Lead Software Engineer in Manchester

This organisation delivers business-critical technology solutions that help connect people with essential services across the public and private sectors.

Operating at significant scale, its platforms support millions of interactions annually, helping organisations improve accessibility, communication and service delivery.

With continued investment in its technology function, the business is modernising legacy systems, expanding its cloud infrastructure and introducing new technologies, including AI, to improve how its products are developed and delivered.

They're now looking for an experienced Software Engineering Team Lead to take ownership of engineering delivery, support a talented team of developers and play a key role in shaping the future of the technology function.

The What

You will be responsible for leading a team of approximately 7 software engineers, ensuring high-quality software delivery while developing the people, processes and engineering practices behind it.

Working closely with Product, Engineering leadership and senior stakeholders, you'll help define technical direction, improve development standards and support the modernisation of business-critical platforms.

This is a role that combines technical leadership, people management and hands-on engineering, with the opportunity to take increasing ownership of the wider engineering function.

You will be involved in everything from improving CI/CD pipelines, code quality and development workflows to supporting architectural decisions, managing technical debt and helping engineers develop their careers.

Importantly, there's a clear opportunity to progress into an Engineering Management position as you establish yourself within the business.

Critical:

Strong software engineering background, with experience leading technical delivery and making architectural decisions.

Proven experience managing, mentoring or leading software engineers.

Ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, Product and senior business stakeholders.

Genuine interest in developing people and progressing towards Engineering Management.

The Technical Stack

Due to the nature of the business, the technical environment is varied, with technologies including:

• Backend: Python, C, PHP, Java and Node.js
• Cloud: AWS
• Infrastructure & DevOps: Docker, CI/CD, microservices and modern engineering tooling

You don't need experience with every technology listed. We're particularly interested in engineers with a broad technical background who can lead teams working across multiple languages, platforms and systems.

The Requirements:

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Multiple years of commercial software engineering experience delivering complex, production-grade applications.
• Proven experience leading technical decisions, improving engineering standards and influencing software architecture.
• Strong understanding of scalable systems, APIs, distributed architectures and modern software development practices.
• Experience working with legacy applications and contributing to modernisation or migration initiatives.
• Comfortable balancing long-term technical improvements with immediate business and delivery priorities.

Hands-on Engineering

• Strong development background across one or more modern programming languages.
• Ability to contribute technically when required, while increasingly focusing on leadership and delivery.
• Excellent understanding of clean code, design patterns, testing and technical debt management.
• Experience conducting code reviews, improving engineering standards and supporting developers through complex technical challenges.
• Experience leading, managing or mentoring software engineers.
• Ability to motivate developers, support career development and create a collaborative engineering environment.
• Comfortable providing technical guidance, constructive feedback and support to engineers at different experience levels.
• Strong communication skills, with the confidence to engage with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ambition to develop further into a broader Engineering Management position.
• Experience working with cloud platforms, ideally AWS.
• Good understanding of CI/CD pipelines, containerisation and automated testing.
• Experience improving software delivery processes, engineering workflows and development efficiency.
• Appreciation of system reliability, observability, security and performance within business-critical applications.

Delivery & Stakeholder Management

• Experience coordinating software delivery and balancing multiple technical priorities.
• Comfortable working closely with Product Owners, senior engineers and business stakeholders.
• Ability to identify risks, remove blockers and communicate progress clearly.
• Experience translating business requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Commercial awareness and an understanding of how engineering decisions influence wider business outcomes.

Hybrid Working Pattern

South Manchester

This is a hybrid position requiring approximately 2–3 days per week onsite, working collaboratively with the engineering team, Product and senior leadership.

The Benefits? (Skinny)

Salary up to £75,000

Clear progression towards Engineering Management

Opportunity to lead and develop an established engineering team

Influence technical direction and engineering standards

Work on business-critical platforms used at significant scale

Exposure to cloud modernisation and emerging AI technologies

And finally... Who are we?

FORT – Future of Recruiting Technologists is a specialist technology recruitment consultancy, connecting exceptional technology professionals with some of the North's most exciting businesses.

We focus on finding the right technical and cultural fit, helping both candidates and clients build long-term successful partnerships.