Lead Software Engineer

Digital Waffle; Metropolitan Borough of Solihull; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Digital Waffle in the United Kingdom is seeking a Development Manager to lead a small development team while remaining hands-on with software development.

You will split your time between coding, mentoring developers, reviewing code, shaping features and improving development practices in a hybrid Solihull-based role.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in commercial software development
• Experience leading or mentoring developers
• Strong technical skills with hands-on approach
• Clear communicator who builds trust and collaborates
• Willingness to stay hands-on and share knowledge
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, AWS preferred

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and mentor a small team of developers.
• Provide constructive code reviews and feedback.
• Plan and shape new features from UI discussions to delivery.
• Maintain high standards of software quality and architecture.
• Remain hands-on developing new functionality and improving features.
• Promote responsible use of AI to improve productivity and quality.
• Improve development processes, tooling and deployment practices.
• Foster a positive, collaborative team culture.
• Participate in a shared on-call rota for critical issues.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Communication

Problem solving

Cloud AWS

Tools

PHP/Laravel

React/React Native

CodeIgniter/jQuery

Docker

Git/GitHub

AWS

Job description

We're looking for a Development Manager to lead a small development team while remaining hands-on with software development.

You'll split your time between coding, mentoring developers, reviewing code, shaping new features and improving development practices. This is a leadership role for someone who leads by example, enjoys solving problems and is passionate about helping others succeed.

Location: Hybrid - 3 days per week in Solihull

Hours: Full-time, Monday-Friday, 8:30-17:00

Holiday: 26 days + Bank Holidays

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and mentor a small team of developers.
• Support developer growth through feedback and knowledge sharing.
• Plan and shape new features, from UI discussions through to delivery.
• Maintain high standards through effective code reviews.
• Remain hands-on, developing new functionality and improving existing features.
• Help the team use AI responsibly to improve productivity and software quality.
• Improve development processes, tooling and deployment practices.
• Contribute to a positive, collaborative team culture.
• Participate in a shared on-call rota for occasional critical platform issues.

About You

• 5+ years' commercial software development experience.
• Previous experience leading or mentoring developers.
• Strong technical skills with a willingness to remain hands-on.
• Clear communicator who builds trust and works collaboratively.
• Approachable, humble and willing to share knowledge.
• Comfortable challenging ideas constructively.
• Passionate about software quality and user experience.
• Enjoys continuous learning and problem-solving.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, ideally AWS.

Technical Environment

• PHP / Laravel
• React / React Native
• AWS
• Docker
• CodeIgniter / jQuery (legacy systems being migrated to Laravel)
• Git / GitHub