Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer | Customer Identity SolutionsSalary | Up to £110,000Hybrid | 2 days a week | London, UKA large international consumer organisation with a diverse portfolio of customer-facing brands is undergoing a digital transformation to enhance the end-to-end customer experience. They're hiring a hands-on Lead Software Engineer to own the technical direction of customer identity management as the business continues expanding across the globe.This is an engineering lead role, you'll stay close to the code, understand the architecture in depth, and be credible enough to challenge how things are being built.Role OverviewDay one, you'll lead and manage third-party delivery partners who do the majority of the hands-on build work — this isn't about building an in-house team from scratch initially. Over time, the company retains technical ownership and guardianship of the codebase while vendors continue as the implementation arm.ResponsibilitiesOwn technical direction and architecture decisions for the customer identity platformManage and hold accountable third-party engineering partners delivering the day-to-day buildStay hands-on across the stack — able to review, question, and where needed dig into code across front end, back end, cloud, and CI/CDAct as the technical guardian of the codebase, ensuring vendor output meets quality, security, and architectural standardsCollaborate with stakeholders to prioritise initiatives and align technical delivery with business goalsReport on platform performance, delivery progress, and technical riskSkills and ExpertiseFull-stack engineering background — comfortable across the entire SDLC, not a front-end-only specialistStrong experience with React on the front endBack-end experience with Java Spring Boot; comfort with (or appetite to move toward) JavaScript/TypeScript on the back end, as that's the likely future directionSolid understanding of cloud platforms and CI/CD/DevOps pipelinesProven ability to manage or oversee third-party engineering vendors/partners, holding them to account technicallyIdentity and access management experience is a nice-to-have, not a requirementStrong technical judgement and the confidence to challenge delivery partners on design and implementation decisionsWhat's on offerUp to £110,000Hybrid working modelDiscretionary company bonusCompany-wide benefits