Software Development Engineer III

Tesco PLC; Digswell; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus up to 20%

25 days holiday + personal day

Private medical insurance

Maternity & paternity leave

Job summary

Tesco PLC is seeking a Software Development Engineer 3 in the UK for a senior Individual Contributor role. You will contribute deep technical depth and breadth, driving ownership of product development and defining architectural direction across the directorate.

You will coach peers, mentor engineers, participate in hiring, and lead key features while balancing short-term delivery with long-term strategy. The role emphasizes cross-team collaboration and technical excellence.

Qualifications

• Senior IC with deep and broad software engineering expertise.
• Proven ownership of product development and delivery.
• Mentor peers and contribute to hiring.
• Influence architectural decisions across the directorate.
• Able to balance short-term delivery with long-term strategy.

Responsibilities

• Lead key features and architectural decisions.
• Coach and mentor engineers across teams.
• Own product development from design to deployment.
• Collaborate with product, program managers, and other directorates.

Skills

Technical leadership

Mentoring

Hiring & interviewing

System design

Software development

Job description

As a Software Development Engineer 3 you are in a senior Individual Contributor engineering role at Tesco. Your proficiency with foundational computer science and software engineering concepts is taken as a given, and you will have proven significant technical depth and breadth. At this level you will be playing an active role in technical leadership, with proven impact across teams and the wider directorate. You take ownership and accountability of the development of the products in your domain. You participate in activities that build capability across the organisation: coaching and mentoring of existing colleagues, and interviewing/hiring of new colleagues. Once you have reached the SDE3 level, progression will vary significantly, and is likely to include more lateral opportunities than vertical promotion. This is also the level of core technical knowledge you must reach before considering a sideways move to the management track. You will be responsible for My impact reaches beyond my immediate team, and I provide perspective and context for technology choices across my directorate. The work that I do has foundational impact across teams in my area and the directorate that I am a member of. I am a technical leader for my teams and others will regularly come to me for mentorship and support. I am comfortable both supporting other engineers in their delivery and taking the lead on key features as appropriate. I have delivered multiple projects that move the needle for the business. I have demonstrated technical breadth and depth; I am an expert in my domain. At this level I display a high degree of ownership for the work conducted by the team. I am accountable for the quality of every result, produced by individuals and teams. I am an advocate of best practices across my directorate. I build maturity in the way we develop, deliver and operate services. I ensure that we're learning from the best in the industry, designing and implementing appropriate testing and deployment strategies. I can anticipate feature evolution of my product. I utilise this when facilitating design sessions to ensure that the system architecture evolves to support future requirements. I understand the wider Tesco architectural strategy and champion its application to the systems that I work on. At this level my job starts to become just as much about exercising technical judgment as it does about implementation. I am comfortable managing competing priorities and am able to bring order to ambiguous scenarios. I create optimal outcomes combining short-term and long-term goals, utilising data driven decision making techniques to take appropriate trade-offs. I can identify risks and proactively engage with product and programme managers. I am a strong communicator within my team and to my stakeholders. I am a trusted mentor, a role-model for more junior engineers. I am approachable and am frequently asked to mentor those around me. I prioritise sharing skills and technical knowledge across the directorate, both informally in 1:1 discussions and by arranging more formal training opportunities. I build capability and raise the bar by contributing to hiring and interviewing practices. I regularly participate in recruitment assessments. Externally I represent the best of Tesco Technology to attract new talent and encourage interest in our organisation. You will need Programming System Design Development Practise Infrastructure Software Security Operations and Maintenance Core Technology Development Lifecycle Product Methodologies Retail Technology Awareness Communication & Influencing Data Analytics & Insights Strategic Thinking & Problem Solving Finance & Procurement Curiosity & Learning Embracing and Enabling Change

You might know us as a supermarket, technology company or even for our award-winning mobile network. Truth is, we're all of those things, and much more. Our colleagues work with one goal in mind, helping to make every day a little better for our customers, colleagues and communities all over the world. No two customers are the same, neither are our colleagues., Tesco has become a market leader by doing the little things that really matter for our customers and colleagues. It's part of what makes Tesco such a great place to work, and we're proud to have been accredited as one of Britain's Top Employers again this year. We're the UK's number one retailer and we pride ourselves on offering a great shopping experience. We are passionate about our food, merchandise and services and will always try to get things right for our customers. But did you know we also offer great job opportunities? With stores, distribution centres and offices across the UK, and a vast variety of roles, we are always looking for people who have a hunger to work with customers and colleagues across our exciting business. We believe in treating each other with respect and giving everyone an equal opportunity to get on. It's our people that make the difference every day - helping us make a difference for our customers

• Annual bonus scheme of up to 20% of base salary.
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays).
• Private medical insurance.
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (12 months service required at the qualifying date) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave.
• Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing.