Software Engineer

Digital Waffle; Royal Leamington Spa; Hybrid; GBP 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

Digital Waffle is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to own the backend and shape the platform's next phase. Hands-on leadership with deep C++ experience, mentoring and architecture.

You will work with Product, Front End and R&D teams to improve performance, quality and velocity, and explore AI-adoption, LLMs and AI tooling across the stack. Hybrid role in Leamington Spa with 2–3 days onsite.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading backend engineering teams.
• Deep C++ expertise with STL and algorithms.
• Experience designing scalable backend services and APIs.
• Strong DB knowledge and performance optimisation.
• Hands-on leadership with mentoring and architecture responsibilities.
• Experience in Agile engineering environments.
• Hands-on AI/ML powered solution development and integration.
• Familiarity with LLMs and modern AI tooling.
• Understanding AI architecture incl. prompt engineering, vector DBs, RAG and AI service integration.
• Ability to evaluate and introduce AI tools to boost productivity.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and evolution of scalable backend systems and APIs.
• Take technical ownership of backend projects from planning through to production delivery.
• Work with Product Managers, Architects and Engineers to define technical requirements.
• Lead and mentor a team of backend engineers, supporting their development and 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.
• Shape the adoption of LLMs, AI-assisted development and modern AI engineering practices.
• Lead sprint planning, stand-ups and retrospectives alongside Product and Delivery teams.
• Champion secure coding, testing, code review and engineering best practice.

Skills

Lead backend engineering

C++

APIs and backend services

Database performance tuning

Team mentoring

Agile methodologies

AI / ML capabilities

LLMs / AI tooling

Prompt engineering / vector databases

Code review / secure coding

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: Leamington Spa, 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.