Staff Software Engineer (Tech Lead) - JavaScript/TypeScript in London

London, England, United Kingdom

About Us

Diligent is the AI leader in governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS solutions, helping more than 1 million users and 700,000 board members to clarify risk and elevate governance. The Diligent One Platform gives practitioners, the C‑Suite and the board a consolidated view of their entire GRC practice so they can more effectively manage risk, build greater resilience and make better decisions, faster.

At Diligent, we’re building the future with people who think boldly and move fast. Whether you’re designing systems that leverage large language models or part of a team reimagining workflows with AI, you’ll help us unlock entirely new ways of working and thinking. Curiosity is in our DNA; we look for individuals willing to ask the big questions and experiment fearlessly — those who embrace change not as a challenge, but as an opportunity. The future belongs to those who keep learning, and we are building it together. At Diligent, you’re not just building the future — you’re an agent of positive change, joining a global community on a mission to make an impact.

As a Staff Software Engineer at Diligent, you’ll create robust, scalable, and secure microservices that power our SaaS platform for governance. You’ll leverage AWS (serverless or migrations) with TypeScript, own services end-to-end (code, deployment, monitoring), drive architecture discussions, and regularly demo to the department. A critical part of this role is shaping our AI strategy: you’ll lead design decisions, embed AI responsibly into systems, and mentor teams on AI capabilities, safety, and governance.

Key Responsibilities

• Champion the design and delivery of secure, high-performance microservices on AWS, driving architecture decisions and empowering team members through mentorship.
• Set technical direction across multiple teams, spotting system pain points and proposing improvements.
• Pioneer AI-driven solutions by advising on model capabilities, crafting effective prompt strategies, and embedding governance and monitoring into development workflows.
• Partner with Product, Security, and DevOps to shape technical roadmaps, ensure compliance, and seamlessly integrate AI features that deliver real business value.
• Continuously elevate our toolkit by evaluating and piloting cutting-edge technologies (including AI toolchains), optimizing for performance, cost efficiency, and developer productivity.
• Own projects end-to-end—from ideation and prototyping to deployment, monitoring, and iteration—ensuring resilient, maintainable systems and top-notch code quality.
• Mentor engineers in best practices and AI-augmented workflows, fostering a culture of experimentation, learning, and ethical AI adoption.
• Stay ahead of emerging AI trends and regulations, proactively adapting designs and practices to meet evolving standards and steer future innovation.

Required Experience / Skills

• 7–10 years delivering secure, scalable applications in agile environments.
• Understanding of model architectures, bias and safety concerns, prompt engineering, and proven experience shaping AI strategy and mentoring teams on responsible AI use.
• Ability to architect AI systems with embedded monitoring and governance.
• Proficient in Node.js/TypeScript for serverless microservices on AWS; hands-on with infrastructure-as-code (CDK/Terraform), containerization (Docker), CI/CD pipelines, databases (SQL/NoSQL), and observability tools.
• Integrates security best practices (IAM, secrets management) into all work, including AI components, and embeds bias/privacy checks in delivery pipelines.
• Strong communication of technical and AI-related concepts to diverse stakeholders; proven ability to lead projects, influence engineering culture, and mentor peers in AI-augmented workflows.
• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent experience.

What Diligent Offers You

• Creativity is ingrained in our culture. We are innovative collaborators by nature. We thrive in exploring how things can be different both in our internal processes and to help our clients.
• We care about our people. Diligent offers a flexible work environment, global days of service, comprehensive health benefits, meeting-free days, generous time off policy and wellness programmes to name a few.
• We have teams all over the world. We may be headquartered in New York City, but we have office hubs in Washington D.C., Vancouver, London, Galway, Budapest, Munich, Bengaluru, Singapore, and Sydney.
• Diversity is important to us. Growing, maintaining and promoting a diverse team is a top priority for us. We foster and encourage diversity through our Employee Resource Groups and provide access to resources and education to support the education of our team, facilitate dialogue, and foster understanding.

To foster strong collaboration and connection, this role will follow a hybrid work model. If you are within a commuting distance to one of our Diligent office locations, you will be expected to work onsite at least 50% of the time. We believe that in-person engagement helps drive innovation, teamwork, and a strong sense of community.

We are a drug-free workplace. Diligent is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, colour, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, pregnancy, childbirth, physical disability, mental disability, age, military status, protected veteran status, marital status, registered domestic partner or civil union status, gender (including sex stereotyping and gender identity or expression), medical condition (including, but not limited to, cancer-related or HIV/AIDS related), genetic information, or sexual orientation in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us.

To all recruitment agencies: Diligent does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Diligent employees or any other organization location. Diligent is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.