Tech Lead (AWS / TypeScript / Python)

hedgehog lab; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 96,000 - 193,000; Full time

Job summary

Hedgehog Lab is seeking a principal-level engineer to lead engineering on a high-volume online marketplace, currently migrating from PHP/Laravel to a TypeScript/JavaScript/Python service-based architecture on AWS.

You will shape technical direction, own standards, and drive delivery in a fast-paced environment, with strong IaC and cloud expertise guiding the transformation, and you will be hands-on, advocating for change and rallying teams.

Qualifications

• Principal-level breadth across cloud, architecture, data, auth, front-end and APIs.
• Track record building service-based platforms in AWS with infrastructure as code (Terraform or CDK).
• You write TypeScript, JavaScript and Python, and can read and work with PHP (Laravel).
• You set and hold engineering standards, and communicate decisions with authority.
• Comfortable leading delivery in a fast-moving, complex environment.
• Comfortable working in English, written and spoken.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering on a high-volume online marketplace undergoing a major AWS migration and multi-year transformation.
• Set technical direction across TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, and PHP (Laravel) platforms as the architecture shifts to a service-based model on AWS.
• Drive engineering standards and decision-making with clear communication to teams and stakeholders.
• Rally cross-functional teams to maintain delivery velocity in a fast-paced environment.

Skills

Cloud architecture

Data

Auth

Front-end

APIs

Engineering leadership

AWS

Terraform

CDK

TypeScript

Tools

AWS

Terraform

CDK

Laravel

Job description

Location and basis

Contract, outside IR35. Starting as soon as possible.

Fully flexible working: home, office, or a mix, your call. We just ask that you're based within 50 miles of Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester or London.

Applications from outside these areas won't be considered.

The engagement

You'll lead engineering on a high-volume online marketplace, part-way through a major, multi-year technology transformation. There's a live migration to AWS and a full version 2 build underway.

The current client-facing platform runs on PHP and Laravel, and the target is a service-based architecture on AWS built in TypeScript, JavaScript and Python. You'll set technical direction across that shift while keeping delivery moving.

You'll need to be hands-on and broad: someone who understands cloud, architecture, data, auth, front-end and APIs, and has built service-based platforms in AWS before. In an older structure this person would have carried an architect title.

This is a demanding, fast-paced environment. You'll need to be productive quickly without a long ramp.

The platform

This is a genuinely large-scale marketplace. Very few platforms handle a product catalogue or transaction volume at this level.

The roadmap includes agentic AI workflows built into the platform, retail media integrated directly into the marketplace, and infrastructure work targeting cost and performance at high volume.

A lot of this is being attempted at volumes that have rarely been tested in a marketplace before, so the work leans research-led rather than routine.

Who This Suits

This is a fast-paced scale-up environment on a complex platform.

You'll do well here if you think strategically rather than transactionally, and you can advocate for technical change and bring people with you.

What We Need

The essentials:

• Principal-level engineering breadth across cloud, architecture, data, auth, front-end and APIs
• Track record building service-based platforms in AWS, with infrastructure as code (Terraform or CDK)
• You write TypeScript, JavaScript and Python, and can read and work with PHP (Laravel)
• You set and hold engineering standards, and communicate decisions with authority
• Comfortable leading delivery in a fast-moving, complex environment
• Comfortable working in English, written and spoken

Nice To Have

• Retail or e-commerce background
• Experience leading through a major re-architecture or cloud migration
• GenAI or agentic workflows in your engineering practice