Software Engineering Lead

CMR Surgical; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Pension

Healthcare

Enhanced parental leave

Job summary

CMR Surgical is seeking a Software Engineering Lead to oversee two teams building the data platforms, services and infrastructure for the Versius system. You will provide technical credibility, coaching and hands-on mentoring while steering delivery.

This hybrid role requires minimum one day per week in Cambridge, with on-site time as needed. You will work across AWS, Python/TypeScript stacks, and Databricks data lake, shaping AI-native engineering practices to deliver reliable products that

Qualifications

• Experience leading software teams and growing people.
• Track record in delivering software, data or platform projects.
• Comfortable with change and building structure that scales.

Responsibilities

• Lead two software teams (3–6 engineers each) with clear direction and accountability.
• Coach and develop engineers through mentoring and feedback.
• Line-manage around 4 engineers, keeping reporting lines lean.
• Own team delivery, quality, support and operations; push pragmatic improvements.
• Guide teams through AI-native development and guardrail design.

Skills

Team leadership

Mentoring

Software engineering

AI coding tools

Stakeholder communication

Tools

AWS

Databricks

Python

TypeScript

Job description

AtCMR Surgical, we're revolutionising the future of minimal access surgery withVersius, our next-generation surgical robotic system. We're growing fast, and we’re on a mission to transform how surgery is delivered globally for the benefit of patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems.

Our values—Ambitious, Humble, People-Focused, and Fair & Responsibledefine our approach to innovation, partnership, and growth. If you believe in making a meaningful difference in healthcare and want to be part of a purpose-driven company with bold ambitions, now is the time to join us.

CMR is an exciting and evolving company to be joining right now. Our commitment to our goal of building a world-class medical devices company is underpinned by the ground-breaking innovation of our next generation of surgical robots and a diverse team of talented and supportive individuals.

We’re breaking new ground which makes working here exciting, it provides autonomy, opportunity and makes the things you do visible. Come and join us and see what you’re capable of.

About the Role

We're looking for a Software Engineering Lead to join CMR Surgical and lead two of our teams as they build the data platforms, services, and infrastructure that enable more patients to benefit from minimal access surgery using the Versius Surgical System.

This is a people-leadership role, running two teams day to day and reporting to our Engineering Manager. This isn’t a hands-on coding role, but you’ll need the technical credibility to lead the teams. If you keep your hand in with the odd prototype or bug fix, all the better.

Within our Data department we deal with telemetry streaming from hundreds of surgical systems worldwide. We build the systems that turn this data into something useful - from event-driven pipelines and backend services to APIs, data platforms, and customer-facing apps. Our cloud stack is predominantly in AWS, with a number of serverless microservices (mainly Python and TypeScript), databases, and a Databricks datalake, all supporting web applications, digital products, operational insights, and AI research.

We're also in the middle of rethinking how we build software and moving toward AI-native engineering practices. This is not just about new tools but a real change in how teams work. We don't have this fully figured out yet; we're looking for someone who's genuinely up for figuring it out with us.

This is a hybrid role, with a minimum of 1 day per week in our Cambridge office, plus additional time on-site when needed.

Responsibilities

• Lead two software teams (with around 3-6 people in each), building clear direction, accountability and a healthy team culture, working closely with each team's product owner.
• Coach and develop the engineers through regular feedback, mentoring and support with their growth.
• Line manage around 4 engineers (a mix of mid-level and senior). We keep reporting lines small on purpose, because good line management takes real time.
• Own how the teams work: planning, delivery, quality, support and operations. Help them make pragmatic, evidence-based improvements and fix what's slowing them down.
• Guide the teams through our move to AI-native development. Help engineers find what works, share it widely, build sensible guardrails, and rethink how work is specified, built, reviewed and shipped.
• Look after engineering standards across web apps, data pipelines and our datalake: pragmatic design, proportionate testing, automated deployment, observability and documentation that works for humans and agents.
• Work with Product, Commercial, Support and other engineering teams to turn real needs into reliable products, and keep stakeholders informed about progress, risks and trade-offs.
• Work with the Engineering Manager on team structure, priorities, capacity and the wider direction of engineering in the Data department.

We’d expect you to be willing to turn your hand to anything within the Data remit that helps the team deliver its objectives.

About you

To be successful in this role, you’ll need to have/be:

• Experience improving how teams work, whether that's delivery, quality, support or operations, and bringing people with you. You put outcomes ahead of ceremony.
• A track record of leading software engineers and helping people grow. You enjoy coaching and see developing others as the main part of the job.
• Strong software engineering background across the kind of work our teams do. You know what good looks like and can tell when a team is drifting from it.
• Comfortable with change. CMR moves fast and priorities shift; you'll help build structure that holds up, but you're also happy to roll up your sleeves and to make things happen without waiting to be asked.
• Hands-on experience using AI coding tools to change how you work, and the judgement to tell when they're truly adding value. If you've helped other people adopt them, even better.
• A clear communicator who can work with engineers, product owners and non-technical stakeholders, and who is honest about trade-offs.
• Motivated by building software and data products that help people across CMR and our customers to do their jobs well and ultimately help more patients benefit from minimal access surgery.

At CMR we’re building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace; what matters most to us is that you identify with our values and are passionate about making a difference.

Why Join Us?

We offer a competitive salary and a great benefits package including a bonus, pension, healthcare and enhanced global parental leave pay.

This role requires candidates to have eligibility to work within theUK.