Principal Software Engineer / Tech Lead

Principal Software Engineer / Tech Lead

Department: Software Engineering

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Leeds - Hybrid

Reporting To: Tech Director

Description We're hiring a Principal Software Engineer/Tech Lead to help shape the future of our most ambitious client projects. This is a senior, hands-on role focused on technical excellence, leadership, and problem solving. You'll play a key role in shaping the technical direction of projects-helping to design architecture, guide engineering teams, and ensure delivery of scalable, maintainable software solutions. You'll be a trusted technical lead for client work, collaborating closely with internal teams to define and deliver great outcomes. Comfortable in both code and conversation, you'll lead by example in engineering squads, mentoring others, setting technical standards, and rolling up your sleeves to tackle complex challenges. You'll work across a range of industries, platforms and technologies, so we're looking for someone who can think critically, adapt quickly, and help steer projects toward technical excellence.
Key Responsibilities

• Technical Strategy & Architecture: Shape the technical vision for projects, designing robust, scalable architectures and establishing best-practice patterns and technical guidelines.
• Discovery & Requirements: Participate in technical discovery sessions, collaborating with internal teams to clarify requirements, map system dependencies, and translate business goals into sound technical approaches.
• Hands-On Development & Delivery: Lead by example through active coding-designing and building high-quality features, performing code reviews, and working with others to ship reliable, performant software.
• DevOps & Operational Excellence: Support infrastructure decisions, CI/CD pipelines, and operational tooling to ensure smooth delivery and maintainability of systems.
• Quality Assurance & Best Practice: Promote strong development practices including automated testing, peer reviews, and iterative delivery. Help instil a culture of quality and accountability in engineering.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with designers, product managers and QA to ensure solutions are user-focused, technically sound, and aligned with client needs.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Coach and support other engineers, contributing to a learning culture where best practices are shared and innovation is encouraged.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Strong hands-on experience with modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks, especially Next.js, React and React Native.
• Demonstrable experience building or delivering AI-enabled features or products.
• Solid understanding of software architecture, design principles and systems integration.
• Experience building scalable APIs, distributed systems, or cloud-native applications.
• Practical knowledge of DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and containerisation.
• Passion for code quality, with a strong understanding of TDD, automated testing, and peer review processes.
• Confident problem-solver able to troubleshoot complex systems and guide others to effective technical solutions.
• Familiar with Agile/Scrum methodologies and iterative delivery in cross-functional teams.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Able to help define and evolve reusable components, technical standards and internal best practices.
• A collaborative, supportive approach to team leadership and knowledge sharing.

Benefits

• Private medical healthcare (Bupa)
• 4% matched pension
• Hybrid working (2 days in the office)
• Flexible working
• Quarterly company Hack Days
• 1 professional development day per month
• City centre office
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays + up to 5 loyalty days
• Team events
• Enhanced maternity leave (12 weeks full pay, followed by 27 weeks of SMP)
• Enhanced paternity leave (3 weeks at 90% salary)
• 2 streaming services or gym membership subsidised