Lead Software Engineer – Umbraco

Overview

In this Lead Engineer role, you provide senior technical leadership for Umbraco platforms within a charity-focused client base. You shape architecture, standards, and delivery quality while guiding a small group of technical leads. The work centers on continuous improvement of established platforms, managing long-term retention with careful budgeting and risk awareness. You collaborate across cross-functional teams to ensure scalable, secure, and maintainable solutions that align with the organization’s mission.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior technical leadership on Umbraco platforms under your responsibility
• Set and uphold standards for how we build, extend and maintain client platforms
• Plan and lead major Umbraco version upgrades with risk-aware assessment
• Maintain a clear view of technical health and surface risks early
• Make hosting and deployment decisions for Umbraco Cloud and similar platforms
• Contribute to shared Umbraco standards across the business
• Define technical approach and delivery plan for solutions
• Consult with principal engineers on Foundations phase architecture
• Produce high-level delivery plans with scope, size, risk, and sequencing
• Manage client expectations for agile delivery and sprint outcomes
• Lead delivery of high-quality software on time and within budget
• Ensure team participation in evolutionary development and agile ceremonies
• Uphold code quality and standards under delivery pressure
• Address donation journeys, payment integrations, and donor data with rigor
• Manage technical and support relationships with clients and ensure proper team staffing
• Provide technical continuity for long-term retainer clients
• Support engineering team growth through mentoring and pairing
• Stay updated on tools, standards, and the Umbraco roadmap, including AI-assisted practices
• Collaborate with leadership to achieve departmental goals and share engineering content to raise the department’s profile

Key requirements

• Deep Umbraco expertise across recent major versions with content modelling and customization
• Strong .NET and C# capability with clean, maintainable code
• Upgrade and migration experience for major Umbraco releases on live sites
• Long-term platform ownership mindset and debt management
• API design and integrations within complex digital ecosystems
• SQL Server database design and efficient web querying
• Cloud and deployment experience, especially Azure and Umbraco Cloud, plus CI/CD
• Front-end capability with component-based, responsive UI
• Accessibility by WCAG standards
• Security-by-design across the development lifecycle
• Proven technical leadership in agile delivery and mentorship without line management
• Client-facing confidence and ability to explain technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders
• Git, branching strategies, code review, and CI/CD pipelines

• Mentorship and coaching
• Clear communication with cross-functional and non-technical stakeholders
• Collaborative problem solving and conflict resolution
• Umbraco (latest major versions) including content modelling and custom development
• .NET and C# modern practices
• Umbraco Cloud and managed hosting environments

…