Lead Web Developer in Leeds

About Waystone

Waystone is a leading asset‑servicing solutions provider of institutional governance, administration, risk and compliance services to financial institutions.

With over 25 years’ experience and a comprehensive range of specialist services to its name, Waystone helps our clients structure, operate and grow through our expertise, innovation and digitisation, backed by the operational scale to support global expansion

SUMMARY

Reporting to the Development Manager, the Lead Web Developer will be vital to the success of the architecture, engineering and AI pillar.

The role leads the web engineering capability that brings our client-facing and internal portals to life, owning the technical direction, build quality, styling consistency and ongoing health of the portal estate.

A core focus is building a high-performance web engineering culture, driving consistency so the estate reads as one coherent product, and delivering a great experience for our clients and colleagues.

The role also owns the current portal estate and leads the strategy to rationalise it toward unified, single-portal architectures, uplifting where rationalisation is not yet possible.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the technical direction and delivery of our client-facing and internal portals, setting the standard for quality, performance, responsiveness, accessibility and security across every device and browser.
• Own front-end standards and styling governance, so components, patterns and interactions are consistent across every portal and the estate presents as a single, coherent product.
• Ensure consistent design, a consistent experience and exceptional UX across the estate, in alignment with our corporate brand identity and working with the marketing and brand teams.
• Own the current portal estate, including its heritage applications, and take responsibility for its safe evolution.
• Lead the strategy to rationalise the estate, consolidating a fragmented set of internal and external portals toward unified, single-portal architectures wherever achievable, and uplifting existing and heritage portals to current standards where it is not.
• Provide day-to-day technical leadership to the in-house web development team, setting standards, reviewing work and raising the capability of the people around you.
• Lead a blended delivery model, directing and assuring the quality of work produced by delivery-partner and augmented capacity alongside the in-house team, so standards hold regardless of who is building.
• Own the definition and evolution of web engineering standards, tooling and ways of working, including disciplined code review, version control, automated testing and CI/CD.
• Ensure web delivery aligns with our information security and control standards, so regulatory and security expectations are met by default rather than retrofitted, working with the relevant teams where those standards are set.
• Evaluate and plan for the introduction of new technologies, tools and practices where they improve quality, consistency or delivery pace.
• Embed AI-first and automation-first ways of working into web engineering, using them to raise throughput and quality without compromising control.
• Own and drive the web team's use of vibe-coding and AI prototyping tools, such as Lovable, as a fast route from idea to a working, testable prototype, ensuring validated prototypes feed into the estate cleanly rather than becoming standalone systems to maintain.
• Contribute to the wider conversation on citizen development and self-service app building, without necessarily owning that agenda.
• Build strong working relationships across architecture, engineering, assurance, design, delivery, and the marketing and brand teams, and foster a culture of continuous improvement, knowledge sharing and cross-training.

REQUIREMENTS

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
• Deep, hands-on expertise in modern web and front-end engineering, with strong command of Next. js, React, Type Script and Tailwind CSS.
• Familiarity with Expo, or experience building cross-platform React applications, which forms part of our target roadmap and would be an advantage.
• A solid grasp of accessibility standards such as WCAG, and of building to them by default.
• Fluency in modern engineering practice, including version control, CI/CD, automated testing and a disciplined approach to code review.
• A strong sense for user experience, and the ability to build responsive interfaces that hold up across devices and browsers.
• Experience using vibe-coding and AI prototyping tools, such as Lovable, for fast prototyping, with the judgement to know where they add value and where they do not.
• The ability to translate business and user needs into technical solutions, partnering with product, design and stakeholders to do so.
• Sound judgement on front-end security and an understanding of delivering within a regulated or otherwise control-heavy environment.
• The credibility to lead technical decisions from the front, and to set standards through craft as much as through direction.
• Clear communication across technical and non-technical audiences, and a collaborative, pragmatic and outcomes-focused approach.

EXPERIENCE

• A proven track record of leading web or front-end teams, setting technical standards and raising the quality bar.
• Demonstrable experience consolidating or rationalising a portal or web application estate, and modernising heritage applications toward current standards.
• Experience delivering both client-facing and internal portals to a professional standard.
• Experience working with delivery partners or augmented teams, and holding external capacity to the same standard as an in-house team.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience
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