Lead Software Engineer

KE Technology; London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job description

Job Description

We're partnered with a product-first tech company building real-time, high-scale distributed systems that power millions of events per day.

This role is perfect for a hands-on Tech Lead who enjoys solving deep technical challenges, guiding small teams, and shaping the architecture of systems where latency, scale, and reliability matter most. You’ll work on the backend core that drives their main product—helping evolve it into a horizontally scalable, cloud-native platform.

Package & Benefits

• Competitive package up to 150,000
• Hybrid working model (London HQ)
• Private health insurance
• Daily chef-prepared lunch at HQ
• Annual learning budget (£1,000)
• Global remote working (20 days/year)

The Role

• Lead a small engineering team while staying deeply hands-on
• Design and optimise high-volume, distributed backend services
• Drive quality engineering, observability, and fault-tolerance
• Collaborate closely with PMs and senior engineers on roadmap delivery
• Shape the platform’s technical evolution through major architectural changes
• Champion modern DevOps and deployment practices

Tech Environment

• Rust, Python, PostgreSQL, Kafka
• Kubernetes, AWS, Terraform, GitLab CI
• CI/CD-first culture with daily production deploys

What You’ll Need

• 5+ years of backend experience in modern, high-scale environments
• Strong hands-on coding skills in either Rust, Golang, C++ or Python
• Deep understanding of distributed system architecture and performance
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers in high-performance teams
• Comfortable balancing architecture, delivery, and hands-on implementation
• Familiarity with cloud-native ops and infrastructure-as-code tools

You'll be joining a team that values ownership, simplicity, and high performance. It’s a place for engineers who want impact without layers of process.

Interested? Apply now or drop me a message to learn more.