Lead Software Engineer

We are working with a major UK-based financial services organisation that is seeking an experienced and hands-on Lead Software Engineer to join its Consumer Lending Engineering division in Chester. This is a full-time hybrid position, ideal for someone who thrives on technical leadership while remaining close to the code - combining engineering excellence with people management and product delivery in a fast-paced, customer-driven environment.

The successful candidate will lead a team within the Credit Cards Engineering function, delivering critical features that power digital banking journeys across web, mobile, and tablet. You'll work at the intersection of engineering innovation and customer experience, contributing to systems that support millions of users applying for credit, managing cardholders, and configuring their accounts securely and seamlessly.

This is a hybrid role, with two days per week required in the Chester office. The opportunity offers significant scope to influence both technology direction and people development within a business committed to major investment in digital transformation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own and drive the full software development lifecycle - from concept through delivery - producing maintainable, testable, and scalable software systems.
• Lead a team of up to 7 engineers, providing technical direction, coaching, and line management support.
• Stay hands-on (approximately 50%) in writing clean, well-tested code across modern frameworks and platforms.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, architects, and fellow engineers to deliver customer-focused solutions at pace.
• Champion agile ways of working, participate in Scrum or Kanban ceremonies, and encourage continuous improvement.
• Introduce and promote modern engineering practices, tooling, and design principles across the department.

Requirements:

• Extensive commercial experience in software engineering, with strong hands-on knowledge in at least two of the following: Java 17+, React, Redux, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML5, CSS3, Spring Boot, or relational databases.
• Solid experience working with RESTful APIs and distributed systems.
• Proven background in test-driven development, using tools such as Jest, React Testing Library, Cypress, Playwright or Pact.
• Practical knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and observability tooling - including GitHub, Jenkins, Docker, ELK, Grafana, and Dynatrace.
• Demonstrated ability to manage, mentor and develop engineers within a delivery-focused team.
• A collaborative and delivery-focused mindset, comfortable leading from both a technical and team development perspective.

Desirable:

• Experience building and running containerised, cloud-native applications in production (especially in GCP or Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and automation using tools like Terraform.