Lead Software Engineer (UK)

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

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 were 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 youve found the right place.

Youve 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 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 youve 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

As a lead technologist on projects youll 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. Youll lead more complicated projects leading teams to do so. Youll work with colleagues who share your passion for technology solutions. Youll invest time developing your skills and sharing what you know. Youll 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 Lights 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

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 were excited to keep learning and growing together. We have a proud tradition of hiring talented colleagues with real-world career experiences.

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 OReilly 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

See our full list ofBenefits.

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 companys 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: GBP.

Reach out to for more relevant information pertaining to your local market.

8th Lights 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 most cases our consulting engagements do not require travel.

We hope to see you apply!

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

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