Lead Software Engineer in Edinburgh

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Job Description

Job Title: Lead Developer

Seniority: Lead

Start Date: ASAP

Location: Edinburgh (Hybrid – 2 days office-based)

Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience

Contract Type: Permanent, Full-Time

About the Opportunity

We are partnering with a high-growth digital product agency to appoint a Lead Developer to join their Edinburgh-based team. This is a permanent, full-time position operating on a hybrid basis.

Our client delivers AI-enabled, human-centred digital products for ambitious organisations across the UK and internationally. Operating in a fast-paced, agency environment, they combine technical excellence with commercial awareness to deliver high-impact solutions. With sustained growth and an expanding client portfolio, they are seeking a technically strong and commercially astute engineering leader to drive delivery excellence.

The Role

This is a senior, hands-on leadership position combining technical ownership with people leadership. You will shape engineering standards, influence architectural direction, and remain actively engaged in production-level code.

Expect an approximate 70/30 split between hands-on development and leadership responsibilities, flexing according to project phase and delivery requirements.

You will lead a cross-functional delivery squad consisting of:

• 1 Product Owner
• 2–4 mid-level Developers
• Yourself as Lead Developer

You will be accountable for delivery quality, technical decision-making, team development, and overall outcomes. Project Environment

You will work across:

• Bespoke web platforms and business-critical applications
• Mobile applications built with React
• API integrations and backend systems
• A combination of greenfield builds and scalable legacy platforms

This is a dynamic agency environment. Projects vary in scope and sector, and context switching is part of the role.

Delivery methodologies include Scrum and Kanban, with two-week sprints typical. Engagements range from fixed-price to time-and-materials models.

Core Responsibilities

Delivery Ownership

• Lead end-to-end technical delivery across multiple client projects
• Take ownership from project initiation through production and handover
• Assess and enhance existing platforms where required
• Plan and balance workload across your squad
• Identify and remove blockers efficiently

Technical Leadership

• Define and enforce engineering standards alongside fellow technical leads
• Review and approve pull requests
• Make sustainable architectural decisions
• Own CI/CD pipelines, deployment strategies, and hosting approaches
• Establish and uphold testing standards

Mentorship & Team Development

• Support mid-level developers through pairing, structured feedback, and review
• Conduct regular 1:1s with direct reports
• Identify skill gaps and implement development plans

Commercial Contribution

• Provide technical input during pre-sales and proposal stages
• Contribute to estimates and scope definition
• Identify and communicate delivery risks early
• Support technical sections of statements of work

Technology Stack

The environment is adaptable depending on client requirements. Core technologies currently include:

Frontend

• React
• Inertia.js
• React
• Tailwind CSS

Backend

• Laravel (strategic standardisation focus)
• PHP
• Node.js

Data

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• MongoDB

Infrastructure & Tooling

• Git and GitHub
• CI/CD pipelines
• AWS (project-dependent)
• Docker where appropriate

You may also contribute to future stack evolution and technical direction.

Essential Experience

• 5+ years’ commercial software development experience
• Minimum 2 years operating at Senior or Lead level with people responsibility
• Experience within an agency or consultancy environment
• Full lifecycle delivery exposure (scoping through to live support)
• Demonstrated experience mentoring and developing engineers

Technical Capability

• Strong commercial experience with Laravel or Symfony
• Solid React experience
• Strong SQL capability (MySQL or PostgreSQL)
• Proficient with Git workflows and pull request processes
• Experience implementing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Comfortable owning cloud deployment and hosting decisions

Desirable Experience

• Production integration of LLMs or AI services
• React applications delivered to production
• Node.js API development
• Inertia.js and Tailwind
• Docker and containerisation
• AWS infrastructure
• MongoDB

Personal Attributes

• Clear and confident communicator (written and verbal)
• Comfortable engaging with clients when required
• Able to articulate technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders
• Self-directed and capable of managing workload autonomously
• Decisive and composed under pressure

Role Expectations

This position is suited to individuals seeking ownership and responsibility within a fast-moving agency context. It is not a single-product environment, nor is it a role for developers seeking purely hands-on coding without leadership accountability. Variety, pace, and ambiguity are inherent in the role.

Benefits

• Competitive salary aligned with experience
• Company pension scheme
• Private healthcare
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Hybrid working model
• Regular team events
• Supportive, collaborative working environment
• Ongoing professional development and training
• 30 days annual leave plus birthday leave

If you are interested in leading delivery within a high-growth digital agency environment and shaping technical standards across diverse client engagements, we welcome your application.

If you are interested in applying for this job please press the Apply Button and follow the application process. Energy Jobline wishes you the very best of luck in your next career move.