Lead Software Engineer (Python)

Burns Sheehan; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent InsurTech company seeks a Lead Software Engineer to drive backend development using Python and FastAPI within a collaborative, product-focused squad. This includes contributing to scalable systems, rotating across product domains, and deploying code in AWS EKS. Ideal candidates will have 5+ years of experience in backend engineering and strong communication skills. This is a unique opportunity to accelerate your career in a company poised for growth.

Benefits

Flexible benefits budget

Monthly socials

90-day work-from-anywhere perk

Qualifications

• 5+ years in backend engineering, ideally with Python.
• Experience in microservices or modern architecture.
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop scalable backend systems.
• Work across rotating product squads.
• Deploy and manage code in production.
• Collaborate with leads on complex problems.

Skills

Backend engineering experience

Python

Microservices

Communication skills

Initiative

Tools

FastAPI

GraphQL

gRPC

PostgreSQL

DynamoDB

AWS

EKS

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Lead Software Engineer – Python | FastAPI | AWS | Microservices

£90,000‑120,000 + Bonus and Equity at a household name

Flexible benefits budget | Monthly socials | 90 day work‑from‑anywhere perk

Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, AWS, EKS

Central London, 1 day a week (will consider once quarterly)

InsurTech | Microservices | Greenfield Development

We've partnered with a well known name in the insuretech space - one of the UK's most exciting scale‑ups over the past few years…

Following a successful profitability push, they're now entering a growth phase and expanding their product offerings. There's also ongoing work rewriting their Django monolith into modern microservices/FAST API based architecture.

You'll be joining a collaborative, product‑led squad environment, rotating across business domains. This is an opportunity to gain exposure to cloud‑native architecture, contribute to new platform initiatives, and accelerate your path to seniority.

With a new VP of Engineering in place and strong engineering leadership, they offer the right mix of scale‑up pace, engineering maturity, and long‑term growth potential.

They're looking for established Senior Software Engineers or Lead Developers with coaching and mentoring skills and/or the ability to influence the design and architecture of high volume, customer facing applications.

Tech stack:

Python (FastAPI, Starlette) | gRPC | GraphQL | PostgreSQL | DynamoDB | AWS | EKS | CI/CD pipelines

What you'll be doing:

• ✅ Contributing to the design and development of scalable backend systems
• ✅ Working across rotating product squads with full domain exposure
• ✅ Deploying and owning your code in production (AWS EKS)
• ✅ Collaborating with product and engineering leads to solve complex problems

Ideal Requirements:

• 🔹 5+ years backend engineering experience (ideally Python, but open to other languages)
• 🔹 Experience in microservices or modern architectural style
• 🔹 Excellent communication skills and willingness to take initiative

Nice to have:

• 🟢 FastAPI, GraphQL, gRPC
• 🟢 Experience with AWS and CI/CD tooling

This is a great opportunity to join a profitable, product‑focused company with ambitions to scale in 2025. You'll be surrounded by experienced engineers and given the tools to take ownership and grow your career.

Burns Sheehan Ltd will consider applications based only on skills and ability and will not discriminate on any grounds.