Lead Engineer

Engineering Lead 💰 £480-500/day (Inside IR35) | 📅 12-Month Contract 📍 London / Bristol (2 days onsite) Our client is seeking an experienced Engineering Lead to drive the design, delivery, and continuous improvement of scalable enterprise technology solutions within a fast-paced cloud and digital engineering environment. You’ll work closely with product, architecture, and business stakeholders. The role requires a strong balance of technical depth, leadership capability, and stakeholder engagement, with responsibility for driving engineering best practices, delivery quality, and team performance. Key Responsibilities • Define and own technical architecture, engineering standards, and solution design principles • Lead architecture and design reviews ensuring scalability, resilience, and security • Provide hands-on guidance for complex technical challenges and engineering decisions • Drive engineering best practices across CI/CD, code quality, testing, and DevOps • Own end-to-end delivery of engineering initiatives within agreed timelines • Collaborate with Product Owners, Business Analysts, and stakeholders to translate requirements into deliverables • Manage backlog prioritisation, sprint execution, and delivery planning • Ensure quality through robust code reviews, testing practices, and automation • Lead, mentor, and develop high-performing engineering teams • Drive coaching, performance management, and capability growth • Foster a collaborative engineering culture focused on innovation and accountability • Support hiring, onboarding, and resource planning activities • Act as the bridge between business and engineering teams • Communicate technical decisions, risks, and delivery progress clearly to stakeholders • Drive process improvement, automation, and engineering efficiency initiatives • Identify opportunities for modernisation, optimisation, and cost reduction Required Skills & Experience • Strong experience in modern software engineering using technologies such as: • Java • .NET • APIs and cloud-native development • Strong understanding of architecture, integration, and distributed system design • Experience with DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines • Hands-on experience with cloud platforms, ideally Microsoft Azure • Proven experience leading and mentoring engineering teams • Strong ownership of engineering delivery and technical outcomes • Ability to balance hands-on technical contribution with leadership responsibilities • Experience working within Agile and cross-functional delivery environments • Excellent communication and stakeholder management capabilities • Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills • Ability to thrive in fast-paced enterprise delivery environments If this is relevant to your experience, please apply with your CV and we'll be in touch. Thanks!