Lead Software Engineer

Job Title: Lead Developer

Seniority: Lead

Start Date: ASAP

Location: Edinburgh (Hybrid – 2 days office-based)

Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience

Contract Type: Permanent, Full-Time

About the Opportunity

We are partnering with a high-growth digital product agency to appoint a Lead Developer to join their Edinburgh-based team. This is a permanent, full-time position operating on a hybrid basis.

Our client delivers AI-enabled, human-centred digital products for ambitious organisations across the UK and internationally. Operating in a fast-paced, agency environment, they combine technical excellence with commercial awareness to deliver high-impact solutions. With sustained growth and an expanding client portfolio, they are seeking a technically strong and commercially astute engineering leader to drive delivery excellence.

The Role

This is a senior, hands-on leadership position combining technical ownership with people leadership. You will shape engineering standards, influence architectural direction, and remain actively engaged in production-level code.

Expect an approximate 70/30 split between hands-on development and leadership responsibilities, flexing according to project phase and delivery requirements.

You will lead a cross-functional delivery squad consisting of:

• 1 Product Owner
• 2–4 mid-level Developers
• Yourself as Lead Developer

You will be accountable for delivery quality, technical decision-making, team development, and overall outcomes. Project Environment

You will work across:

• Bespoke web platforms and business-critical applications
• Mobile applications built with React Native
• API integrations and backend systems
• A combination of greenfield builds and scalable legacy platforms

This is a dynamic agency environment. Projects vary in scope and sector, and context switching is part of the role.

Delivery methodologies include Scrum and Kanban, with two-week sprints typical. Engagements range from fixed-price to time-and-materials models.

Core Responsibilities

Delivery Ownership

• Lead end-to-end technical delivery across multiple client projects
• Take ownership from project initiation through production and handover
• Assess and enhance existing platforms where required
• Plan and balance workload across your squad
• Identify and remove blockers efficiently

Technical Leadership

• Define and enforce engineering standards alongside fellow technical leads
• Review and approve pull requests
• Make sustainable architectural decisions
• Own CI/CD pipelines, deployment strategies, and hosting approaches
• Establish and uphold testing standards

Mentorship & Team Development

• Support mid-level developers through pairing, structured feedback, and review
• Conduct regular 1:1s with direct reports
• Identify skill gaps and implement development plans

Commercial Contribution

• Provide technical input during pre-sales and proposal stages
• Contribute to estimates and scope definition
• Identify and communicate delivery risks early
• Support technical sections of statements of work

Technology Stack

The environment is adaptable depending on client requirements. Core technologies currently include:

Frontend

• React
• Inertia.js
• React Native
• Tailwind CSS

Backend

• Laravel (strategic standardisation focus)
• PHP
• Node.js

Data

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• MongoDB

Infrastructure & Tooling

• Git and GitHub
• CI/CD pipelines
• AWS (project-dependent)
• Docker where appropriate

You may also contribute to future stack evolution and technical direction.

Essential Experience

• 5+ years’ commercial software development experience
• Minimum 2 years operating at Senior or Lead level with people responsibility
• Experience within an agency or consultancy environment
• Full lifecycle delivery exposure (scoping through to live support)
• Demonstrated experience mentoring and developing engineers

Technical Capability

• Strong commercial experience with Laravel or Symfony
• Solid React experience
• Strong SQL capability (MySQL or PostgreSQL)
• Proficient with Git workflows and pull request processes
• Experience implementing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Comfortable owning cloud deployment and hosting decisions

Desirable Experience

• Production integration of LLMs or AI services
• React Native applications delivered to production
• Node.js API development
• Inertia.js and Tailwind
• Docker and containerisation
• AWS infrastructure
• MongoDB

Personal Attributes

• Clear and confident communicator (written and verbal)
• Comfortable engaging with clients when required
• Able to articulate technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders
• Self-directed and capable of managing workload autonomously
• Decisive and composed under pressure

Role Expectations

This position is suited to individuals seeking ownership and responsibility within a fast-moving agency context. It is not a single-product environment, nor is it a role for developers seeking purely hands-on coding without leadership accountability. Variety, pace, and ambiguity are inherent in the role.

Benefits

• Competitive salary aligned with experience
• Company pension scheme
• Private healthcare
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Hybrid working model
• Regular team events
• Supportive, collaborative working environment
• Ongoing professional development and training
• 30 days annual leave plus birthday leave

If you are interested in leading delivery within a high-growth digital agency environment and shaping technical standards across diverse client engagements, we welcome your application.