Technical Lead

Nando's UK & IRE; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Nando's UK & IRE is seeking a senior engineering leader to own the Restaurant Ordering team responsible for the technology used to take and process orders across our restaurants. You will set technical direction, line‑manage software and ePOS engineers, and balance live‑service support with delivery of the product roadmap.

You may come from a senior engineering background with mentoring experience or previously led a team.

Qualifications

• Experience owning how a team plans and delivers while balancing live‑service support.
• Strong understanding of testing, observability, change control, resilience and incident management.
• Excellent communication across technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Experience supporting an estate of hundreds of sites with limited on‑site capability.
• Kind, empathetic leadership with focus on growing people.

Responsibilities

• Own how the team runs, including stand‑ups, planning and backlog management.
• Represent the team at the weekly delivery forum.
• Balance live‑service support against project delivery to keep restaurants trading while moving the roadmap forward.
• Identify blockers and delivery risks early and take necessary actions.
• Own the architecture and technical direction of our restaurant technology estate.
• Ensure secure and reliable deployments with proper change control and rollback plans.
• Lead incident response and run blameless post‑mortems.
• Drive monitoring and observability to preempt issues affecting restaurant trade.
• Build security in by design, including card payments and restaurant tech considerations.
• Line‑manage engineers and technicians with regular one‑to‑ones and development plans.
• Support clear growth paths for software and ePOS engineering disciplines.

Skills

Team leadership

Engineering management

Incident management

Observability

Technical decision making

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

NCR integration

Stripe integration

Job description

Lead the people, engineering and delivery of our Restaurant Ordering team - the team behind the technology every restaurant relies on to take and process an order.

You’ll own how the team runs and delivers, set its technical direction and line‑manage a mixed team of software and ePOS engineers.

You’ll mostly drive this through the team rather than sitting on the critical path yourself.

You might already lead a team, or you might be a senior engineer with a strong mentoring track record who is ready to step into formal leadership.

Our automation keeps hundreds of restaurants running with minimal on‑site technical support. This includes standard machine images, packaged software, Ansible to build and upgrade sites remotely, and a self‑service portal for our Service Desk.

We also run estate monitoring and alerting, including cold‑room temperature sensors that help protect food safety.

We’re now growing further into IoT, turning data from connected devices and sensors into monitoring and reporting that helps restaurants run smoothly.

• Own how the team runs, including stand‑ups, planning and backlog management.
• Represent the team at the weekly delivery forum.
• Balance live‑service support against project delivery, keeping restaurants trading while continuing to move the roadmap forward.
• Spot blockers and delivery risks early and make the calls needed to keep the team moving.
• Own the architecture and technical direction of our products and restaurant technology estate.
• Understand how our services and platforms connect with NCR, Stripe and the Kitchen Management System.
• Shape the team’s move into IoT and drive automation that reduces manual and on‑site work.
• Bring considered recommendations on new tools and approaches without chasing novelty for its own sake.
• Own the bar for engineering quality, reliability and security.
• Champion safe change. A poor release can stop restaurants trading, so staged rollouts, rollback plans and effective change control are essential.
• Lead incident response and run blameless post‑mortems.
• Champion monitoring and observability that identify problems before they affect restaurant trade.
• Build security in by design, including the security considerations associated with card payments and restaurant technology.
• Maintain strong standards across testing, automation and code quality.
• Line‑manage engineers and technicians through regular one‑to‑ones, clear feedback and development plans.
• Support clear growth paths for software and ePOS engineering disciplines.
• Coach and mentor people at every level.
• Build a culture that is kind, accountable and safe to be honest in.
• Play a leading role in hiring and building a strong, diverse team.
• Bring engineering into product conversations early, including feasibility, estimates and technical discovery.
• Work closely with Operations, Service Desk, Food Safety and Finance.
• Surface risks and dependencies early, particularly across the seams with the Kitchen Management System team.
• Work with key vendors such as NCR and Stripe, helping hold them to their commitments.
• Contribute to the wider Nando's engineering community.

You’ll have:

• Experience owning how a team plans and delivers while balancing live‑service support.
• A strong understanding of testing, observability, change control, resilience and incident management.
• Strong communication skills across technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Experience supporting an estate of hundreds of sites with limited on‑site technical capability.
• Kind, empathetic and genuinely energised by growing people.
• Calm and clear‑headed about trade‑offs, particularly when a live issue is affecting restaurant trade.
• A strong communicator who can make technical decisions clear and understandable.
• Passionate about the restaurant side of the Nandoca experience.
• Comfortable balancing technical quality, restaurant impact and team capacity.

At Nando's, we know our best work comes from teams that reflect the full range of people we serve.

Inspired by our Southern African heritage, we’re committed to building an inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole self to work, regardless of background, identity or life experience.

We care far more about your values, your curiosity and how you lead people than whether your CV ticks every box.