Lead Engineer

Role: Lead Engineer
Location: Milton Keynes (Hybrid – approx. 1 day per month on-site)
Salary: £60,000 - £67,000
Network IT are working with a highly respected organisation to recruit a Lead Engineer. This is a senior engineering leadership opportunity, combining technical ownership, people leadership, and end-to-end software delivery responsibility within a modern product-led environment.
You will play a key role in shaping the technical direction of a core business product, working closely with Product, Delivery, and Engineering teams to ensure high-quality software is delivered, maintained, and continuously improved throughout its lifecycle.
Role Overview
As a Lead Engineer, you will take end-to-end ownership of software development for a key product, acting as the technical authority across design, development, testing, deployment, support, and ongoing evolution.
You will become the subject matter expert for your product, collaborating closely with Product Managers, Delivery Managers, Architects, and Engineering teams to balance technical priorities with business objectives.
Whilst experience with technologies such as .NET, Azure, and React is highly desirable, the organisation is open to strong technical leaders from broader software engineering backgrounds who can quickly gain domain expertise and lead engineering teams effectively.
This role requires someone who has successfully led software engineers and testers, developed technical capability within teams, and fostered a culture of engineering excellence, quality, and continuous improvement.
Key Responsibilities
- Take end-to-end ownership of software development, ensuring products are delivered, operated, supported, and continually improved throughout their lifecycle
- Act as the technical lead and subject matter expert for a product, driving engineering standards and technical decision-making
- Lead and mentor teams of Software Engineers and Testers, supporting their technical growth and development
- Collaborate with Product, Delivery, and Design teams to align technical priorities with business objectives
- Oversee the full software development lifecycle, including architecture, development, testing, deployment, support, and optimisation
- Drive adoption of engineering best practices across coding, testing, automation, DevOps, and quality assurance
- Work closely with architects to define scalable, secure, and maintainable technical solutions
- Champion a build-run-own mindset, ensuring teams maintain accountability for products in production
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives across engineering processes, tools, and delivery practices
- Ensure solutions meet non-functional requirements including security, scalability, stability, performance, and cost efficiency
- Manage technical risks, dependencies, and delivery challenges across the product lifecycle
Essential Skills and Experience
- Proven experience in a Lead Engineer, Engineering Manager, Technical Lead, or similar role
- Strong track record of leading end-to-end software development and product delivery
- Experience managing and mentoring Software Engineers and QA/Test professionals
- Excellent technical leadership skills with the ability to guide engineering teams and influence technical direction
- Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices, including:
- DevOps
- CI/CD
- Automated Testing
- TDD
- Cloud-native development
- Infrastructure as Code
- Experience designing and delivering scalable, secure, and resilient software solutions
- Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to communicate technical concepts to n