Lead Software Engineer

Technical Leader (Python)

Location: London, UK (Hybrid – 2-3 days per week onsite, Hayes)

Salary: Competitive + Benefits

Recruitment Partner: Searchability

About the Opportunity

Searchability is partnering with a fast-growing technology consultancy delivering large-scale digital transformation and software engineering projects for enterprise clients.

We are seeking an experienced Technical Leader with a strong Python background to lead multidisciplinary engineering teams across Frontend, Backend, DevOps and Design. This is a hands-on leadership role combining technical strategy, people management, stakeholder engagement and software delivery.

This opportunity is ideal for a senior engineering leader who enjoys remaining close to technology while driving team performance, delivery excellence and client success.

The Role

As a Technical Leader, you will be responsible for leading engineering teams, owning technical delivery and ensuring the successful execution of complex software projects. You'll work closely with clients, product teams and stakeholders to shape solutions, define priorities and deliver scalable, high-quality products.

The role requires a balance of technical depth, leadership capability and commercial awareness, with significant influence over architecture, engineering practices and team growth.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, mentor and develop multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Build and maintain a high-performing engineering culture.
• Support hiring, onboarding, succession planning and resource allocation.
• Monitor team performance and drive continuous improvement.
• Foster collaboration across engineering, product and business functions.

Project Ownership & Delivery

• Own and prioritise engineering backlogs and sprint objectives.
• Oversee the full software development lifecycle from design through deployment and support.
• Ensure delivery timelines, quality standards and business objectives are achieved.
• Drive engineering best practices, code quality and maintainability.
• Conduct technical reviews and support architectural decision-making.

Client & Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a trusted advisor to clients and stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities to improve systems, processes and technical outcomes.
• Translate complex technical concepts into business-focused solutions.
• Build strong relationships across technical and non-technical teams.

Technical Leadership

• Develop new features and maintain production systems.
• Drive continuous improvement across engineering processes, tooling and delivery practices.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and promote adoption where appropriate.
• Ensure solutions remain scalable, secure and maintainable.
• Contribute to architecture and long-term technical strategy.

Operational Excellence

• Track delivery milestones and proactively manage risks and dependencies.
• Balance scope, quality and timelines to ensure successful project outcomes.
• Optimise team workflows and reduce technical debt.
• Identify and resolve delivery bottlenecks before they impact projects.

Required Experience

• 7+ years of software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of engineering leadership or people management experience.
• Strong commercial experience with Python.
• Experience leading cross-functional engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of software architecture and modern engineering practices.
• Experience building and operating cloud-native applications within AWS.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Proven ability to drive delivery and engineering excellence.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with Data Platforms, ETL pipelines or Data Science environments.
• Experience working with GCP or Azure.
• Consultancy or client-facing delivery experience.
• Experience scaling engineering teams within high-growth environments.
• Knowledge of DevOps, CI/CD and cloud infrastructure best practices.

Technology Environment

Languages

• Python
• JavaScript / TypeScript (desirable)

Frameworks

• Django
• Flask

Cloud

• AWS
• GCP (desirable)
• Azure (desirable)

Engineering Practices

• Agile
• CI/CD
• Cloud-Native Development
• Software Architecture
• Technical Leadership

Ideal Backgrounds

We are particularly interested in candidates currently operating as:

• Principal Engineer
• Engineering Manager
• Engineering Lead
• Head of Engineering
• VP Engineering
• Technical Director

Experience gained within consultancies, digital transformation businesses or enterprise software environments would be highly beneficial.

What's on Offer?

• Competitive compensation package
• Private medical insurance
• Hybrid working model
• Opportunity to work on high-profile enterprise projects
• Exposure to modern cloud, AI and software engineering technologies
• Leadership role with significant influence over technical direction
• Collaborative and multicultural engineering environment
• Career progression within a rapidly growing technology consultancy

If you're an experienced engineering leader with strong Python expertise and a passion for building high-performing teams, we'd love to hear from you.