Backbase

(RD)EngineeringTeamLead(ETL)

£75–105k ~AI est. Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Lead candidates.

The Brief

“(RD) Engineering Team Lead (ETL) at Backbase. Skills: System design, Technical leadership, People leadership, AI-Native Engineering. Lead system design. Participate in design reviews”

What You'll Achieve.

Delivery predictability; Engineering quality; Engineer growth; Predictable delivery; Sustainable delivery; Accelerate development lifecycle; Team cohesion; Delivery momentum; Idea-to-production cycle time; Delivery predictability; Proactive blocker removal; Technical outcomes

Industry & Context.

Problems you'll solve

Debugging; BS Detector; Emergency Response; Conflict Resolution; Root cause analysis

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

5+ years software engineering, Recent production code contributions, System design grounding, Architecture patterns grounding, Modern engineering tooling grounding, Deep expertise in one area, Broad competence across full stack, Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Familiarity with test automation, Familiarity with observability, Familiarity with quality-focused development, Enthusiasm for AI tooling, Willingness to lead AI adoption, Desire to lead people, Active technical contributor, High emotional intelligence, Resilience under pressure, Experience coaching engineers, Experience running 1:1s, Experience providing constructive feedback, Ability to create inclusive environments, Ability to create engaging environments, Ability to create engineering culture, Comfortable addressing underperformance, Skilled in Agile delivery methods, Experience managing delivery risk, Experience managing stakeholder expectations, Translates and synthesizes messages, Confident communicator, Adjusts communication style, Fosters open dialogue, Track record building teams, Track record scaling teams, Track record building processes, Track record scaling processes, Track record building delivery capability, Track record scaling delivery capability

Nice to Have

Kubernetes experience a plus

What You'll Do.

Participate in design reviews

Participate in architecture decisions

Ensure security from start

Ensure scalability from start

Maintain technical credibility

Perform active code reviews

Debug production issues

Understand owned systems

Champion modern engineering practices

Drive production-readiness

Drive robust release management

Spot unrealistic estimates

Spot risk blind spots

Jump in technically during incidents

Coordinate response during incidents

Lead AI-Native Engineering adoption

Lead adoption of agentic tooling

Lead adoption of LLM workflows

Lead adoption of AI automation

Experiment with code generation

Experiment with test automation

Experiment with AI-assisted productivity

Perform performance calibration

Drive evidence-based career development

Create tailored growth plans

Act as a genuine coach

Build psychological safety

Sustain team resilience

Sustain healthy engineering culture

Detect friction early

Resolve friction early

Maintain sustainable pace

Manage hiring decisions

Build teams with competencies

Build teams with seniority balance

Plan for knowledge continuity

Mediate interpersonal conflicts

Mediate cross-team conflicts

Protect team cohesion

Protect delivery momentum

Optimise idea-to-production cycle time

Strengthen delivery predictability

Remove proactive blockers

Collaborate with Product Managers

Collaborate with Domain Architects

Translate business needs

Synthesise business needs

Push back on unrealistic scope

Drive improvement in delivery capability

Drive improvement in operating models

Drive improvement in tooling

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

Cross-functional agile teams; Product Managers; Domain Architects; Services teams

Communication Scope

Confident communicator; Adjusts style; Fosters open dialogue

Process & Methodology

Agile delivery methods, Scrum, Kanban, Delivery risk management, Stakeholder expectation management

Full Job Description

The Role This is a Senior+ Engineer who leads people, not a people manager who used to code. If you cannot open an IDE, spin up an agentic coding session in Cursor or Claude Code, debug a production issue or support a customer implementation alongside our last-mile Services teams, this is not the right role. You are the captain of a single squad: accountable for delivery predictability, engineering quality and the growth of every engineer in your team. We are looking for technologists who want to stay deep in the technology whilst taking on genuine people leadership and delivery accountability. You will spend roughly half your time on system design, architecture and technical decision-making, with around a fifth of your time in the codebase directly through code reviews, debugging and unblocking. The remaining time is invested in your people: coaching, calibration, hiring and building a team that delivers predictably and sustainably. What you will do Technical Leadership (circa 70% of the role) System Design and Architecture: Lead and participate in design reviews, RFCs and architecture decisions alongside Staff Engineers. Ensure security and scalability are embedded from the start. Hands-on Contribution: Maintain your technical credibility through active code reviews, debugging production issues and unblocking your team. You write code, read code and understand the systems your squad owns. Quality and Engineering Excellence: Champion modern engineering practices including CI/CD pipelines, test automation, observability and quality gates. Drive production-readiness and robust release management. BS Detector: Use your technical depth to spot unrealistic estimates, fragile designs or risk blind spots before they become delivery problems. Emergency Response: During critical incidents, jump in technically or coordinate the response. You are comfortable leading under pressure. AI-Native Engineering: Lead adoption of agentic tooling, LLM workflows and AI automation within

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