Lead Software Engineer in City of London

We live in a world that runs on physical industries like energy, logistics, and manufacturing. These sectors are essential to our economy and daily lives, yet they are held back by inefficiencies, fragile legacy systems, and decades‑old ways of working. This is not just a business problem; it is a societal one. When grids fail, supply chains stall, or factories falter, entire economies are disrupted. These companies face unique, complex challenges that typical software was never designed to solve. Cogna was founded to change this. Our mission is to give critical industries their own AI‑powered Software Factory: a way to build and deploy bespoke digital tools that solve pressing operational challenges.

Since our launch in May 2023, we’ve seen incredible customer traction and revenue growth. We’re backed by leading VCs, including Notion Capital and Hoxton Ventures, and we’re building a world‑class team to take on one of the most important challenges of our time. Tackling challenges at this scale takes people who are curious, adaptable, and motivated by impact. If our mission resonates with you, we encourage you to apply, even if your experience doesn’t match every requirement. We are committed to building a diverse team that reflects the industries and societies we serve.

Overview

We are looking for a Software Engineer (Team Lead) to lead a team of 3–6 talented engineers while spending more than half your time doing deeply technical work. You will be responsible for building high‑performing teams, shaping technical direction, and ensuring delivery of impactful projects. You will be part of an all‑star early team, building the future of software.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and develop a team of 3–6 engineers, providing coaching, feedback, and career‑growth opportunities.
• Own delivery of technically complex, high‑impact projects, ensuring quality and scalability while balancing trade‑offs under pressure.
• Contribute to architecture and systems design across multiple product areas, bringing clarity in ambiguous situations.
• Write and ship high‑quality, efficient, and reliable code that is extendable, scalable, and observable.
• Take ideas from experimentation to shipping. You intuitively know what a great product looks like.
• Build and help foster an engineering culture that encourages innovation and high‑quality code standards, while shipping fast.
• Collaborate closely with other teams to build world‑class software.
• Work closely with Product to help define the roadmap and set objectives.

What We’re Looking For

• At least 3 years of relevant work experience leading and hiring engineering teams.
• The drive to work at an early‑stage startup and thrive in a fast‑paced, quickly changing, and independent environment.
• A “buck stops here” attitude—raising issues and ensuring they have owners, stepping up to own and drive meaningful change.
• A high level of agency and comfort working with high levels of ambiguity; ability to bring clarity and alignment across multiple teams.
• Enjoy the unique challenge of juggling deep technical work with supporting others—spending a day deep in code and the next day discussing career growth.
• Passionate about developing engineers from intern to staff level, adapting style, delegation, and direction accordingly.
• Highly proficient in modern typed Python, Go, modern front‑end development, Docker, PostgreSQL, code analysis, compilers, or domain‑specific languages.
• Experience working in complex large codebases and understanding their intricacies.
• Creative experimentalist at heart with industry experience where experimentation was necessary.
• Professional experience using LLMs or enthusiastic experimentation during personal time; industry experience with LLM toolchains and ecosystems (e.g., Langchain, observability tooling, RAG systems) is a plus.
• Ability to work closely with a product manager to translate customer requirements into reliable systems and iterate, balancing long‑term maintenance effort; excellent communication of technical systems to a product‑focused audience.

Note About Career Breaks

We accept candidates with career breaks and CV gaps. Life happens, we get it. Please apply anyway!

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and share‑option plan.
• 25 days annual leave, plus public holidays.
• Excellent pension scheme, fixed at 7.5 %.
• Private healthcare, including family cover and pre‑existing conditions.
• Flexible hybrid working with 2 days per fortnight in our Farringdon office, but different schedules can be negotiated.
• Regular social events and off‑sites.
• Access to a gym and fitness classes in our office building.

Seniority Level Mid‑Senior level

Employment Type Full‑time

Job Function Other

Industries IT Services and IT Consulting

Location London, England, United Kingdom