Lead Developer

A market leader in AI solutions is seeking a well experienced Lead Developer to join their innovative engineering team. You'll be responsible for providing technical leadership, customer-facing (requirements gathering), solution design, delivery oversight for AI projects and products. You'll take the lead in understanding client processes, solution viability and ensuring technical deliverables align. In addition, you'd work closely with Architects, Project Managers and client stakeholders to deliver scalable and secure AI solutions.

Work Type: Hybrid working based in Cheshire, 2-3 days on-site but can be flexible (rest of time WFH).

Skills & Experience:

• A delivery-focused outlook and commercial awareness
• Experience engaging directly with clients to capture business processes and requirements
• The ability to balance hands-on coding expertise with solution viability analysis
• Experience mentoring developers and enforcing coding standards
• A strong background in .NET, Azure, and modern AI frameworks
• Excellent communication skills to bridge technical and non-technical stakeholders
• A passion for innovation and responsible AI practices

Responsibilities:

• Engage directly with client stakeholders to capture and document business process requirements
• Translate business workflows into viable technical designs, backlog items, and deliverables
• Assess the feasibility and viability of solutions against business needs, budgets, and technical constraints
• Provide technical leadership across programmes and projects, coordinating outputs across delivery teams
• Support architects in solution design and integration patterns
• Mentor developers, fostering skill development and knowledge transfer
• Lead backlog refinement, sprint planning, and technical prioritisation activities
• Oversee quality assurance, code reviews, and unit testing to ensure delivery quality
• Ensure AI solutions adhere to secure coding, accessibility, and compliance standards
• Contribute to implementation of LLMs, RAG, Agentic AI, and related frameworks
• Manage DevOps pipelines and CI/CD practices in Azure
• Support delivery of cloud-first applications across Azure, Power Platform, and M365
• Research and apply emerging AI and Microsoft technologies to improve product and solution delivery