Lead Software Engineer in Edinburgh

Are you ready to lead and influence engineering at scale, shaping how software is built across one of the UK's largest digital organisations? As a Lead Software Engineer, you'll join our Health & Disability area at DWP Digital, playing a critical leadership role in shaping how we build and deliver modern digital services. You'll lead a blend of DWP and supplier engineers across multiple teams, setting direction, establishing engineering standards, and driving consistency, quality, and pace across delivery. You'll be at the forefront of transforming our engineering capability, helping to embed modern practices and approaches such as microservices and event-driven architecture. This is a strategic leadership role where your work will directly impact how we design and deliver services supporting citizens at key moments in their lives. The scale of what we do is extraordinary, and our purpose is unique. We'd love you to join us.

What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?

• You can lead multiple engineering teams, guiding how they work and helping them improve how they deliver software.
• You're highly skilled in modern programming languages like Java or JavaScript/Node, and understand how to apply them at scale.
• You've worked extensively with cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure, building and running services in live environments.
• You understand Test-Driven Development and use it to improve quality, reliability, and confidence in software.
• You're comfortable working with both relational and non-relational databases like Postgres, MySQL, or MongoDB.
• You can influence and communicate complex technical ideas clearly to non-technical stakeholders, including senior leaders.

You and your role

As a Lead Software Engineer, you'll lead approx. 5 engineering teams, working alongside other senior leaders in Health and Disability to shape direction, strategy and delivery. This isn't a role focused on hands-on coding - it's about leading engineering excellence across multiple teams, ensuring the right practices and standards are consistently applied. By aligning ways of working, removing blockers, and encouraging reuse and collaboration, you'll enable teams to deliver high-quality services at pace. You'll sit as part of the senior leadership team for your area, influencing long-term technology strategy and helping to define how DWP continues to modernise its digital estate. You'll bring teams on that journey - coaching, mentoring and building capability so that engineering communities grow stronger and more effective over time. Your work will directly support the shift towards modern architectures, including microservices and event-driven design, ensuring services are scalable, resilient and able to meet the needs of millions of users. You'll succeed if you care deeply about engineering excellence, enjoy developing others, and want to shape how one of the UK's largest digital organisations delivers services in the future.

Details. Wages. Perks.

Location: You'll join us in one of our brilliant digital hubs in Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, or Newcastle, whichever is most convenient for you.

Hybrid Working: We work a hybrid model - you'll spend some time working at home and some time collaborating face to face in a hub.

Pay: We offer pay up to £92,522. That's £80,267 salary plus a Digital Allowance of up to £12,255 subject to our assessment of your capability at interview.

Pension: You'll get a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions worth 28.97%, worth up to £21,735 per year.

Holidays: A generous leave package starting at 26 days rising to 31 days over time. You can also take up to 3 extra days off a month on flexi-time. You'll also get all the usual public holidays.

We have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Flexible working including flexible hours and flex-friendly policies.
• Time off volunteering and charitable giving.
• Bring your authentic self to work with 'I Can Be Me in DWP'.
• Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more.
• Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket, so it's even easier for you to get to work and start making a difference.
• Sports and social activities.
• Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities.

And we have an award-winning environment and culture:

• DWP have been recognised as 2024 Diversity Employer of the Year at the Computing Women in Tech Excellence awards.
• Diverse and Inclusive Leadership at Digital Leaders Awards 2024.
• Commended as Best Place to Work in Digital category in the Computing Digital Technology Leaders awards 2025.
• Recognised as one of the Best Public Sector Employers at 2025 Women In Tech Employer Awards.

Process

We know your time is valuable so our application and selection process is just two stages:

• Apply: complete your application on Civil Service Jobs. There'll be full instructions when you click through.
• Interview: one face to face interview at your local digital hub.

Click APPLY for more information and to start your application.