Technical Lead

Xpertise Recruitment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Xpertise Recruitment is seeking a hands-on Tech Lead in Central London to lead a product engineering squad, combining technical leadership with active software development. You will set technical direction, shape architecture, mentor engineers, and ensure delivery of scalable, reliable solutions.

You will balance strategic thinking with hands-on development, coach developers, champion automated testing, CI/CD, and IaC practices, and partner with Product and Design to deliver high-quality

Qualifications

• Proven experience as Tech Lead or Lead Software Engineer.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and technical design decisions across the platform.
• Define and maintain engineering standards and best practices.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering best practices.
• Balance short-term delivery with long-term scalability.

Skills

Tech Lead

Lead Software Engineer

Mentoring

Architectural design

Tools

React

Next.js

Node.js

MongoDB

AWS

Terraform

Job description

The Opportunity

Tech Lead

We're looking for a hands‑on Tech Lead to lead a product engineering squad, combining technical leadership with active software development. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys being close to the code, coaching engineers, driving engineering excellence, and partnering with Product and Design to deliver high-quality products at pace.

As Tech Lead, you'll be the technical heartbeat of the team, responsible for setting technical direction, shaping architecture, mentoring engineers, and ensuring the delivery of scalable, reliable solutions. You'll balance strategic thinking with hands‑on development, leading by example and helping the team build quality software the right way.

This role requires someone who can:

• Remain actively involved in software engineering and code reviews.
• Lead the design and implementation of scalable web applications and services.
• Coach and mentor developers, promoting engineering best practices.
• Champion automated testing, CI/CD, and quality‑first development.
• Drive Infrastructure as Code (IaC) adoption and cloud engineering standards.
• Support technical planning, estimation, and delivery across the product lifecycle.
• Own operational excellence, monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement.

Technical Environment

Essential Tech Stack

• React
• Next.js
• Node.js
• MongoDB
• AWS
• Terraform

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Lead architecture and technical design decisions across the platform.
• Define and maintain engineering standards and best practices.
• Guide the team through complex technical challenges and solution design.
• Balance short‑term delivery needs with long‑term platform scalability.

Hands‑On Engineering

• Contribute directly to the codebase.
• Review code and provide technical guidance to developers.
• Drive engineering quality through structured reviews and technical leadership.
• Support the delivery of critical features and technical initiatives.

Quality & Engineering Excellence

• Champion automated testing across the development lifecycle.
• Promote modern CI/CD practices and release automation.
• Drive observability, monitoring, and operational excellence.
• Identify and reduce technical debt while improving developer experience.

Cloud & Infrastructure

• Drive Infrastructure as Code principles and cloud best practices.
• Support AWS architecture, deployment, monitoring, and scalability.
• Improve reliability through automation and robust operational processes.

Leadership & Mentoring

• Mentor and develop engineers across the team.
• Foster a collaborative, high‑performance engineering culture.
• Help engineers grow technically and professionally.
• Create an environment focused on ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.

About You

You’ll likely bring:

• Proven experience as a Tech Lead, Lead Software Engineer, or similar role.
• Strong full‑stack development experience with React, Next.js, Node.js, and MongoDB.
• Experience building and operating cloud‑native applications within AWS.
• Previous experience with a smaller or scale‑up company, not a large enterprise environment
• A passion for clean code, automated testing, and engineering best practices.
• Experience leading developers through mentoring, code reviews, and technical coaching.
• Strong architectural and problem‑solving capabilities.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work closely with Product and Design teams.

Why Apply?

This is an opportunity to join a collaborative product‑focused environment where you'll have significant influence on technical direction, engineering standards, and team development. You'll be empowered to shape architecture, improve engineering practices, and help build a high‑performing team while remaining hands‑on with modern technologies.

Location: Central London (2 days per week, hybrid)
Position: Permanent
Level: Tech Lead / Engineering Lead