Lead Software Engineer (Java, AWS)

Internal use only - Grade D

About us

We are The Very Group, and we’re here to help families on a budget get more out of life. We know that our customers work hard for their families and have a lot to balance in their busy lives. That’s why we combine amazing brands and products with flexible payment options on Very.co.uk to help them say yes to the things they love when they need them most.

Role Purpose

The Lead Engineer is a key role within a Software or Data Engineering sub-community providing technical leadership and guidance to Engineers across all squads working with them to deliver and maintain production ready, secure, stable, and performant code in line with TVG Engineering standards in a DevSecOps manner. 

They lead by example and play an active part of software design, coding, reviews, testing, and debugging. 

They are at the forefront of solving challenging technical problems, and are responsible for software engineering excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement within the sub-community across all squads they work with. 

Scope of Role

Leadership: 

• Technical mentor and coach to Software/Data Engineers empowering them to excel in their roles and grow their skills. 

• Champions the adoption of relevant standards such as TVG’s SDLC, development of re-usable components, and generation of technical product roadmaps in collaboration with Engineering Managers and Architects. 

• Plays an active role in maintaining a high performing software engineering team and contributes to a positive and inclusive culture where collaboration, open communication, and knowledge sharing are the norm and highly valued. 

• Play a leading role in the Software technology selection for the squads they work with. 

• The role is one of a technical expert and leader rather than people manager and may involve task management at times. 

 Nature and Area of impact: 

• The Lead Engineer works with peers in other sub-communities and other Technology leaders to advance TVG’s Tech landscape in a manner that is aligned across the Community and is aligned to current standards and policies. 

Responsible for ensuring technology is right sized and pro-actively identifying cost optimisation opportunities.  

About you

• Significant experience of delivery of software solutions in squads operating in a lean, agile, DevSecOps based environment, in a senior or leadership role. 

• Proficiency in multiple programming languages, frameworks, and modern software engineering tooling. 

• Demonstrable experience of providing clear technology leadership, direction and decision making for a whole team. 

• Experience of building, integrating, maintaining, and managing complex software architectures (both build and bought), ideally across multi-cloud environments. 

• Experience of building software applications that have security, reliability, scalability, high availability, and concurrency built-in from the outset. 

• A strong collaborator, communicator, and decision maker. 

• Confident and comfortable to share stories internally and externally to build our Very Group brand and credibility to attract and retain talent. 

Some of our benefits

• Flexible, hybrid working model
• Inclusive culture and environment

• £6500 flexible benefits allowance to suit your needs
• 30 days holiday + bank holidays
• Udemy learning access
• Up to 25% discount on Very.co.uk

• Matched pension up to 6%
• More benefits can be found on our career site

How to apply

Please note that the talent acquisition team are managing this vacancy directly, and if successful in securing this role, you will be required to undertake a credit, CIFAS, Right to Work checks and if a specific requirement of your role a DBS (criminal records) check. Should your application progress we require you to let the team know if there is anything you need to disclose in relation to any of these checks prior to them being undertaken, including any unspent criminal convictions.

What happens next?

Our Talent Acquisition team will be in touch if you’re successful so keep an eye on your emails! We’ll arrange a short call to learn more about you, as well as answer any questions you have.

For this role after meeting our Talent Acquisition Team you can expect a 2 stage process.

First Stage - A Technical Interview, we will ask you to complete a take home task which we will use as the basis for the conversation, we will dig deeper into some of your decisions (60-90 minutes on Teams)

Second Stage - Behavioural Interview, this interview focuses more on your softer skills, how you like to work as part of a Software Engineering Team (60 minutes onsite)

If you'd like to know more about our interviews, you can find out here.

Equal opportunities

We’re an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.