Lead Software Engineer

Digital Waffle; Metropolitan Borough of Solihull; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

26 days holiday + Bank Holidays

Job summary

Digital Waffle is hiring a Development Manager to lead a small development team while staying hands-on with software development. You will split your time between coding, mentoring developers, reviewing code, shaping new features and improving development practices.

This leadership role rewards a hands-on approach, problem-solving, and a passion for helping others succeed. Strong experience with PHP/Laravel, React, AWS and Docker is advantageous.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of commercial software development experience.
• Experience leading or mentoring developers.
• Willingness to remain hands-on while leading.
• Clear communicator who builds trust and works collaboratively.
• Passion for software quality and user experience.

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 to delivery.
• Maintain high standards through code reviews.
• Remain hands-on, developing new functionality and improving existing features.
• Promote responsible use of AI to improve productivity and quality.
• Improve development processes, tooling and deployment practices.
• Contribute to a positive, collaborative team culture.
• Participate in a shared on-call rota for occasional issues.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Hands-on coding

Clear communicator

Tools

PHP / Laravel

React / React Native

AWS

Docker

CodeIgniter / jQuery

Git / GitHub

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