Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

Ford Motor Company

Manchester, United Kingdom

You'll be the technical lead for a team building customer-facing products used by millions of people across Europe. That means writing great code, making smart architectural calls, and raising the bar for everyone around you.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role, not a people management one. You won't be managing headcount; you'll be mentoring engineers, shaping how we build, and making sure we ship things we're proud of.

Responsibilities

• Leading frontend architecture: Making the big calls on how we build, structure, and scale our applications;
• Writing production code: This is an 80%+ hands-on role; you'll be deep in the codebase, not just reviewing it;
• Owning code quality: Driving timely, constructive code reviews and tackling recurring issues before they become habits;
• Setting technical direction: Thinking 6–12 months ahead, spotting risks early, and building a plan to address them;
• Partnering with Product: Providing sharp estimates, shaping discovery, and making sure technical decisions are grounded in business value;
• Mentoring the team: Supporting junior and mid-level engineers through pairing, feedback, and real investment in their growth;
• Championing agile practices: Keeping the team aligned, collaborative, and continuously improving.

Qualifications

Essential

• 7+ years of frontend engineering experience, with deep expertise in React and TypeScript;
• A track record of leading frontend architecture, component design, performance, micro-frontends;
• Strong grasp of testing practices, Jest, React Testing Library, Cypress or similar;
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Actions, and modern frontend tooling;
• The ability to influence technical direction without formal authority, and communicate clearly with both engineers and stakeholders;
• A genuine passion for mentoring and raising the level of those around you;
• Degree Level: Bachelor's Degree or equivalent.

Nice to have

• Cloud experience, GCP preferred;
• Familiarity with other technologies (Java/Spring Boot) to collaborate effectively across the stack;
• Experience in regulated industries, fintech, banking, or similar;
• Exposure to security and quality tooling, SonarQube, Checkmarx, FOSSA.