Lead Developer

Lead Developer Enable the system. Raise the engineering bar. Grow the people around you. SALARY £75k - £85k LOCATION Manchester/Lytham St Annes WORKING PATTERN Hybrid The opportunity Evolve Energy is a rapidly scaling business in an exciting phase of engineering transformation. We are modernising a mature monolithic platform into a services-based architecture on Microsoft Azure while increasing the capacity, reliability and speed of delivery needed to support business growth. We are looking for a hands-on Lead Developer who can set technical direction, solve complex engineering problems and help others become stronger engineers. This is not simply the most senior coder in the squad. The role combines excellent software engineering with architecture, operational ownership, delivery leadership, business judgement and structured mentoring. What success looks like Engineering decisions are tied to business outcomes. Platforms are easier to change and operate. Delivery is safer and faster. Quality and operational performance are visible. Engineers make stronger decisions and take on greater responsibility. Role purpose Take responsibility for and evolve the technical direction of our software platforms, remaining close enough to the code to turn architectural intent into working software. You will establish pragmatic standards, guide cross-system design, improve engineering flow and create the conditions in which teams can deliver reliable, supportable services with confidence. You will work across engineering, product and business stakeholders, balancing immediate delivery with long-term sustainability. You will also mentor senior and mid-level developers, build consensus around technical decisions and help develop the next generation of technical leaders. What you will do Build it well Champion test-driven development, behaviour-driven development and automated testing, using testability to improve design quality and confidence in changeDefine coding, testing and quality standards, with meaningful quality metrics such as test coverage, defect escape, change failure rate, mean time to recovery and technical debt trendsTake responsibility for technical direction, architectural standards and cloud adoption principles. Lead the design of complex cross-system solutions and make trade-offs clear to technical and non-technical stakeholdersCreate and maintain useful architectural decision records, reusable patterns and a technical roadmap aligned to product and business prioritiesDesign for security, scalability, resilience, supportability and future growth from the outset, not as later additionsMentor engineers to write readable, testable and maintainable code, using constructive reviews, pairing and technical coaching Deliver effectively Continuously improve engineering flow across teams, using delivery and operational data to identify bottlenecks and reduce lead time for changeOptimise CI/CD pipelines and deployment reliability, increasing deployment frequency while reducing riskPromote trunk-based development, short-lived branches and the confident use of feature flags to enable frequent, low-risk releases and controlled rollbackIdentify and remove delivery bottlenecks, surface risks early and break complex work into clear, valuable incrementsEstablish observability and operational excellence practices, including metrics, logs and traces that enable proactive monitoring and rapid diagnosis of production issuesCreate a culture of end-to-end ownership: build it, run it and support it. Use incidents and production learning to improve engineering standards and system design Use AI responsibly to improve engineering Identify and apply AI-assisted engineering opportunities that create measurable value, including development, testing, documentation, defect investigation and repetitive engineering tasksDefine practical standards for the safe, secure and responsible use of AI-generated outputs, with appropriate human review retainedEmbed AI-assisted development and testing into the software delivery lifecycle without lowering engineering qualityGuide engineers in effective adoption, evaluate emerging tools pragmatically and share what works Solve the right problems Connect technology decisions directly to business value, customer outcomes, operational risk and cost to serveUnderstand business, customer, operational and financial drivers, then shape solution choices and product direction through technical insightPrioritise engineering investment according to impact rather than technical preferenceEstablish performance baselines, service objectives and capacity plans. Use trends and forecasting to anticipate demand, manage application health and identify scaling risks before customers are affected Grow capability Provide technical leadership across initiatives and teams, creating a coherent engineering vision and influencing decisions beyond the immediate squadMake clear, fact-based decisions in ambiguity, challenge assumptions constructively and build consensus across engineers and stakeholdersBalance short-term delivery with long-term sustainability and represent engineering in strategic discussionsIdentify emerging technologies and improvement opportunities pragmatically, translating worthwhile ideas into practical adoption and measurable outcomesDevelop future technical leaders through structured coaching and mentoring. Create stretch opportunities, give actionable feedback and promote knowledge sharing across the team Your technical background We are more interested in evidence of sound judgement and outcomes than a checklist of technologies. You should nevertheless bring strong, current engineering depth in most of the following areas: Strong commercial C# and modern .NET experience, with the ability to produce clean, idiomatic and well-tested production codeProduction experience designing services-based or distributed architectures and defining service boundaries, data ownership and communication patternsHands-on Microsoft Azure experience, ideally including Azure SQL, Service Bus, Functions, Key Vault, container platforms and monitoring servicesCI/CD and infrastructure-as-code experience using Azure DevOps or equivalent, with automated build, test, security and deployment controlsStrong knowledge of TDD, automated testing, secure engineering practices, observability and operational supportExperience with event-driven systems and relevant patterns such as idempotency, outbox, sagas, CQRS or event sourcing where appropriatePractical use of AI-assisted software engineering tools while maintaining security, quality and human accountability Leadership experience Evidence of setting technical direction and leading complex cross-system design, not only delivering assigned componentsAbility to explain architectural trade-offs, risks and assumptions clearly to both engineers and business stakeholdersA track record of improving engineering standards, delivery flow, platform reliability or operational performance using evidence and metricsExperience mentoring engineers, with visible examples of helping others improve judgement, independence and technical capabilityConfidence working with product and business stakeholders to shape priorities and translate needs into sustainable technical outcomesA pragmatic leadership style that can protect long-term quality while knowing when a simpler solution is the right one Highly desirable Experience modernising a mature monolith through incremental migration rather than a high-risk rewriteExperience with .NET Aspire, Bicep or Terraform, OpenTelemetry, distributed tracing, structured logging and API managementKnowledge of feature-flag frameworks, progressive delivery and controlled rollback strategies.Experience improving performance, capacity planning or service-level objectives for business-critical applicationsRelevant Microsoft Azure certification, although practical evidence matters more than certification alone The person we are looking for You enjoy solving difficult engineering problems, but you start with the business outcome rather than the technologyYou take ownership from design through production support and use operational learning to improve the platformYou communicate clearly, document decisions and make complexity understandableYou are evidence-led, comfortable making decisions in ambiguity and willing to revisit them when context changesYou get satisfaction from enabling others to succeed and measure leadership by the capability and outcomes of the wider teamYou combine ambition with pragmatism: raising standards without creating unnecessary process or perfectionism Why join Evolve Energy? You will have a meaningful voice in technology decisions and the opportunity to shape architecture, engineering practice and team capability during a significant period of change. This is a hands-on technical leadership role with scope to leave a lasting impact on the platforms, the engineering culture and the people around you. How to apply Please share your CV together with a short summary of a technical decision, engineering improvement or mentoring outcome that best demonstrates how you enable a team to deliver better software.