Lead Software Engineer

Overview

In this Lead Software Engineer role you guide delivery and technical decision-making for a critical national infrastructure program. You will shape solutions with architects, mentor engineers, and ensure robust, secure Java backend services in a highly available environment. You balance delivery speed with quality, overseeing CI/CD, testing, and governance. This position offers direct impact on government-focused software, with opportunities to influence architecture and engineering practices at scale.

Pay / Benefits

• Contributory Pension Scheme
• Private Medical Insurance
• 33 days Annual Leave
• Flexible benefits
• Flexi-Time Working
• Cycle to work scheme

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for the software team and align with architects on solution approach
• Oversee delivery standards, processes, code reviews, and quality gates across the project lifecycle
• Develop, debug, test, document, and deploy Java-based backend services and APIs
• Own build and deployment pipelines ensuring CI/CD, security scanning, and operational readiness
• Lead design discussions, translate requirements into actionable tasks in an Agile/Scrum setup
• Coordinate test automation and ensure unit/integration tests are part of development
• Mentor engineers to raise technical capability and consistency
• Communicate status, risks, and technical recommendations to stakeholders

Key requirements

• Extensive software engineering experience with Java (8, 17, 21)
• Proven technical leadership experience including decision-making and mentoring
• Strong knowledge of design patterns and software development lifecycle
• Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL), SQL, JDBC
• Familiarity with Git/Bitbucket branching and Atlassian tools (Jira, Bitbucket, Bamboo)
• Experience with unit and integration testing, Agile methodologies, and CI/CD
• Ability to operate in a customer-facing role and engage stakeholders confidently

• leadership
• clear communication
• stakeholder engagement
• Java Backend APIs
• API design and implementation
• CI/CD pipelines

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