Software Engineer

Digital Waffle; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Job summary

Digital Waffle in Birmingham seeks a Lead Software Engineer to own the backend and steer the platform's next phase. You’ll combine hands-on delivery with leadership, mentoring, and architectural input while collaborating with Product, Front End and R&D teams to lift performance and velocity.

The role requires deep C++ expertise, experience building scalable services and a drive to integrate AI-powered tooling and modern development practices.

Qualifications

• Strong commercial experience in a leadership backend role.
• Expert-level C++ with knowledge of the standard library and algorithms.
• Experience designing and maintaining scalable backend services and APIs.
• Strong understanding of database systems and performance optimization.
• Previous experience leading, mentoring, or coaching software engineers.
• Experience working in Agile environments.
• Hands-on experience with AI or ML-powered solutions and AI tooling.
• Familiarity with LLMs and AI-assisted development tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and evolution of scalable backend systems and APIs.
• Own backend projects from planning to production delivery.
• Define technical requirements with Product, Architects and Engineers.
• Lead and mentor a team of backend engineers.
• Drive improvements in architecture, performance, reliability and observability.
• Identify bottlenecks and optimise queries and system performance.
• Evaluate and implement AI-powered tools to boost productivity and quality.
• Support adoption of AI engineering practices across the team.
• Lead sprint planning, stand-ups and retrospectives with Product and Delivery teams.
• Champion secure coding, testing, code review and best practices.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

C++ expertise

Backend delivery

AI adoption

Agile

Architecture

Tools

C++

STL

Databases

Job description

A growing technology business is hiring a Lead Software Engineer to take ownership of its backend engineering function and help shape the next phase of its platform.

This is a hands‑on leadership role for someone with deep C++ experience who enjoys combining technical delivery with mentoring, architecture and modern AI adoption. You’ll work closely with Product, Front End and R&D teams to improve platform performance, engineering quality and development velocity.

Salary: Up to £70k depending on experience

Location: Birmingham, hybrid working, 2 to 3 days per week onsite

What you'll be doing

• Lead the development and evolution of scalable backend systems and APIs.
• Take technical ownership of backend projects from planning through to production delivery.
• Work closely with Product Managers, Architects and Engineers to define technical requirements.
• Lead and mentor a team of backend engineers, supporting their development and technical progression.
• Drive improvements across architecture, performance, reliability and observability.
• Identify bottlenecks and optimise database queries, services and system performance.
• Evaluate and implement AI-powered tools to improve engineering productivity and software quality.
• Help shape the adoption of LLMs, AI‑assisted development and modern AI engineering practices across the team.
• Lead sprint planning, stand‑ups and retrospectives alongside Product and Delivery teams.
• Champion secure coding, testing, code review and engineering best practice.

What you'll need

• Strong commercial experience as a Lead Backend Engineer, Senior Backend Engineer or similar technical leadership role.
• Expert‑level C++ experience with strong knowledge of the standard library, STL containers and algorithms.
• Experience designing and maintaining scalable backend services and APIs.
• Strong understanding of database systems and performance optimisation.
• Previous experience leading, mentoring or coaching software engineers.
• Experience working within Agile engineering environments.
• Hands‑on experience developing, integrating or deploying AI or Machine Learning‑powered solutions.
• Familiarity with LLMs, AI‑assisted development tools and modern AI frameworks.
• Understanding of AI architecture including prompt engineering, vector databases, RAG and AI service integration.
• Experience evaluating and introducing AI tools that improve developer productivity.
• Strong problem‑solving skills with a proactive and pragmatic approach to engineering.

Nice to have

• Experience contributing to hiring and onboarding technical teams.
• Exposure to hardware‑integrated software, access control, security or workforce management platforms.
• Experience improving engineering observability, reliability and secure development practices.

This role would suit an experienced C++ engineer who wants to combine hands‑on development with technical leadership and play a key role in introducing modern AI capabilities into an established engineering environment.