Lead Software Engineer | London | |

SR2
London, United Kingdom
Today
£100,000 – £900,000 pa

Salary

£100,000 – £900,000 pa

Work Location
Hybrid
Seniority
Lead
Posted
4 Sep 2026 (Today)

Lead Software Engineer

I'm hiring! Lead Software Engineer | Java | AWS | AI | System Architecture | Kafka | 2 days a week in London| £100,000 + Benefits

Love leading engineers, but not ready to hang up your coding gloves?

I'm partnering with a brilliant FinTech business doing something a little different and building a product that actually let's people experience what it's actually like to work in Trading, Banking and Quantitative Finance.

They're growing, evolving their platform, and looking for a Lead Software Engineer who still really likes being a software engineer.

What will you actually do?

Write Java/Spring Boot code most weeks

Lead, support and unblock a small engineering team

Make architecture decisions alongside a hands-on CTO and Principal Engineer

Get stuck into distributed systems, event-driven services, APIs and AWS

Make CI/CD, testing and releases better (and ideally less exciting)

Work across Docker, React/TypeScript and real-time technology

Experiment seriously with AI coding agents - they're already part of how this team builds software

Necessary experience with:

Java/ Spring Boot

AWS

Kafka

System Design & Microservice Architecture

AI tooling experience

Desirable:

React

GDPR Knowledge | Experience working in the finance sector

This would be a great role for anyone who knows Java inside and out, had led engineers formally or unofficially and likes solving technical problems. This is a brilliant role for someone who has opinions about good software architecture and can explain why, can actually use AI coding tools and enjoys the autonomy of figuring things out.

A financial background is not necessary, but an interest into how markets work would be great.

Experience working in a smaller team or startup/ scale environment would be desirable.

£100,000 + Benefits and a flexible working environment within a genuinely tech for good business.

Sounds up your street? Drop me your CV and contact number to discuss further.

Related Jobs

View all jobs
Spotlight

Programme Manager (Forward Deployed)

M-1 Intelligence London, United Kingdom
£60,000 – £75,000 pa Remote
Spotlight

Lead AI Researcher

Kangal AI London, United Kingdom
£100,000 – £200,000 pa On-site

MLOps Engineering Manager

Uniting Ambition Ruislip Manor, London, United Kingdom
£100,000 – £120,000 pa

Senior / Lead Fullstack (React) AI Engineer

Infused Solutions London, United Kingdom
£115,000 – £150,000 pa

Lead /Principal Full stack Developer React AI Engineer

Infused Solutions London, United Kingdom
£120,000 – £160,000 pa

Software Engineer, Integrity Foundations - London

OpenAI London, United Kingdom
Permanent

Software Engineer

Experis London, United Kingdom
£750 – £830 pd Hybrid

Staff Software Engineer - Machine Learning

Capital One Bunhill, London, United Kingdom
Hybrid

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

What Is an AI Forward Deployed Engineer? The Fastest-Growing Job in AI for 2026

If you have been watching AI job boards over the past year, one title keeps surfacing again and again: the forward deployed engineer, or FDE. It has gone from a niche term known mainly to Palantir alumni to arguably the hottest role in the entire AI hiring market. Job postings for forward deployed engineers have exploded, salaries have climbed past levels most software engineers will ever see, and the biggest names in AI — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Salesforce, Databricks and Palantir — are all competing for the same small pool of talent. So what exactly is an AI forward deployed engineer, why has demand surged so dramatically, and how do you position yourself to land one of these roles? This guide breaks it all down for AI engineers, software engineers and data scientists looking at their next move.