Lead Software Engineer

Our client, a defence prime, is looking for Lead Software Engineers to work across defence, cyber and intelligence programmes in Gloucester. You will help create and improve secure software systems and applications that safeguard digital infrastructure across the UK. The role involves setting technical direction, taking ownership of complex initiatives and guiding the team through delivery.

What you will do

• Define long-term technical strategy and guide system design, making the critical decisions that shape the product.
• Partner with product owners, customers and cross-functional teams to turn complex business and technical needs into robust, scalable solutions.
• Act as the technical liaison between engineering, product, operations and external customers, setting clear expectations and realistic timelines.
• Oversee the design, build, test, debug and documentation of high-reliability, deployment-ready code.
• Ensure performance, scalability, maintainability, quality and security across the team's work.
• Coach junior and mid-level engineers, sharing knowledge and fostering continuous learning and collaboration.

What you will bring

• Ability to obtain and maintain UK Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance. You do not need to hold it when you apply.
• Proven delivery of complex, high-visibility initiatives in a professional engineering environment, owning the end-to-end cycle.
• Deep expertise in at least one modern language (Java, Python, C++, Go, Rust, JavaScript/TypeScript) and a strong grasp of how it scales in production.
• Hands-on knowledge of Linux, Git, CI/CD and automated testing, with the ability to turn this into best-practice pipelines for the team.
• Able to weigh technical trade-offs, explain the rationale and communicate decisions to product, operations and other stakeholders.
• A collaborative mindset, commitment to continuous learning and a drive to raise the team's skill level.
• Examples of delivering high-impact software, guiding architectural decisions and championing quality.

Nice to have

• Cloud platforms, particularly AWS.
• Automated GitLab delivery pipelines and infrastructure as code.
• Microservices, serverless architectures and cloud migration.
• Relational and NoSQL databases, data integration and search technologies.
• Web and application frameworks such as React, Express and Next.js.
• Tools including GitLab, NiFi, Elasticsearch, Kibana, Jira and Confluence, plus AI coding assistants and ML tooling.