Lead Software Engineer

NearTech Search; Liverpool; Remote; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading EdTech company is seeking a Lead Developer to enhance engineering output within a transformative platform. This role involves hands-on development, team leadership, and the integration of modern practices in a fully remote setup, offering between £70k and £90k based on experience.

Benefits

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Opportunity to shape culture and tech strategy

Options for coworking or in-person collaboration

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience with TypeScript/JavaScript across front and back end.
• Proven ability to lead or mentor other developers.
• Strong experience with React, Node.js, and GraphQL.

Responsibilities

• Line managing 3-4 engineers and mentoring junior developers.
• Active contribution to the codebase (roughly 50% hands-on).
• Raising standards on testing and deployment reliability.

Skills

TypeScript

JavaScript

React

Node.js

GraphQL

CI/CD

DevOps

Job description

Lead Developer - JS - £75k - £90k

I'm working with a transformative EdTech redefining how schools, learning facilities, and staff track and monitor students whilst providing real time analytics and data to care-givers and parents alike. It's a really innovative technology with a strong track record of success.

The firm has a CTO and developers in place, now, whilst the core product has been built, they're really looking for someone to sit between the two as a hands-on technical leader, someone who thoroughly enjoys coding, someone who relishes in keeping their team up-to-date in the latest technologies and practices, and someone who can innovate and think outside of the box.

This isn't a CTO role but is a future Head of Development position.

Who This Suits?

This role is ideal for someone who:

Has already been a Lead Developer or Senior Engineer with unofficial team leadership responsibilities and is ready to step up Enjoys both shipping features and coaching people Can bring clarity and stability to a team with big ambitions and growing demands Likes to work across the stack - and isn’t scared of legacy systems or technical debt

Given the EdTech space is part of a highly regulated environment, I'm looking for candidates from similar: HealthTech, MarTech, EdTech or FinTech as they will best know how to deliver within some of the more pernikety intracacies of regulations and guidance.

About the Tech:

The platform is built using modern JavaScript tools and cloud infrastructure. The current stack includes:

TypeScript, Node.js, React, and GraphQL MongoDB Atlas AWS-based infrastructure using ECS, Lambda, and CloudWatch CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions, Terraform, and IaC Testing via Cypress (E2E), Jest/Vitest (unit) Observability with tools like Sentry, Datadog, or New Relic

You won’t be starting from scratch, the platform is already live and scaling, but there is real scope to improve code quality, DevOps maturity, and feature velocity as the business continues to grow and scale.

This is a senior-level engineering position with a clear mandate: build a stronger engineering team and ship faster, more reliable code.

You’ll be responsible for:

Team leadership : line managing 3-4 engineers, mentoring junior and mid-level devs, reviewing code, and guiding technical decisions Hands-on development : contributing actively to the codebase (roughly 50% hands-on) Engineering quality : raising the bar on code standards, testing, and deployment reliability Cross-functional work : partnering with the Product Owner and wider business to translate priorities into outcomes Visibility and communication : presenting updates at weekly company-wide meetings and feeding progress into senior leadership

There is a clear desire to improve engineering output, move past legacy practices, and support a DevOps-first, test-driven approach to feature delivery. You’ll be central to making that happen.

What You’ll Bring

Must-haves:

5+ years of experience with TypeScript/JavaScript across front and back end Strong experience with React, Node.js, and GraphQL Proven ability to lead or mentor other developers - formally/informally Clear understanding of modern testing, CI/CD, and DevOps principles Confident communicating with non-technical stakeholders

Nice-to-haves:

Exposure to QA automation, legacy platform upgrades, or infrastructure-as-code Comfortable working in smaller product teams with a high degree of autonomy

You’ll need to be comfortable presenting your work to the wider business , including weekly all-hands. That doesn’t mean being the loudest in the room, but you can’t hide away. You’ll need to articulate what’s happening, what’s blocked, and what’s next.

Package & Benefits

£70,000–£90,000 base salary, depending on experience Fully remote (UK only), with options for coworking or in-person collaboration 25 days holiday + bank holidays Opportunity to shape the culture and tech strategy in a growing product company

Unfortunately this role cannot offer visa sponsorship. For more information, don't hesitate to reach out.