coding with technical leadership in a fast-moving environment.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on experience with TypeScript, React, NextJS, and AWS.
• Experience designing RESTful APIs and relational databases.
• Proficiency with CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Actions, and observability tooling.
• Ability to drive architectural decisions and mentor engineers in an Agile setting.

Responsibilities

• Define standards, patterns, and practices for secure, scalable front-end development across React/NextJS.
• Provide architectural leadership for cloud-native applications on AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, RDS, Cognito).
• Develop reusable components and libraries; contribute high-quality code.
• Lead delivery within Agile squads and mentor engineers to raise capability and delivery speed.

Skills

TypeScript

React

NextJS

AWS

CI/CD

GitHub Actions

DevSecOps

infrastructure-as-code

Tools

RESTful APIs

Relational databases

Git workflows

Observability tooling

Job description

Ready to shape the future of digital experiences and become the technical authority behind our customer-facing web platforms?

Want to lead the design and delivery of scalable, cloud-first applications that make a real difference to people's lives?

Excited by the challenge of modernising legacy systems while driving engineering excellence across Agile teams?

As our Lead Software Engineer, you'll play a pivotal role in evolving StepChange's digital capability, leading the design and delivery of robust, scalable, and high-quality software solutions. Acting as the technical authority for our NextJS-based web channels hosted on AWS, you'll drive front-end architecture decisions, build reusable components, and champion modern engineering practices that support our cloud-first strategy.

Working within a collaborative Agile environment, you'll combine hands-on development with technical leadership, helping to shape our engineering standards while delivering exceptional digital experiences for the clients who rely on our services every day.

What will you be doing?

As the technical lead for our front-end engineering capability, you'll define the standards, patterns, and practices that underpin the development of secure, scalable, and high-performing digital products. You'll provide architectural leadership across our TypeScript, React, and NextJS ecosystem, ensuring consistency, maintainability, and quality across our software landscape.

Remaining hands-on, you'll design, build, and maintain cloud-native applications using AWS technologies including Lambda, API Gateway, RDS, and Cognito. You'll develop reusable React components and shared libraries, contribute high-quality code, and help establish modern engineering approaches through CI/CD, automated testing, GitHub Actions, DevSecOps, and infrastructure-as-code practices.

Working closely with Product Owners, Solution Architects, and fellow engineers, you'll lead software delivery within Agile squads, turning business requirements into practical technical solutions and ensuring high-quality outcomes are delivered at pace. As a player-coach, you'll mentor and support engineers, helping grow capability across React, NextJS, AWS, and software engineering best practices while fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

You'll also champion operational excellence by improving developer onboarding, enhancing monitoring and observability, supporting incident management and root cause analysis, and driving improvements in reliability, productivity, and delivery velocity. Alongside this, you'll work with stakeholders across the business to promote engineering excellence and help shape the future direction of our digital platforms.

You will bring

Your expertise in modern software engineering and cloud-native application development to a role where you'll influence both technology decisions and delivery outcomes. You'll have strong hands-on experience with TypeScript, React, NextJS, and AWS, alongside a passion for building secure, scalable, and maintainable solutions that deliver outstanding user experiences.

You'll bring proven experience designing and developing modern web applications, with a strong understanding of RESTful APIs, relational databases, Git-based development workflows, and software engineering best practice. Experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Actions, observability tooling, and cloud-native architectures will enable you to drive quality and consistency across the engineering function.

You'll thrive in an Agile environment, balancing strategic thinking with hands-on technical delivery. Whether you're mentoring engineers, leading architectural decisions, improving development processes, or modernising legacy applications built on Angular and .NET, you'll play a key role in strengthening engineering capability and helping us deliver innovative digital solutions that make a meaningful impact.

Experience within regulated environments, distributed teams, enterprise cloud programmes, headless CMS platforms, or legacy Microsoft technologies would be advantageous, but most importantly you'll bring a passion for engineering excellence and continuous improvement.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Equality, diversity, and inclusion are incredibly important to us; we have a culture of belonging. We're always looking to increase the diversity of our workforce to ensure we can provide the best service possible for everyone. It's not just about the professional experience you bring – we're interested in who you are and your potential. If there's an adjustment to our recruitment process that would help you to be your best, speak to our team and they'll be happy to help.