Lead Software Engineer (UK)

Lead Engineer

Location: Waterloo, London, England, UK | Hybrid (1 day per week in office)

Who We Are

At 8th Light, we bring life to the best ideas.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chicago, we are a technology solutions provider that partners with organizations to solve meaningful challenges and drive sustainable growth. From early-stage startups to global enterprises, we work across industries to optimise our clients’ digital products through product strategy innovation, experiential design, AI solutions, and deep engineering expertise.

Our commitment to quality means we deliver solutions we’re truly proud of, while our curiosity sparks innovation and breakthrough thinking. 8th Lights thrive in an environment that champions continuous education, fueling our growth through mentorship and hands-on work. We foster an open, collaborative culture grounded in honesty that builds trust, and believe true success is measured by the outcomes we create for our clients.

If this kind of work and our kind of people energizes you, you’ve found the right place.

Who You Are

You’ve shown long-term repeated success on a variety of projects, typically over the course of 7+ years. You can be the go-to leader for any software development engagement. You have a broad and deep range of expertise that allows you to make an immediate impact on projects. In your previous experience, you have:

Successfully led high-stakes consulting engagements from discovery to production

Built high-quality, maintainable software collaboratively, incrementally, and through an approach tailored towards the unique needs of the clients you’ve served

Written production-quality code using a variety of languages and frameworks, including but not limited to: Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Ruby, Scala, R, SQL, and Go

Leveraged AI-assistive development tools for tasks like scaffolding, refactoring, debugging, test generation, and documentation

Experience building or integrating AI/ML-powered features into products or systems (e.g., recommendation engines, NLP models, computer vision, predictive analytics)

Used context-appropriate automated testing to inform software design choices and catch bugs

Debugged and refactored pre-existing code to incrementally improve it

Collaborated with teams using Git, MacOS/Linux, and CI/CD

Remedied architecture-level concerns such as scalability, security, reliability, and performance

Brought together people from different functions and perspectives in forums that encourage idea sharing, collaboration, and problem solving

Made thoughtful recommendations and set direction in the face of ambiguity

Mentored and shared knowledge with colleagues

Actively sought out and effectively given feedback

Communicated empathically with stakeholders and colleagues

Collaboratively led stakeholders to balance technical considerations with product and user needs

What You’ll Do At 8th Light

As a lead technologist on projects, you’ll work with a variety of clients, typically one to two in a year, through a variety of technologies and frameworks over the course of your career with us. You’ll lead more complicated projects, leading teams to do so. You’ll work with colleagues who share your passion for technology solutions. You’ll invest time developing your skills and sharing what you know. You’ll be responsible for:

Making immediate contributions to projects, rapidly building trust with clients

Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines

Leading architecture and software design discussions

Collaborating on systems that involve the full ML lifecycle from data ingestion and preprocessing, to model deployment, integration, and performance monitoring

Generating new potential solutions to challenges (technical and non-technical) in partnership with team members and clients

Leading or initiating formal feedback conversations with teams and clients via retrospectives

Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving forward action items

Contributing to the health of your team and 8th Light’s culture by modeling our Values

Ensuring your team has a healthy, prioritized, estimated backlog

Managing high-level project roadmaps as the team lead for large engagements

Maintaining relationships with client technical leaders

Regular syncs with the client to provide status updates, and for identifying and evaluating risks and presenting potential solutions

Identifying, mitigating, and resolving blockers to team progress

Contributing to 8th Light by serving as a mentor, leading or designing workshops internally or for clients, representing 8th Light in the tech community, or supporting our hiring processes

Strongly Preferred Skills

We work across many areas, and encourage anyone with the experience listed above to apply. We would particularly like to encourage applicants with experience in the following areas:

MLOps: including tools like LangChain for application development and managing the ML lifecycle

Data Engineering: including platforms like Databricks for data processing and analytics

DevSecOps & DevOps

Infrastructure as Code

Data Engineering: including platforms like Databricks for data processing and analytics

Building a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace is an ongoing journey, and we’re excited to keep learning and growing together. We have a proud tradition of hiring talented colleagues with real-world career experiences.

How You’ll be Supported

At 8th Light, we believe our people are our greatest asset. Their growth, well-being, and success shape our future.

Our wellness package is designed with the Whole YOU in mind and includes:

A robust L&D programme featuring 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

A Note on Compensation

At 8th Light, we are committed to a compensation philosophy that is transparent, fair, and helps us attract and retain top talent in alignment with our company’s strategic growth goals and clients’ needs.

We benchmark our salaries using Geographic Structures to establish competitive pay ranges within the regions where 8th Lights live. Our pay ranges for our Lead Engineer position within London is: £76,023-95,029 GBP.

Reach out to recruiting@8thlight.com for more relevant information pertaining to your local market.

8th Light Hubs and Geographies

8th Light's culture is rooted in strong connections that extend across our teams, regions, and beyond client work. We are a distributed team across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with hubs in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.

London Co-working: Employees working from our London hub follow a hybrid model, which includes a minimum of one day per week in our Waterloo Office. This co-working day is designed to encourage collaboration and further strengthen our community.In most cases, our consulting engagements do not require travel.

We hope to see you apply!

#LI-Hybrid

A Note on Your Privacy

At 8th Light, one of our core values is Honesty that builds trust — and that shapes how we approach hiring. We want you to have a clear picture of who we are, what we're looking for, and how we handle your information throughout the process.