Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer
Location: Milton Keynes (4 days per week in the office)
Day Rate: £500-£550 Outside IR35 
Duration: 6 Months

We're working with an established and growing UK SaaS business looking to appoint an experienced Tech Lead to lead their software engineering function.
This is a leadership-focused role where you'll oversee a team of around 10 software engineers, driving engineering excellence, improving delivery processes, and shaping the technical direction of a modern cloud-based software platform. You'll work closely with senior leadership to deliver strategic initiatives while building a high-performing engineering culture.
This is not a hands-on coding role, but you'll need the technical credibility to support, challenge and mentor the development team.
The RoleYou'll take ownership of the engineering function, focusing on people, processes, and technical strategy. Key priorities include strengthening software development and QA practices, leading a cloud migration programme, and supporting the adoption of AI-powered development tools.
Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of approximately 10 software engineers.
• Manage performance, career development, recruitment and team growth.
• Improve and embed engineering best practices across SDLC, testing, code reviews, documentation and release management.
• Own engineering governance around security, compliance and data protection.
• Lead the migration of infrastructure to a public cloud platform (AWS, Azure or GCP).
• Partner with senior stakeholders to translate product strategy into engineering delivery.
• Drive adoption of modern AI-assisted and agentic software development practices.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration and technical excellence.

About YouYou'll have previous experience managing software engineering teams and enjoy leading people as much as improving technical delivery.
Essential

• Experience leading software engineering teams (ideally 5+ developers).
• Strong understanding of PHP (OR NodeJS/Python), MySQL and modern web application development.
• Experience implementing scalable engineering processes and delivery standards.
• Proven experience with cloud infrastructure and cloud migration projects (AWS, Azure or GCP).
• Knowledge of software security, GDPR and compliance requirements.
• Comfortable working closely with executive leadership and influencing technical strategy.
• Interest in AI-driven software development and emerging engineering practices.
• Able to work from the Milton Keynes office at least four days per week.

Desirable

• Background within a SaaS environment.
• Experience delivering AI-enabled product features.
• Exposure to tools such as Cursor, Claude Code or GitHub Copilot.

If you're an experienced Tech Lead looking for a role where you can make a significant impact on engineering culture, technical strategy and team leadership, we'd love to hear from you. Apply today for a confidential discussion.