Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer | Remote First | £75,000–£80,000 + Benefits

📍 Remote-first | Around one day on-site per quarter (Cheshire West) | Permanent

We're partnering with an established technology business that's investing heavily in its engineering capability and is looking for an experienced Lead Software Engineer to take ownership of a high-performing development squad.

This is an opportunity for someone who still enjoys being hands-on with technology whilst also leading, mentoring and developing engineers. You'll influence technical direction, shape engineering standards and play a key role in delivering modern cloud-based solutions.

One area that's particularly important is the practical application of AI. We're looking for someone who is already using AI to improve software delivery, engineering productivity and developer experience—not just someone who's experimented with ChatGPT. Whether that's AI-assisted development, automation, code generation, testing, documentation or integrating AI capabilities into products, you'll be encouraged to help drive adoption across the team.

The Role

You'll lead a small, cross-functional software engineering squad, balancing technical leadership with hands-on development and people management.

Responsibilities include:

• Leading the design and delivery of scalable software solutions
• Providing technical leadership, mentoring and coaching to your engineering team
• Driving engineering best practice, architecture discussions and continuous improvement
• Working closely with Product, Architecture and Platform teams to shape technical direction
• Taking ownership of delivery quality, estimation and engineering standards
• Supporting Agile delivery and helping remove technical blockers
• Identifying opportunities to improve developer productivity through AI and automation
• Conducting regular 1:1s, performance reviews and supporting career development
• Helping recruit and build a high-performing engineering team

Technology

You'll be working across a modern Microsoft stack including:

• C#
• .NET Core / .NET
• React
• SQL Server & Entity Framework
• REST APIs
• Azure (App Services, Functions, Service Bus, Blob Storage)
• Azure DevOps & CI/CD
• Git

About You

You'll ideally bring:

• Significant commercial experience building applications using the Microsoft technology stack
• Previous experience leading or mentoring software engineers
• Strong understanding of software architecture and engineering best practices
• Experience delivering cloud-native applications in Azure
• A collaborative leadership style with excellent communication skills
• A passion for developing people as well as technology
• Genuine, practical experience using AI tools to improve engineering outcomes and delivery

What's on Offer

• £75,000–£80,000 salary
• Remote-first working
• Approximately one on-site visit per quarter in the Cheshire West area
• Leadership opportunity with real technical influence
• Modern Azure cloud environment
• Investment in AI tooling and engineering innovation
• Supportive, collaborative engineering culture
• Long-term career progression

If you're looking for a role where you can combine technical leadership, hands-on engineering and help shape how AI is used in modern software development, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply via LinkedIn or send a confidential message for more information. All enquiries will be handled in the strictest confidence.