Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

Full-Time 60000 - 80000 £ / year (est.) No working from home possible
Motive Partners

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Design and build backend services using Go on AWS, owning features end-to-end.
  • Company: Join a pioneering tech company shaping the future of private markets.
  • Benefits: Competitive salary, flexible work options, and opportunities for professional growth.
  • Other info: Dynamic startup culture with a focus on collaboration and cutting-edge technology.
  • Why this job: Make a real impact in an innovative environment while leading engineering practices.
  • Qualifications: Experience in backend development, particularly with Go, and strong problem-solving skills.

The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.

About the Role

We are building a green field next‑generation platform for private markets. We are at an early stage of the build and looking for Lead Software Engineers to partner closely with the VP of Engineering to design and deliver foundational capabilities. This is a hands‑on role for someone who wants to help shape the architecture, standards, and engineering culture of a new platform while leveraging modern coding practices to deliver high‑quality code and infrastructure.

How you will provide meaningful contributions:

  • Design and build backend services for the platform, primarily in Go, running on AWS with Postgres as a core data store.
  • Own features and services end‑to‑end: from shaping requirements and technical design through implementation, testing, deployment, and operational support, including taking responsibility for how they run in production.
  • Provide technical leadership for key services: leading design discussions, driving architectural decisions, and mentoring other engineers through pairing and code review.
  • Help define and evolve the target state architecture for the platform: service boundaries, data models, integration patterns, and reliability/observability standards.
  • Use AI tooling (e.g., Claude and similar) as a force multiplier to accelerate discovery, prototyping, and implementation, while maintaining a high bar for code quality, security, and correctness.
  • Collaborate with product, operations, and other engineering teams to integrate the platform with upstream and downstream systems, and to model private markets workflows effectively.
  • Contribute to and improve engineering practices across the team: automated testing, code review, design documentation, CI/CD, monitoring, and incident response.
  • Work effectively in an early‑stage environment with evolving requirements, helping to shape our engineering processes, tooling, and standards as we scale the platform.

Basic Qualifications for Consideration:

We are language‑agnostic in principle, but the current stack includes:

  • Languages: Go (primary), with room for the right tool for specific problems.
  • Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes.
  • Data: Postgres as a core relational store.
  • APIs: gRPC and HTTP‑based services.
  • Workflow orchestration: Temporal.
  • Tooling: GitHub Actions, infrastructure as code, observability tooling.

You don’t need prior experience with every technology above, but you should be comfortable learning and working across this kind of stack.

You should have:

  • Significant experience as a Lead Software Engineer (or equivalent), building and operating backend systems in production.
  • Deep experience in at least one modern backend language (Go, Java, C#, etc.), and an interest in working with Go day‑to‑day.
  • Strong understanding of distributed systems, service design, and API design.
  • Practical experience with relational databases, ideally Postgres: schema design, performance considerations, and migration strategies.
  • Track record of owning problems end‑to‑end: engaging with stakeholders, clarifying requirements, making design trade‑offs, and delivering working software into production.
  • Comfortable working with and evaluating AI tooling in your workflow (e.g., for ideation, code generation, test generation, or documentation), while retaining strong engineering judgement and maintaining quality.

Ideally you will also be able to demonstrate:

  • Experience in private markets, capital markets, asset management, or adjacent financial domains.
  • Experience working in an early‑stage or 0→1 environment, where architecture, tooling, and processes are still being defined.
  • Experience with: Document generation workflows, e‑signature platforms, or regulated operational processes.
  • Infrastructure‑as‑code and AWS‑based platforms.
  • Event‑driven architectures, workflow engines, or orchestration systems (e.g., Temporal).

Lead Software Engineer employer: Motive Partners

Join a forward-thinking company that values innovation and collaboration, where as a Lead Software Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the architecture and engineering culture of a next-generation platform for private markets. Our dynamic work environment encourages continuous learning and growth, offering opportunities to mentor fellow engineers and lead design discussions while leveraging cutting-edge technologies like Go and AWS. With a strong focus on employee well-being and a commitment to high-quality code, we provide a supportive atmosphere that fosters creativity and professional development.

Motive Partners

Contact Details:

Motive Partners Recruitment Team

We think you need these skills to ace Lead Software Engineer

Go
AWS
Postgres
gRPC
HTTP-based services
Kubernetes
Distributed Systems