About the role DroneShield is seeking a Software Team Lead to lead the Access Portal Team - the central platform where customers interact with their DroneShield devices, manage their systems, and access core functionality across the DroneShield ecosystem. This role combines technical leadership, people management, architecture ownership, and stakeholder engagement. You will lead a team of six developers with varying levels of expertise, alongside a dedicated QA Engineer, while remaining hands-on in solution design and development. You will be responsible for creating a high-performing engineering culture built on accountability, quality, and continuous improvement. Through structured weekly 1:1s, sprint ceremonies, and proactive oversight, you will maintain full visibility across all active initiatives, ensuring progress is tracked, risks are identified early, and blockers are removed quickly. You will play a critical role in shaping the product roadmap in collaboration with the Product Owner, making key technical decisions that influence the long-term direction, scalability, and maintainability of the Portal ecosystem. As the Portal is the central system utilised across multiple teams in the business, you will work closely with stakeholders to align business objectives with technical execution, ensuring solutions are both strategically sound and practically deliverable. In addition, you will take ownership of end-to-end solution design for two applications - the Access Portal and the Planning Tool. From requirements gathering and UI/UX coordination through to technical architecture, ticket breakdown, implementation planning, and release oversight. You will ensure that the shared UI component library evolves ahead of feature development to prevent front-end bottlenecks, while maintaining high engineering standards across the stack. This is a leadership role that requires both strategic thinking and hands-on contribution - adding value not only through direction and mentorship, but also through high-quality technical output and architectural guidance. You will be reporting to the Director AI Systems and Platforms, and will work closely with engineers, designers, and stakeholders within, and out the Access Portal team. Responsibilities, Duties and Expectations Lead and manage a growing team of 6 software developers and 1 QA Engineer Conduct weekly 1:1s and team meetings to track progress, remove blockers, and support professional growth Maintain visibility across all active work-streams and ensure timely delivery Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and high engineering standards Provide mentorship and technical guidance to developers at different skill levels Partner closely with the Product Owner to define and maintain the Portal application roadmap Make key architectural and technical decisions influencing the long-term direction of the application Ensure alignment between technical strategy and business objectives Balance feature delivery, technical debt, scalability, and performance considerations Qualifications, Experience and Skills BS degree in Computer Science, similar technical field of study or equivalent practical experience 6 years of software development experience 2 years in a technical leadership or team lead role Experience building full-stack applications using TypeScript and Go, leveraging frameworks like React and NestJS Experience managing mixed-experience engineering teams Proven experience owning architecture and solution design Strong understanding of UI component libraries and design systems Experience working with Product Owners, System Engineers, Designers, and cross-functional stakeholders Demonstrated ability to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions Experience writing epics, user stories, and detailed technical tickets Strong communication and stakeholder management skills Previous ‘start-up’ or ‘scale-up’ experience is favourable Familiar with Redux, Tailwind, MUI, ZOD, React Hook Forms, Docker, Postman, GitLab and AWS Who you are You are a hands-on technical leader with strong experience in TypeScript, React, NestJS, and Go. You are someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment, able to balance people management, project delivery, and hands-on coding. You are a proactive problem solver who can break down complex business requirements into scalable technical solutions. Experienced in guiding teams through architecture decisions, code reviews, and solution design, while fostering professional growth Skilled at collaborating with stakeholders, Product Owners, and designers to align technical execution with business objectives You are passionate about building maintainable, high-quality software, and ensuring the engineering team is productive and motivated. You are able to prioritise work effectively, assign tasks strategically, and contribute personally where it adds the most value. An abundance of ambition and motivation to grow the company and compete with the big players in the industry Note for recruitment agencies: We do not accept unsolicited candidates from external recruiters unless specifically instructed.
