Software Engineering Team Lead

FORT; Stretford; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Training and development opportunities

Collaborative culture

Job summary

FORT - Future of Recruiting Technologists is seeking a technical leader to shape how software is designed, built and delivered across the engineering function. You will work closely with Product, QA, DevOps and Engineering leadership to define technical direction and maintain high engineering standards, while staying hands-on where it matters most.

You’ll manage and mentor around 7 software engineers, drive complex technical deliveries and reduce technical debt, helping to build scalable,

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading software engineering teams
• Shaping technical direction, architecture and standards
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and scalable design
• Balancing long-term strategy with delivery
• Hands-on coding across critical areas may be required

Responsibilities

• Lead technical delivery across multiple projects and teams
• Shape engineering direction, architecture and coding standards
• Mentor engineers and raise technical capability
• Collaborate with Product, QA, DevOps and leadership
• Drive continuous improvement in processes and delivery

Skills

Technical leadership

Architecture design

Distributed systems

Team mentoring

Stakeholder communication

Tools

AWS

CI/CD pipelines

Containerisation

Observability

Job description

This organisation delivers business-critical services that help connect people with the organisations they rely on every day. Operating at significant scale across both the public and private sectors, it plays an important role in improving accessibility, supporting millions of interactions annually, and making essential services more inclusive.

The What

You’ll be the technical leader responsible for shaping how software is designed, built and delivered across the engineering function.

Working closely with Product, QA, DevOps and Engineering leadership, you’ll define technical direction, influence architectural decisions and ensure engineering standards remain consistently high, whilst still remaining hands‑on with the code where it matters most.

From managing / mentoring around 7 software engineers and driving best practice to leading complex technical deliveries and reducing technical debt, you’ll play a pivotal role in building scalable, reliable software whilst helping to develop both the technology and the people behind it.

Critical:

• Strong Software engineering background, a lead from the front individual.
• People leadership experience and skills

The Technical Stack:

Due to the nature of the business the technical stack will be varied across a range of languages including Python, Typescript, C, Java, Node, PHP with the cloud provider being AWS. You do not need to have experience with all of these though a breadth of technical knowledge would be preferred.

The Requirements:

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Multiple years of commercial software engineering experience delivering complex, production-grade systems
• Proven experience shaping technical direction, engineering standards and software architecture
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, microservices, APIs and scalable system design
• Comfortable balancing long-term technical strategy with day-to-day engineering delivery

Hands-on Engineering (across some or ideally all of the technical stack!)

• Strong hands-on development background with the ability to contribute to complex, business-critical areas of the codebase
• Excellent understanding of clean code, design patterns, technical debt management and secure coding practices
• Experience improving code quality through reviews, technical mentoring and engineering best practice
• Proven experience managing, mentoring and coaching engineers, helping to raise technical capability across a team
• Strong communicator who can influence both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Passionate about fostering a collaborative, high-performing engineering culture while championing engineering best practice
• Commercial experience working with AWS, CI/CD pipelines, containerisation and modern engineering tooling
• Strong understanding of testing strategies, observability, system reliability and operational excellence
• Experience driving continuous improvement across engineering processes and development workflows

Delivery & Stakeholder Management

• Experience leading technical delivery across multiple projects or engineering teams simultaneously
• Comfortable working alongside Product, QA, DevOps and business stakeholders to deliver complex technical initiatives
• Able to identify technical risks, remove delivery blockers and provide clear progress updates to stakeholders

HYBRID WORKING PATTERN

This will be between 2-3 days a week onsite - you will be liaising & working collaboratively with the SLT & reporting software engineers.

The Benefits? (Skinny)

• Opportunity to influence a growing data function
• Training and development opportunities
• Collaborative and supportive culture

And finally... Who are we?

FORT - Future of Recruiting Technologists is a specialist technology recruitment consultancy, connecting exceptional technology professionals with some of the North's most exciting businesses.

We focus on finding the right technical and cultural fit, helping both candidates and clients build long-term successful partnerships.