Lead Software Engineer in London

Lead Software Engineer in London

London Full-Time 60000 - 75000 £ / year (est.) Home office (partial)
Ellipse

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Lead the design and development of innovative data engineering platforms for Horse Racing.
  • Company: Ellipse, a leader in live sports performance data with a passion for storytelling.
  • Benefits: Flexible working, training opportunities, pension scheme, and employee assistance programme.
  • Other info: Embrace a culture of diversity and personal development in a hybrid work environment.
  • Why this job: Join a dynamic team and make an impact in the exciting world of sports technology.
  • Qualifications: 5-7 years in data engineering, strong AWS skills, and leadership experience.

The predicted salary is between 60000 - 75000 £ per year.

About

Ellipse is an industry leader in the collection, analysis and dissemination of live sports performance data.

Our goal is to engage our diverse audience with new stories about sports.

We create products and services across cricket, football, horse racing, rugby and tennis that enrich the experience of fans, athletes, and teams worldwide.

Our data is a central component of media coverage, betting operations, athlete feedback and coach decision‑making in some of the biggest competitions.

With ambitious growth plans, we are seeking an experienced Lead Full Stack Engineer to join our dynamic team, focused on Horse Racing.

In this role, you will be responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining software applications across our Horse Racing technology stack.

As a Lead Engineer, you will play a crucial role in driving innovation, mentoring team members, and ensuring the scalability, performance, and security of our applications.

If you have the technical know‑how, along with some interest in Sports and curiosity about how unique statistics can unearth compelling stories, this role is for you!

  • Location
  • Kennington, London (Hybrid - 3 days a week)

Responsibilities

  • Lead and oversee the design, development, and operation of our data engineering platforms, AWS infrastructure, and cloud‑based product offerings.
  • Work closely with Product teams, understand business requirements and translate them into scalable data, cloud, and infrastructure solutions.
  • Develop and implement strategies for ingesting, processing, storing, and delivering data from multiple sources in a secure, reliable, and efficient manner.
  • Lead and collaborate with Engineering, Data Science, UX and Dev Ops teams to manage cloud infrastructure, design analysis, deployment pipelines, CI/CD processes, platform reliability, and release management frameworks.
  • Drive technical delivery, team coordination, and business continuity initiatives, ensuring high availability, disaster recovery readiness, operational resilience, and platform stability.
  • Be a key contributor to the ideation, planning, execution, and validation of existing and new platform capabilities, with a focus on improving engineering processes, infrastructure automation, data quality, and operational excellence.
  • Ability to lead and support key operational activities during critical Horse Racing events, ensuring system availability, performance, incident response, and business‑as‑usual (BAU) continuity under high‑demand conditions.

Requirements

  • Data Engineering and Platform Development
  • At least 5-7 years of commercial experience building scalable data pipelines, data platforms, and cloud‑native solutions using Python. SQL & AWS Services.
  • Experience designing and developing ETL/ELT processes, data ingestion frameworks, and large‑scale data processing solutions.
  • Strong understanding of distributed data systems, data modelling, data quality, and performance optimisation.
  • Strong hands‑on experience with AWS services including EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, VPC, IAM, Cloud Watch, and related cloud services.
  • Experience designing, deploying, and managing secure, scalable, and highly available cloud infrastructure.
  • Knowledge of infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code using EKS (Terraform), Cloud Formation, or similar tools.
  • Strong understanding of networking, security, monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery practices.
  • Databases & Data Management
  • Solid experience with relational databases, cloud data platforms, and data workflows involving database design, optimisation, performance tuning, and management using RDS/RDBMS and related technologies.
  • Understanding of metrics generation, data integrity, data migrations, and lifecycle management.
  • Experience managing large datasets and supporting analytical & operational workloads.
  • Dev Ops & Platform Operations
  • Experience in containerisation using Docker, Orchestration and scaling with Kubernetes.
  • Experience building and maintaining automated deployment pipelines and CI/CD workflows.
  • Experience implementing monitoring, alerting, logging, and operational support processes.
  • Strong focus on platform reliability, business continuity, support and operational resilience.
  • Leadership and Engineering Practices
  • Experience leading engineering teams, mentoring engineers, conducting code and design reviews, and driving technical best practices.
  • Experience designing scalable, maintainable, secure, and production‑ready platforms.
  • Familiarity with best practices around reliability, observability, security, and performance optimisation.
  • Knowledge of Horse Racing as a Sport, Rules, major Events & its Data would be highly advantageous in the selection process.
  • Understanding of UI tech stack like React and related technologies.
  • Exposure to No SQL, graph databases, and vector databases.
  • Understanding of AI native engineering processes and usage of AI tools like Cursor or Gemini to develop workflows.
  • Equality & diversity

Ellipse is committed to building an open and inclusive culture that supports personal development and learning.

Ellipse believes in the principle of equal opportunity in employment and its employment policies for recruitment, training, development and promotion despite any differences based on individual grounds of race, colour, nationality, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, ethnic and national origin, disability or gender reassignment.

  • Flexible working times
  • Employee Assistance Programme
  • Company pension scheme
  • Life insurance
  • Training and development opportunities
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Ellipse

Contact Details:

Ellipse Recruitment Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫

We think this is how you could land Lead Software Engineer in London

Join Local Tech Meetups

Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Ellipse or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!

Contribute to Open Source Projects

Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Ellipse.

Tap into Online Developer Communities

Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Ellipse.

Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles

Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Ellipse that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!

We think you need these skills to ace Lead Software Engineer in London

Python
SQL
AWS Services
ETL/ELT Processes
Data Ingestion Frameworks
Distributed Data Systems
Data Modelling

Some tips for your application 🫡

Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.

Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Ellipse.

Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Ellipse and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!

Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!

How to prepare for a job interview at Ellipse

Brush Up on Your Coding Skills

For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.

Know Your Tools and Frameworks

Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Ellipse uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.

Showcase Your Projects

Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.

Prepare for Behavioural Questions

While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.