Software Engineering Lead

CBSbutler Holdings Limited trading as CBSbutler; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 96,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

CBSbutler Holdings Limited trading as CBSbutler seeks an experienced Project Engineer - Digital Engineering / Software Engineering to support the technical delivery of complex Software Factory projects within sensitive MOD, Defence, and aerospace programmes.

The role is based in Reading on a hybrid basis with a minimum of 50% onsite work, a 6-month rolling contract paying £70-£80 per hour inside IR35, and opportunities to influence technical direction across multidisciplinary teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related discipline.
• 8+ years experience in software, systems, or platform engineering projects.
• Experience delivering architecture or technical solutions within MOD, Defence Digital, UK aerospace, or similarly regulated environments.
• Strong software engineering and/or systems development background.
• Experience working within software delivery environments.
• Good understanding of DevOps and CI/CD practices.
• Proven technical leadership and stakeholder management experience.
• Experience managing technical risks, issues, and dependencies.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate technical activities across multidisciplinary engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Track project execution against objectives, milestones, and delivery plans.
• Identify and manage technical risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies.
• Support the development and maintenance of project plans and technical roadmaps.
• Provide technical leadership and first-level technical decision-making.
• Act as an escalation point for engineering and delivery issues.
• Manage technical interfaces across customers, suppliers, and internal engineering teams.
• Support project reporting, forecasting, and performance monitoring.
• Facilitate technical reviews, governance activities, and milestone assessments.
• Ensure engineering deliverables meet agreed quality, process, and compliance standards.
• Contribute to effort estimation, resource planning, and workload prioritisation.
• Support configuration and change management.
• Communicate project status, risks, and mitigation plans to key stakeholders.
• Work closely with architects, engineers, and delivery teams to maintain technical alignment.

Skills

Software engineering

Systems development

Technical leadership

Stakeholder management

Communication

Planning

Coordination

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering/CS/IT

Tools

Azure DevOps

CI/CD tools

Job description

Salary: £? - ? per year

Requirements:

• Active SC clearance is mandatory.
• DV clearance is highly desirable.
• Sole UK National is mandatory due to programme requirements.
• Bachelors degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related discipline.
• 8+ years experience working on software, systems, or platform engineering projects.
• Demonstrable experience delivering architecture or technical solutions within MOD, Defence Digital, UK aerospace, or similarly regulated environments.
• Strong software engineering and/or systems development background.
• Experience working within software delivery environments.
• Good understanding of DevOps and CI/CD practices.
• Proven technical leadership and stakeholder management experience.
• Experience managing technical risks, issues, and dependencies.
• Strong communication, planning, and coordination skills.
• Experience in Aerospace, Defence, Automotive, or other highly regulated industries is desirable.
• Familiarity with Model-Based Development environments is desirable.
• Experience managing multidisciplinary engineering teams is desirable.
• Microsoft Azure DevOps certification is desirable.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate technical activities across multidisciplinary engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Track project execution against objectives, milestones, and delivery plans.
• Identify and manage technical risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies.
• Support the development and maintenance of project plans and technical roadmaps.
• Provide technical leadership and first-level technical decision-making.
• Act as an escalation point for engineering and delivery issues.
• Manage technical interfaces across customers, suppliers, and internal engineering teams.
• Support project reporting, forecasting, and performance monitoring.
• Facilitate technical reviews, governance activities, and milestone assessments.
• Ensure engineering deliverables meet agreed quality, process, and compliance standards.
• Contribute to effort estimation, resource planning, and workload prioritisation.
• Support configuration and change management.
• Communicate project status, risks, and mitigation plans to key stakeholders.
• Work closely with architects, engineers, and delivery teams to maintain technical alignment.

Technologies:

• Azure
• CI/CD
• DevOps
• Support
• Cloud

More:

We are looking for an experienced Project Engineer - Digital Engineering / Software Engineering to support the technical delivery of complex Software Factory projects across sensitive MOD, Defence, and aerospace programmes. This is a hands-on technical delivery role, acting as the key interface between engineering teams and Delivery Management to help ensure projects are delivered to agreed scope, schedule, and quality standards. The role is based in Reading on a hybrid basis, with a minimum of 50% onsite working required. This is a 6-month rolling contract paying £70-£80 per hour, inside IR35. We offer the opportunity to work on sensitive, high-profile UK defence and aerospace programmes.

last updated 36 week of 2026