Lead Engineer/Head of Software Engineering

Lead Engineer / Head of Engineering

£75,000-£85,000 + bonus + benefits

East Midland - Hybrid (3 days on site minimum)

Commutable from Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, North Hertfordshire, North Oxfordshire,

A fast-growing UK financial technology company is seeking a Lead Engineer / Head of Engineering to shape the strategic and technical direction of its platforms and lead a new era of engineering maturity.

The company provides innovative digital lending and finance solutions for SMEs across the UK. Its technology underpins the entire customer lifecycle - from onboarding and credit analysis through to lender integration, decisioning models, and customer self-service. The environment blends custom full-stack applications, CRM, and AWS-hosted data engineering systems.

This role combines hands-on coding with strategic leadership. You will design scalable architecture, improve engineering standards, and mentor a small but growing team. It's ideal for a senior developer or technical lead from a larger fintech, financial services, or SaaS environment who wants greater autonomy, ownership, and visibility.

What You'll Do

• Own the technical roadmap, working directly with the Head of Tech to deliver next-generation customer and data platforms.
• Design and build web applications and APIs using Node.js, React, Python, and AWS.
• Oversee integrations between CRM, AWS services, data pipelines, and internal systems.
• Implement and enforce best practice in CI/CD, testing, code review, and version control.
• Develop secure, reliable cloud infrastructure across AWS Lambda, S3, Glue, and Redshift.
• Mentor developers, set standards, and lead by example through high-quality hands-on coding.
• Contribute to strategic initiatives including:
• A new customer self-service portal
• Automation of credit and lending workflows;
• Data engineering and machine learning model deployment for lender matching and risk profiling;
• Continuous improvement of API and data architecture for scalability.

About You

You are an experienced software engineer who enjoys building and leading in equal measure. You want a role where your technical depth, problem-solving skills, and leadership make a visible impact.

You'll bring:

• 5+ years of full-stack experience in JavaScript (Node.js/React) and Python.
• Strong cloud background, ideally AWS (Lambda, S3, Glue, Redshift).
• Proven ability to design and deploy scalable web and data systems.
• Understanding of CI/CD, automated testing, and version control (Git).
• Experience integrating CRM or SaaS systems (Zoho, Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.).
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills - confident presenting to business stakeholders.
• UK-based, with full right to work, UK work software engineering experience and ability to attend the office minimum three days per week.

Ideal Industry Sector Backgrounds:

• FinTech / Alternative Lending / Payments
• SaaS, Data or Analytics Platform Providers
• Financial Services or Digital Banking Engineering Teams
• Larger blue-chip or consultancy environments where you've learned engineering project/programme discipline and now want autonomy, ownership, and pace within a smaller, entrepreneurial business.

You'll suit this role if you:

• Enjoy being both a strategic thinker and a hands-on engineer.
• Thrive in a high-energy, collaborative environment where delivery speed and technical quality both matter.
• Want the freedom to shape engineering culture, standards, and architecture.

You won't suit this role if you:

• Are seeking a fully remote or management-only position.
• Lack UK software engineering/full stack development experience or confidence communicating with senior business stakeholders.
• We are not looking for overseas applicants and visa sponsorship will not be considered for overseas applicants.