Technical Lead

About Softwire

Softwire is one of the UK’s leading digital technology consultancies, offering services in data, AI, cloud, CX, innovation, design and software engineering. We deliver high-profile, mission critical, and transformational projects for household names across the public and private sectors.

Softwire was founded on one simple idea: be the outstanding place to work for smart, passionate technologists who want to make an impact. Attract the best, create a culture where people thrive, and offer our customers access to capabilities that are truly market leading.

And it seems to be working – We were recently voted number 1 company to work for in the UK at the Best Company awards; we employ outstanding people across all capabilities (typical destinations after Softwire include Google, DeepMind, start-up founder, algorithmic trading, and AI research roles); and we have helped our clients deliver some of the hardest, most interesting tech programmes, across private and public sectors.

A big part of this is our culture and values and we are looking for people who share our core beliefs about what makes a great place to work:

• That if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly
• That work should be fulfilling but can also be fun
• That kindness matters and should be extended to employees and clients alike
• That by being trusting and trustworthy as an organisation and as individuals we can dispense with tedious bureaucracy and rules

In brief 

We’re looking for experienced developers who are starting to take on wider responsibilities as leaders within their teams and have the skills and aptitude to be Technical Leads.

We provide a supportive environment with a strong focus on individual career progression where you will have both the mentorship and project opportunities you need to develop your technical leadership skills.

As a Technical Lead you will take responsibility for the technical success of teams – delivering great outcomes and mentoring more junior team members. Projects span a range of sizes and multiple sectors and technologies. You might:

• Head up a team within a larger client engagement, delivering specific features or owning services for a major rail operator
• Take responsibility for your team’s technical quality when delivering a new government service to support citizens in improving their energy efficiency
• Guide the technical design and implementation of new features on the content and data platform of a major broadcaster

You will continue to use your strong individual developer skills, but alongside this as you will increasingly take wider ownership of:

• Ensuring your team delivers a technical solution that achieves our client’s aims.
• Mentoring & motivating the developers on your team
• Collaborating with the client’s technical stakeholders
• Working closely with delivery leads to ensure our projects are delivered on time and in budget

Experience and qualifications

Technical

• You have 4+ years’ experience and a breadth & depth of technical knowledge & expertise, and can solve technical challenges across front-end, back-end and infrastructure
• You have experience and understanding in some of our key technologies, which include C#, Java/Kotlin, JavaScript, Python, AWS, Azure, iOS, Android and SQL databases.
• You are a fast learner, and can leverage your existing expertise to quickly become effective in unfamiliar tech stacks and novel situations, as well as rapidly acquiring client/sector knowledge
• You have a good understanding of best practice principles for technical architecture, and are comfortable applying these in unfamiliar situations to design new systems

People skills

• You take on wider responsibilities on your teams (formally or informally), you can motivate and coach other team members and contribute to maintaining strong technical delivery processes to promote effective teams
• You are a strong communicator, who can explain technical concepts effectively to non-technical people and impress clients.
• You are outcome-focused and have a strong track record of engaging effectively with clients and stakeholders to ensure you deliver high impact results.

Your Approach

• You are passionate about leveraging technology to deliver great outcomes for clients and end users
• You are focused on effective delivery – ensuring great technical quality and efficient, high-value output
• You want to help our clients increase their technical maturity, while remaining sensitive to their business needs
• You enjoy mentoring developers, and helping them reach their personal development goals
• You enjoy collaborating with designers and product owners to innovate and devise great technical solutions to meet user needs
• You are comfortable with ambiguity and fast-paced, changing environments

You may also

• Have experience in understanding clients’ needs and prioritising them into user stories
• Have worked in other delivery roles such as product ownership, consultancy or technical roles
• Have worked to GDS principles in the past or have delivered Discoveries or Alphas to understand and validate user needs.

Package

Softwire operates transparent pay scales and a profit share scheme based on role and overall company performance

• Base salary from £57,200-£75,000 depending on your background and how many years of relevant experience you have.
• You can expect to receive a profit share depending on your experience and company performance. Over the last three years, this ranged between £6,500 – £15,750.
• Pension: Additional 5% of salary

Additional benefits

• 25 days annual leave (with the option to buy and sell)
• Flexible work options (e.g. working from home 2dpw; 4-day working contract)
• Time off for company-wide morale activities, time off for charitable / CSR activities
• 6 months Primary Carer Leave at full pay
• Income protection, cycle to work, electric vehicle lease schemes, and payroll charity donations

See here for further details on benefits