Lead Software Engineer | Hands-on Technical Leadership

Company: Understanding Recruitment
Apply for the Lead Software Engineer | Hands-on Technical Leadership
Location: London
Job Description:

Overview

In this role you will drive architecture and technical direction for a core product area while remaining deeply hands-on. You’ll design and own complex systems, mentoring engineers and setting elevated engineering standards. You’ll influence tooling, AI-assisted development, and technical practices across the team. This is a hands-on leadership position focused on meaningful technical impact, autonomy, and solving challenging problems at scale.

Pay / Benefits

  • competitive salary + equity
  • 7% pension
  • private healthcare
  • free daily meals

Responsibilities

  • Design and own architecture for core product areas
  • Build and maintain complex, production-grade systems
  • Mentor engineers and raise the engineering bar
  • Set technical standards and influence tooling and development practices
  • Make important architectural and technical decisions with autonomy
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact solutions

Key requirements

  • Strong software engineering fundamentals
  • System design expertise
  • Experience building and owning complex production systems
  • Track record of technical leadership (not just delivery)
  • Comfort solving difficult technical problems and raising engineering standards
  • Depth in C++, Rust, Java, Python or TypeScript
  • Experience with Kubernetes and PostgreSQL is a bonus
  • Security, ML or embedded systems experience is a bonus
  • Problem solving
  • Mentoring and coaching
  • Cross-functional collaboration
  • C++
  • Rust
  • Java

…

Posted: October 23rd, 2026