Principal Software Engineer / Tech Lead - #1719813

Department: Software Engineering

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Leeds - Hybrid

Reporting To: Tech Director

We're hiring a Principal Tech Lead to help shape the future of our most ambitious client projects.

This is a senior, hands-on role that blends deep technical expertise with strategic consultancy. You’ll be working at the earliest stages of client engagements—helping uncover the real problems, defining the right approach, and proposing commercially viable, technically sound solutions. You’ll represent Parallax with confidence, pitch ideas persuasively, and guide both clients and internal teams from initial scoping through to architecture, delivery and optimisation. Equally comfortable in the code and leading client workshops, you’ll set the technical direction while enabling and mentoring the engineering team to execute it.

Our clients are diverse, operating across multiple sectors and geographies, often targeting global audiences. You must be able to adapt your technical approach to fit existing technology stacks and standards—or define new ones entirely. Working at a strategic level, you will influence project roadmaps, craft Statements of Work and contribute directly to winning new engagements.

• Technical Strategy & Architecture: Define and develop the long-term software architecture strategy; establish and maintain best-practice design patterns, coding standards and technical guidelines across multiple projects.


• Client Engagement & Business Development: Collaborate with commercial teams to identify strategic opportunities, qualify leads, draft proposals and Statements of Work, and present technical solutions that win new business.


• Discovery & Requirements: Lead technical discovery workshops with senior stakeholders, unpicking complex requirements, mapping system dependencies and aligning solutions to business objectives.


• Hands-On Development & Delivery: Balance strategic oversight with hands-on coding—designing, building and deploying critical features; conducting code reviews; and ensuring high performance, security and scalability.


• DevOps & Operational Excellence: Oversee CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, automated testing and monitoring to drive operational resilience and rapid iteration.


• Quality Assurance & Best Practice: Champion test-driven development, continuous integration, automated testing frameworks and peer review processes to uphold code quality.


• Team Leadership & Mentorship: Mentor and inspire a team of software engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning, collaboration and technical excellence.


• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with UX designers, product managers and QA specialists to deliver quality outcomes


• Thought Leadership: Represent our Technology Practice internally and externally—presenting at client meetings, industry events and contributing to the broader engineering community on emerging trends and innovations.

• Balance leadership with hands-on software development, working with teams to create and ship high-quality solutions.


• Identify strategic opportunities and contribute to proposals, estimates and Statement of Work scoping.


• A deep understanding of software architecture principles, design patterns and system integration.


• Proficiency in multiple programming languages and frameworks


• Solid experience with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, containerisation and automation tooling.


• Expertise in Agile/Scrum methodologies and iterative delivery practices.


• Strong quality assurance mindset, including test-driven development and peer code reviews.


• Ability to unpick and resolve complex technical problems, architecting scalable, maintainable solutions.


• Exceptional communication skills, comfortable presenting technical concepts and recommendations to senior stakeholders.


• Proven track record in business development, lead qualification and sales closing within a consultancy environment.


• Ability to establish and evolve technical standards, guidelines and reusable component libraries.


• High emotional intelligence and consultancy mindset for managing client relationships and expectations.

• Private medical healthcare (Bupa)


• 4% matched pension


• Hybrid, flexible working


• Hack days & professional development days


• City centre office


• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays + up to 5 loyalty days


• Team events


• Enhanced maternity & paternity leave


• 2 streaming services subsidised