Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer | Node.js | Education Software | up to £80,000 + shares

Our client is an EdTech/SaaS company building an advanced digital learning platform focused on immersive and interactive educational experiences. As the platform continues to evolve across the UK and US, they are looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to play a key role in shaping backend systems, architecture, and engineering standards within a small, collaborative engineering team.

The Role:

This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced engineer with strong expertise in Node.js.

You’ll work closely with mobile, Unity, and senior engineers, partnering with the Technical Product Lead to ensure predictable delivery and strong engineering discipline. This role is not people‑management focused, but requires clear technical leadership, mentoring, and influence across engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities

Lead backend engineering across the platform, ensuring performance, security, and maintainability

Act as the senior hands-on engineer for Node.js backend development

Collaborate closely with Unity, mobile, and client-side teams to ensure backend services reliably support immersive, content‑rich experiences

Own API design and server-side architecture, building scalable, well-documented services

Drive backend delivery processes, workflow optimisation, CI/CD, and deployment best practices

Develop integrations with external services, including AI-driven functionality

Own backend cloud environments and data flows, proactively identifying performance, scalability, and reliability risks

Support onboarding of future engineers and contribute to long-term backend technical strategyAbout You

Strong commercial experience as a developer, focusing on Node.js development 

Confident designing backend architectures and APIs for cloud-native platforms

Interest or experience integrating AI-powered or data-driven services

Comfortable communicating technical decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Hands-on, proactive, and pragmatic, with high standards for code quality and deliverySalary & Benefits

£70,000 – £80,000 + shares (£100k–£112k total package)

Hybrid working – 3 days onsite in Manchester, 2 days from home

23 days holiday + bank holidays (negotiable)