Technical Lead

Job title: Technical Lead

Reporting to: Deputy Director of Content Protection and Enforcement, Development

Location: London Bridge, London (3 days working from the office, 2 days from home)

Start Date : April 2026

About IFPI

IFPI is the voice of the recording industry worldwide. IFPI and its National Group network represents the interests of some 8,000 members across the globe. Our mission is to make music thrive by promoting the value of recorded music, campaign for the rights of record producers, and expand the commercial uses of recorded music.

IFPI’s head office is located in London, with additional offices in Brussels, Nairobi, Singapore, Miami, Abu Dhabi and a representative office in Beijing. We have affiliated organisations in 70 countries, including national groups and music licensing companies that represent their own region’s member record companies.

Our CPE (Global Content Protection & Enforcement) technology team develops tools and systems that safeguard members' rights around the clock — from monitoring online infringement to supporting legal investigations.

The role

This is a technical leadership role, not a management role. You will be the most senior technical voice in a focused team of three developers, responsible for guiding architecture decisions, shaping delivery practices, and ensuring that the solutions we build are robust, maintainable, and fit for purpose.

A significant and growing part of how we develop software is through AI-assisted development. Working closely with senior management, you will champion best practices in agentic AI development — including how to structure projects, write effective prompts and markdown specifications, maintain coding standards across AI-assisted workflows, and coordinate consistent practices across the team. You will also contribute to defining the guardrails that allow the team to move quickly without sacrificing quality.

The solutions we build range in scale. Some are small enough to be built rapidly via vibe coding; others require careful architecture, modular design, and production-grade engineering. Your experience is important to identify the differences and lead accordingly.

General Responsibilities

Architecture & Tech Stack

• Provide well-reasoned, defensible decisions about tech stack selection — balancing capability, maintainability, team familiarity, and long-term cost.
• Evaluate the best architectural approach according to the specific characteristics of each project, using simplicity, efficiency, robustness, and optimisation as guiding principles.
• Challenge solution designs and provide appropriate advice to ensure that systems are broken down sensibly and not over-designed.
• Maintain awareness of the broader technology landscape and guide the team toward proven, appropriate choices.

AI-Assisted Development Leadership

• Work closely with the deputy director to establish protocols and best practices when using AI-based coding to roll out team-wide standards.
• Establish conventions for project structure, markdown specifications, prompt design, and code review in AI-assisted workflows.
• Identify where AI-assisted development accelerates delivery and where it requires more careful oversight.
• Ensure AI-generated code meets the same quality, security, and maintainability standards as hand-written code.

Delivery & CI/CD

• Orchestrate the delivery of production-ready code, from design through deployment.
• Co-coordinate deployment strategies, and release practices appropriate to the team's scale.
• Define standards for testing, code review, and code health that the team can follow consistently.
• Ensure engineering plans and test schedules are clearly defined and communicated.

Team Guidance & Culture

• Serve as the lead the team can look to for technical guidance on hard decisions.
• Mentor and guide developers of varying experience levels, fostering a collaborative, learning-oriented environment.
• Foster a 'you build it, you run it' culture that builds accountability and operational awareness.

Position Requirements

Essential

• 5+ years of professional software development, with meaningful time in a tech lead or senior architect role.
• Demonstrated experience making architecture decisions at team or product level — and defending them to stakeholders.
• Strong proficiency in Python and at least one modern frontend framework (Vue.js, React, or Angular).
• Solid grasp of SQL database design, RESTful APIs, and backend systems.
• Hands-on experience with AWS or equivalent cloud platforms; understanding of cloud-native architecture patterns.
• Practical experience with CI/CD tools and DevOps principles in a production environment.
• Experience with or genuine enthusiasm for agentic AI coding tools.
• An instinct for appropriate simplicity: the ability to resist over-engineering and recognise when a straightforward solution is the right one.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; comfortable engaging technical and non-technical audiences alike.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with agentic AI workflows, prompt engineering, and managing AI-generated code in production.
• Experience with web scraping or crawling systems (relevant to our content monitoring work).
• Knowledge of NoSQL technologies (MongoDB preferred).
• Experience with data engineering, ETL processes, or ML-adjacent applications.
• AWS certifications, or willingness to obtain them.
• Interest in music, copyright, or the broader creative industries.

How to apply

Candidates who can demonstrate that they meet specifications set out above and can prove that they have the right to work in the UK should send an application to recruitment@ifpi.org or by post to HR Department, IFPI Secretariat, The Shard, 7th floor, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG.

The application should include your CV and a covering letter stating how you meet each requirement. Due to the need to fill this role swiftly, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we reserve the right to close this advert before the confirmed closing date when we receive sufficient applications.

Closing date for applications

Monday 30^th March 2026

Interview Process

We will, having reviewed applications on a rolling basis, seek to conduct interviews with candidates via online or in person.

In order to process job applications, IFPI collects personal information submitted by applicants. By applying for this role, you are consenting to that processing. All personal information is processed in line with our privacy policy set out at https://www.ifpi.org/terms-conditions.

EEO Statement

IFPI is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes colleagues from a diverse range of backgrounds.