Tech Lead

Tech Lead

• Salary: £49,000 - £65,500
  
  
• Location: Cambridge, Hybrid (2 days per week in the office)
  
  
• Contract: Permanent, Full-time (35 hours per week)
  
  The Tech Lead at Cambridge University Press and Assessment plays a pivotal role in driving technical excellence and strategic execution within a multi-stakeholder environment. By providing technical leadership across the full technology stack, the Tech Lead, in collaboration with the architecture team ensures systems are designed for maintainability, extensibility, and long-term success.
  
  We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.
  
  About the Tech Lead Role
  
  We are seeking a Technical Lead to provide strategic technical leadership across our modernisation programme. In this role, you will design and deliver high-quality, scalable, and resilient applications that align with business goals while ensuring systems are built for long-term maintainability and adaptability. You will balance rapid delivery with architectural vision, driving innovation, automation, and performance improvements across the technology stack.
  
  As a key leader, you will shape our cloud-native architecture, guide best practices, and mentor engineering teams to raise standards of quality, security, and resilience. You'll work closely with Product Owners, Delivery Managers, and cross-functional teams to align technical decisions with business outcomes, while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.
  
  This is a pivotal opportunity to architect solutions that support the organisation's growth and transformation. From migrating core systems to the cloud and optimising CI/CD pipelines, to embedding security and scalability into every design decision, you'll play a critical role in evolving our platforms. You'll also help modernise legacy systems, explore emerging technologies, and ensure our platforms can meet the demands of the future.
  
  If you are passionate about building resilient, future-ready systems, enjoy solving complex technical challenges, and thrive in a collaborative environment, we want to hear from you.
  
  About You
  
  You are a seasoned technical leader with the ability to balance strategic vision and hands-on expertise. You thrive in complex environments, ensuring architectural consistency, high-quality engineering, and alignment across global delivery teams. With a deep understanding of cloud-native systems, microservices, and modern delivery practices, you drive scalable solutions that meet business objectives while enabling teams to excel. You're also a strong mentor and collaborator, passionate about building high-performing teams and fostering innovation.
  
  
• Proven ability to define and enforce technical best practices across multi-team environments.
  
  
• Expertise in designing resilient, high-performance solutions and partnering with architects and Technical Leads to ensure scalability and maintainability.
  
  
• Strong knowledge of microservices, cloud deployments, and integration patterns to guide technology choices that support long-term objectives.
  
  
• Proficiency in AWS, Azure, and GCP with expertise in leveraging cloud-native services for compute, storage, and databases.
  
  
• Skilled at working with Delivery Leads, Product Owners, and Managers to ensure technical initiatives align with delivery milestones and business needs.
  
  
• Ability to refine technical requirements for clarity, efficiency, and execution.
  
  
• Experience supporting both onshore and offshore development teams, driving collaboration, knowledge sharing, and seamless integration.
  
  
• Leadership in code reviews, continuous improvement, and best practice adoption to maintain high engineering standards.
  
  
• Strong expertise in CI/CD pipelines, automation, and deployment strategies to optimise delivery efficiency and reliability.
  
  
• Knowledge of security frameworks and governance standards, ensuring robust and compliant solutions.
  
  
• Skilled in identifying and resolving bottlenecks, dependencies, and blockers impacting delivery timelines.
  
  
• Proficient in troubleshooting, debugging, and optimising performance for resilient, stable systems.
  
  
• Experience collaborating with Delivery Managers to proactively manage risks around scalability, security, and technical debt.
  
  
• Experienced in mentoring and leading teams, cultivating a culture of continuous learning and innovation.
  
  
• Strong stakeholder management skills, effectively bridging technical teams, delivery stakeholders, and partner organisations.
  
  
• Proven track record in recruitment, training, and upskilling, building high-performing teams for long-term success.
  
  Rewards and benefits
  
  We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:
  
  
• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
  
  
• Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
  
  
• Discretionary annual bonus
  
  
• Group personal pension scheme
  
  
• Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
  
  
• Green travel schemes
  
  We are a hybrid working organisation, and we offer a range of flexible working options from day one. We expect most hybrid-working colleagues to spend 40-60% of their time at their dedicated office or location. We will also consider other work arrangements if you wish to work more flexibly or require adjustments due to a disability.
  
  If you choose to apply, please include a short cover letter with your application, making sure you specify you are applying for this vacancy. We look forward to hearing from you.
  
  Ready to pursue your potential? Apply now.
  
  We review applications on an ongoing basis, with a closing date for all applications being 3rd October. Interviews are scheduled to take place on week commencing 6th October.
  
  Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.
  
  Tech Lead