Lead Software Engineer

Digital Waffle; Metropolitan Borough of Solihull; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Digital Waffle 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, and shaping new features, driving improvements in development practices.

As a leader who models excellence, you will foster collaboration, uphold quality, and help the team deliver robust solutions.

Qualifications

• 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 collaborates.
• 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.

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.

Skills

Hands-on leadership

Mentoring developers

Software development

Clear communication

Team collaboration

Problem solving

AWS experience

Cloud infrastructure

CI/CD

Tools

Git / GitHub

Docker

Laravel

CodeIgniter

jQuery

React

React Native

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.

Hours: Full-time

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