Lead Software Engineer

8th Light

. Serve as a lead technologist on projects for a variety of clients .

Posted 10/2/2026full-timeLondon • United KingdomSenior💰 £76,023 - £95,029 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates extensive experience in leading high-stakes consulting engagements and managing complex projects across various technologies. Proficient in building maintainable software, integrating AI/ML features, and fostering collaboration within cross-functional teams.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Project ManagementAI/ML IntegrationProduction-Quality CodingAutomated TestingMentoring and Knowledge Sharing

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

JavaC#/.NETPythonTypeScriptJavaScriptReactGoRubySQLAutomated Testing

Soft Skills

Empathic CommunicationFeedback EffectivenessCollaborationTrust BuildingProblem Solving

Tools & Technologies

GitMacOS/LinuxCI/CDAI-Assisted Development ToolsDevSecOpsDevOpsMLOpsInfrastructure as CodeDatabricksLangChain

Industry Keywords

Platform EngineeringData EngineeringProduction Agentic SystemsRAG PipelinesVector Search

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

JavaJavaScriptLinuxMacOSPythonReactRubyScalaSQLTypeScriptGo.NET

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Serve as a lead technologist on projects for a variety of clients
Lead complicated projects and project teams across technologies and frameworks
Make immediate contributions and rapidly build trust with clients
Balance technology choices pragmatically while delivering high-quality work within deadlines
Lead architecture and software design discussions
Collaborate on systems spanning the full ML lifecycle, from data ingestion and preprocessing through deployment, integration, and performance monitoring
Generate technical and non-technical solutions with team members and clients
Lead or initiate formal feedback conversations through retrospectives
Articulate and document outcomes and drive action items
Model 8th Light’s Values and contribute to team and company culture
Ensure teams have healthy, prioritized, estimated backlogs
Manage high-level project roadmaps for large engagements
Maintain relationships with client technical leaders
Conduct client syncs, provide status updates, identify and evaluate risks, and present solutions
Identify, mitigate, and resolve blockers to team progress
Mentor, lead or design internal/client workshops, represent 8th Light in the tech community, or support hiring processes

Requirements

What you’ll need

Typically 7+ years of long-term, repeated success across a variety of projects
Successfully led high-stakes consulting engagements from discovery to production
Experience building high-quality, maintainable software collaboratively and incrementally
Production-quality coding experience with languages and frameworks including Java, C#/.NET, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, and SQL
Experience leveraging AI-assistive development tools for scaffolding, refactoring, debugging, test generation, and documentation
Experience building or integrating AI/ML-powered features into products or systems
Experience with automated testing
Experience debugging and refactoring pre-existing code
Experience collaborating with Git, MacOS/Linux, and CI/CD
Experience addressing scalability, security, reliability, and performance concerns
Experience bringing together cross-functional teams and perspectives
Ability to make thoughtful recommendations and set direction amid ambiguity
Experience mentoring and sharing knowledge with colleagues
Ability to give and receive feedback effectively
Empathic communication with stakeholders and colleagues
Ability to balance technical considerations with product and user needs
Strongly preferred experience in platform engineering, data engineering/Databricks, production agentic systems, RAG pipelines, vector search, LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, n8n, DevSecOps, DevOps, MLOps, and Infrastructure as Code

Benefits

Comp & perks

Wellness package designed with the Whole YOU in mind
Unlimited access to thousands of books, courses, and expert-led training on the O'Reilly learning platform
Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning & development
Coworking support for our global team
12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees
Hybrid working model with a minimum of one day per week in the Waterloo office
In most cases, consulting engagements do not require travel