Applications Lead

The Applications Lead is a senior player-manager responsible for owning application architecture, engineering standards, and fullstack software delivery. This role contributes hands-on to solution development while leading the team, and plays a central part in the organisation's ISO 27001:2022 compliance programme.

Architecture and Engineering Leadership

• Own system architecture, technology stack decisions, and API integration standards across all applications.
• Establish and enforce secure SDLC practices including CI/CD governance, SAST/SCA controls, and dependency hygiene.
• Champion engineering best practices including code review standards, testing standards, and documentation.

Fullstack Development

• Lead hands-on fullstack development across backend and frontend components; coding is expected.
• Design RESTful APIs and integrate message queuing solutions to support event-driven data flows.
• Oversee database schema design, containerisation standards, and cloud-native deployment practices.
• Proficient in AI-augmented software development, leverages AI coding tools to accelerate delivery and establishes team guardrails for responsible use, ensuring outputs consistently meet code quality, security, and architectural standards.

Delivery Leadership and Support

• Lead the applications team as a player-manager, providing hands-on technical guidance and mentorship.
• Manage sprint delivery, backlog prioritisation, capacity planning, and vendor/third-party provider oversight.
• Conduct code reviews and pull request approvals to maintain quality and security standards.
• On-call availability is required to support 24x7 incident response coverage.

Requirements

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive fullstack software engineering with 3+ years in a technical lead or architect role.
• Proven experience building enterprise production systems using modern backend and frontend frameworks.
• Experience with microservices, event-driven architectures, secure SDLC practices (SAST,SCA), and API gateway patterns.
• Background in regulated industries (financial services or fintech preferred); ISO 27001:2022 exposure advantageous.
• Experience managing software development vendors or third-party service providers.
• Familiarity with mobile application development (iOS or Android) is advantageous.

Technical Skills

• Backend: Golang, Java, Spring Boot, Python or equivalent
• Frontend: React, TypeScript or equivalent
• API design: RESTful design, versioning, and documentation
• Messaging and event streaming: Kafka, MQ or equivalent
• Database: Schema design and query optimisation (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL, or equivalent)
• Containerisation: Docker
• CI/CD: Pipeline governance, SAST/SCA gate enforcement, and secret scanning
• Cloud: Cloud-native development and infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Testing: Functional and non-functional testing (e.g. Selenium, SonarQube, Gatling, JUnit, Jest, or equivalent)
• AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Claude, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent)

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect, TOGAF) are advantageous.