Lead Software Developer

Lead Software Developer

Engineering

Technology

Established in 1982, Bytes has grown rapidly and now employs over 800+ people across 6 locations in the UK and Ireland. Our turnover in Financial Year 2024 was in excess of £2bn. We work with SME’s, corporates and public sector organisations to modernise and digitally transform their IT infrastructures.

We invest in our employees through on-going support, training and advice to help them achieve their career aspirations, rewarding success both financially and personally. There is opportunity to grow and move internally which can be seen through our long-standing employees who have developed existing and new skills to move into senior positions in the organisation leaving space for new team members to begin their journey.

Your Future Starts Here

Why Bytes?

• Over 800 staff (plans to double in size over the next 5 years)
• Operating from modern, hybrid working environments with offices in Leatherhead, Reading, London, Manchester, Port Solent and Dublin.
• Winners of an array of industry awards
• Sunday Times Top 100 Best Places to Work
• Excellent training and career prospects offered
• Fantastic office with gym, canteen, open plan, smart casual dress code, regular incentives and company events
• Supporters of 85+ charities with strong commitment to diversity and sustainability

We are looking for a proactive, product-minded C# Developer to join our small, agile engineering team. The role will design, build and support secure, scalable applications across the full technology stack, with a strong focus on clean architecture, test-driven development and reliable delivery. You will be comfortable wearing multiple hats, learning new technologies and collaborating closely with product managers, designers and engineers to deliver user-centred solutions and drive technical excellence.

Design & Develop: Build and maintain backend services in C# using .NET Core/.NET 9, with a focus on clean architecture, scalability and maintainability.

Full-Stack Delivery: Implement responsive, performant front-end components in React and Next.js, integrating seamlessly with C# APIs.

DevOps & Deployment: Containerise applications with Docker, orchestrate with Kubernetes and manage GitOps deployments using ArgoCD.

Cloud Infrastructure: Use Microsoft Azure services, including App Services, Functions, AKS and SQL Database, to host, scale and secure applications.

CI/CD & Security: Configure and maintain automated pipelines in GitHub Actions or equivalent, integrate Snyk security scanning and manage delivery activity through JIRA.

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

Observability: Instrument applications using the LGTM stack, or equivalent logging, metrics and tracing tools, to support reliability and rapid incident response.

Database Management: Design and optimise PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server schemas, queries and migrations, and manage database connections securely.

Collaboration & Mentorship: Work closely with product managers, designers and engineers, contributing to code reviews, pair programming, mentoring and knowledge sharing.

Quality & Testing: Champion Test-Driven Development and create effective unit, integration and end-to-end tests to maintain confidence in releases.

WIDER TEAM NETWORK

Internal

Product Managers, Designers, Engineering colleagues, DevOps/Cloud teams, Information Security and wider business stakeholders.

External

Technology partners, cloud and tooling providers, and other specialist suppliers where required.

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE, & SKILLS:

Educational Qualifications:

Relevant degree, apprenticeship or equivalent practical experience in software engineering or a related discipline.

DESIRABLE

Professional Qualifications

Relevant Microsoft Azure, Kubernetes, security or software development certification.

DESIRABLE

Years of Experience

4+ years of professional experience building backend services with C#/.NET.

ESSENTIAL

Other Requirements

C#/.NET: Strong professional experience with C#, .NET Core and modern backend service design.

Frontend: Solid understanding of React.js and Next.js, with the ability to build responsive and performant user interfaces.

DevOps: Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub or GitLab, ArgoCD or similar GitOps tooling, and Snyk.

Azure: Proven experience deploying, managing and securing applications on Microsoft Azure.

Databases: Confident modelling, querying and tuning PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases.

Observability: Experience implementing logs, metrics and tracing through the LGTM stack or equivalent technologies such as ELK, Prometheus or OpenTelemetry.

CI/CD: Skilled in creating automated build, test and deployment pipelines.

Golang: Able to read, write and integrate Go services where required.

Agile & Quality: Experience in small cross-functional teams using JIRA or similar tools, with strong TDD capability using xUnit, NUnit or equivalent frameworks.

ESSENTIAL

CORE Competencies & SKILLS – BASED ON POSITION AND GRADE

Initiative & Ownership: A self-starter who takes accountability, solves problems and drives work forward.

Collaborative Mindset: Thrives in a small team, communicates openly and supports the development of colleagues.

Product Focus: Works closely with product stakeholders to deliver practical, user-centred solutions.

Adaptable Learner: Comfortable learning new languages, tools and observability technologies as required.

Nice to Have: Experience with AWS or GCP; GraphQL, gRPC or REST API design; OWASP and GDPR; or mobile and web performance optimisation.

(HOW WILL THE SUCCESS OF THE PERSON IN THIS POSITION BE MEASURED – WHAT ARE THE EXPECTED OUTPUTS)

OBJECTIVE

MEASURE

FREQUENCY

Deliver high-quality product features

Features meet agreed acceptance criteria, coding standards and automated test requirements

Per sprint / release

Maintain reliable applications

Service health, incident trends and observability coverage meet agreed team targets

Monthly

Strengthen engineering quality

Consistent TDD, effective peer review and low levels of escaped defects

Per sprint

Improve delivery automation

Secure, repeatable CI/CD and GitOps deployments with appropriate scanning and controls

Quarterly

Contribute to team capability

Active participation in reviews, pairing, mentoring and knowledge sharing

Ongoing